Atlanta actor Rob Lathan embraces ‘surreal’ opportunity on hit ‘Jury Duty’
Rob Lathan hadn’t done much acting since he moved back to his hometown of Atlanta from New York in 2014. Instead, he focused on spending time with his wife and two kids while working at his stable customer management job at a software company.
But in 2024, TV executive producer Anthony King remembered Lathan’s work 15 years earlier with New York City improv troupe Upright Citizens Brigade and called him to audition for Season 2 of the Emmy-nominated Amazon hit “Jury Duty.”
Dubbed “Jury Duty Presents: Corporate Retreat,” the recently released series has nothing to do with actual jury duty, like Season 1, but uses a similar conceit: tricking a regular person into thinking what is happening around him is real.
The show cast amiable Tennessee resident Anthony Norman as the unsuspecting “hero.” But King also needed relatively unknown actors to fill the fictional world of the family-run Rockin’ Grandma’s Hot Sauce business.
King couldn’t forget Lathan’s facile ability to create “the most specifically bizarre comedy bits. He had such a unique point of view.”
He specifically recalled one bit Lathan did on stage playing a motivational speaker who used “quick hands” to pep the audience up. Lathan said he leaned into the strange at Upright Citizens Brigade, playing characters such as a dude doing the electric slide on stilts during a fake high school talent show.
Once cast, Lathan left his supportive family and boss for several weeks to play a sourcing manager at a fake hot sauce company in Los Angeles.
“It became a once in a lifetime opportunity for me,” Lathan said. “Surreal and beyond expectations.”
The producers designed Lathan’s character to fit his quirky personality, if not his actual lifestyle: a single man living in a mold-infested apartment who may or may not be good at his job.
“Rob can embody this great vacancy, wearing this hangdog expression,” King said. “You wonder if he is all there. Then he’ll say something extremely smart.”
Lathan acknowledged his character ― known as Other Anthony because the producers made sure he had the same name as the real person ― was an amalgam of his actual personality and whatever the producers cooked up.
“He’s a comedy sniper,” said actress Emily Pendergast, whose character, customer relations manager Amy Patterson, ended up hooking up with Other Anthony.
“During group interviews, they stuck Rob in the back. We’d forget he was there, then he’d say something so freaking funny.”
She also admired Lathan’s fundamental kindness when he wasn’t playing Other Anthony. “When we had five minutes of downtime, he’d check in on people and ask them how they were feeling.”
This was not a normal set for a scripted show, because the producers had to ensure Norman believed a low-budget documentary was shooting the company as part of a series on small businesses. (Norman later said he was completely fooled.)
Before Norman showed up, Lathan and the other actors spent several weeks learning the scripts and getting to know one another so Norman would think they were longtime employees. They also had to prepare for the unexpected, which is why Lathan’s improv background was helpful.
“Rob was a great outlet to do improv,” said Erica Hernandez, who played overly sincere sales and marketing manager Kate Martinez. “I could go to him with a fake work problem and he’d try to fix it but somehow make it worse. Most of what we did never made it on camera but it worked as background noise in case Anthony was nearby.”
Like Season 1’s Ronald Gladden, Norman was placed in situations where strange things happened around him, such as catching Other Anthony smooching on sales and marketing manager Amyat a restaurant. Norman was never the butt of the jokes; instead, producers gave him opportunities to be a positive force.
The series, largely shot at Oak Canyon Ranch in Agoura Hills, California, received rave reviews from critics and viewers on Rotten Tomatoes.
Although Lathan said he has been happy with his life outside the public eye, he admitted there was a part of him “itching to get back in” to the entertainment sphere.
Born at Piedmont Hospital in 1975, Lathan attended Atlanta private school Westminster, which also boasts “The Office” vets Ed Helms (Andy Bernard) and Brian Baumgartner (Kevin Malone) as alums. (Coincidentally, two producers of “Jury Duty Presents: Corporate Retreat” worked on “The Office.”)
“Westminster was not created to breed comedians, yet here we are,” Lathan said. “I slowly became the class clown without meaning to. I was always a little off. I’d do some dumb schtick at assemblies. I would be more comfortable talking in front of 1,000 people instead of 10 people.”
In the late 1990s, he took stand-up classes in Atlanta before moving to New York, where he discovered improv, which he did on the side while working day jobs in accounting and advertising.
He never got a big break in entertainment. “For one, I’m a late bloomer,” he said. “And two, my comedy can be a little off the beaten path.”
Lathan isn’t sure “Jury Duty” will be a springboard to stardom. He continues to work his 9-to-5 job and has not actively pursued acting jobs.
But the “Jury Duty” experience got him recognized at a recent Atlanta Hawks game and his local supermarket. It also inspired him to shoot “dumb videos” on TikTok and Instagram. He said he also plans to return to sketch comedy and stand-up locally and work on podcasts.
Over the weekend, Lathan flew to Los Angeles to attend events to promote “Jury Duty” as producers stump for Emmy and actor award nominations.
“He is always so sweet to ask me if it’s OK if he goes,” said his wife Niki. “Of course I said, ‘Yes! Go!’”
About the Author
Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.
