How Netflix’s ‘Ginny & Georgia’ Brought Healing to Lead Star Brianne Howey in Unexpected Ways

If you’ve ever felt like the odd ball out in your family, don’t sweat too much about your life’s trajectory. Just look to Ginny & Georgia actress Brianne Howey for motivation. While her family excelled at sports, she couldn’t dribble a basketball or swing a racket to save her life. But she could act. After failing to make any athletic team in high school, Howey found her footing on the improv squad, which led to theater auditions and eventually acceptance to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts—the validation she needed to know this wasn’t just a phase but the real deal. 

Howey started auditioning for roles the summer before graduating from college. She remembers every role she’s booked—from her first role on the rebooted 90210 to her character in season one of Scream Queens.

Now, as the star of Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia, Howey has turned her outsider perspective into her greatest asset. On The Squeeze with Tay and Taylor Lautner, she opens up about how playing Georgia Miller—a single mother with a dark past—has become unexpectedly therapeutic, helping her process her own relationship with loss and motherhood.

Loss has shaped her 

Howey’s mother, who raised her as a single parent, died of cancer just after she graduated college in 2011, leaving her adrift at 21. She put acting on hold, took a retail job, and coasted. “It was shocking and traumatic. It sucked. I tried to go to therapy right away, but I wasn’t in the right headspace,” she says.

When Howey eventually returned to acting, she threw herself into it completely. Years later, she realized why: Work had become her coping mechanism, a way to avoid sitting with the grief.

“I realized it was not sustainable. I was not okay if I was not working. So I started doing a lot of work on myself with my therapist and my partner,” she says.

On the ups and downs in her career, she says, “There’s nothing linear about it. There’s no path. There’s no right or wrong. It just sort of is. It’s so different for everybody.”

Bi-coastal parenting as a working actress 

These days, Howey’s life is a constant balancing act. Her work keeps her in New York City for months at time, while the place she calls home is Palos Verdes, California, with her husband Matt Ziering and their two-year-old daughter. “It’s very challenging. You make a lot of sacrifices. You are missing birthdays, anniversaries, and graduations. That’s the name of the game,” she says.

It helps a lot that her husband works remotely, and now she travels with a nanny when she’s filming. Howey has also reframed how she thinks about parenting. “It’s not about the length of time you are with them. It’s about the quality of that time. If you are so present with them and playing with them, it goes so far,” she says.

Her advice to new parents is to learn to let go of control: “You are not the pilot of their plan; you are the mechanic.”

Finding the right therapist (eventually)

Like dating, finding the right therapist takes time. Howey has been with hers for seven years now, but it wasn’t immediate magic.

“I don’t know if it was an energy, age, or gender, but for whatever reason, that concoction worked,” she says. “It helped that she accepted that SAG insurance as well.”

Unlike her husband, who grew up in therapy, Howey didn’t start until adulthood. Becoming a mom has transformed her approach to mental health and inspired her to open up. She explains, “I’m still a work in progress, but having a daughter has shined a spotlight on my stuff.”

Filming Ginny & Georgia 

Ginny & Georgia doesn’t shy away from heavy material like anxiety, abuse, and self-harm. In season three, which released on June 5, Howey’s character (Georgia) is a single mom dealing with the consequences of her past catching up to her. This season picks up with Georgia behind bars after being arrested for murder at her own wedding reception.

“When you sign on for a show, you don’t know how long it is going to last and where the story is going to go. But in so many ways, I see where the writer room thought, ‘All paths led here. Georgia had to get caught,’” Howey explains.

Playing someone so different from herself—a woman who’s killed multiple people, albeit for what she sees as good reasons—has been surprisingly healing. The role allows Howey to access memories of her mother without getting stuck in grief.

“These are heavy themes. Playing Georgia has been healing. It allows me to think of mom, and not the grief of it, but just the person she was. It’s fun to engage with the role and my mom in that way,” she explains.

The show’s impact on viewers has only deepened her connection to the character. “I have had fans come up to me and tell me how it has helped them,” she says. The show actually means something to somebody. Knowing that it is meaningful to people, I want to get it right.”