With mere hours before CBS unveils 2 BROKE GIRLS, a new comedy that, as the title suggests, sees two young women waitressing at a greasy spoon diner in the hopes of earning enough money of launching a successful business, we thought now might be as good a time as any to get to know one of those girls, the hilarious an adorable Kat Dennings.
Although it probably won’t come as much of a surprise that the prolific young actress already crossed paths with 2 BROKE GIRLS co-creator Michael Patrick King over the course of her now decade long career, what sure might is where exactly their paths crossed first. Turns out, King is responsible for giving Dennings her big break. “I was actually on an episode of SEX AND THE CITY, I was maybe just 14 and I played Jenny Brier in the episode called “Hot Child in the City’,” revealed an adorkable Dennings during the recent Television Critics Press Tour in Los Angeles. “It changed my life, it really did. [Prior to that role] I was a home-schooled kid living in the forest. I didn’t have cable. I’m serious. ”
Just how broke really was Kat Dennings growing up Bryn Mawr, just outside of Philadelphia? So strapped for cash that her family only got cable to watch her break-through role on SEX AND THE CITY. “Part of the reason why I relate to this show [2 BROKE GIRLS] so much is because we didn’t have any money when I was growing up,” said Dennings, “We had to get cable to watch that episode. So all my little homeschool friends and their moms saw Kyle MacLachlan’s ass. It was pretty incredible.”
What does Kat Dennings have in common with the likes of Bridget Moynahan, Mario Cantone and Jason Lewis? Answer: They all found their way onto Hollywood’s radar courtesy of SEX AND THE CITY. “It kind of came out of nowwhere, I would watch these films, and it would, you know ?? I guess I just took that “little kid wanting to be a movie star” thing way too far and actually ended up doing it,” said Dennings. “My brother’s friend, weirdly, from karate was on PETE & PETE sometimes. And I met his manager, and she sent me on auditions in Philly and then in New York. And then I would just start getting commercials, and then when I got the SEX AND THE CITY, it just changed the things I was able to get.”
Despite having an IMDB resume that 98.5 percent of the acting community would sell their soul for, Dennings decision to take a chance on a television show stemmed from frustration. Specifically, frustration that came with starring in low-budget movies that nobody saw. “I mean, to be honest, I will give you my true answer, which is, things were actually picking up, and I was getting really exciting things, and “Thor” was just coming out, and I was doing really interesting projects, but I think it got to a point where I have done so many small films, and I’ve worked really, really hard, and these things some ?? they just disappear. Four months of your life never get seen, and you start to feel kind of tired,” explained Denning. “2 BROKE GIRLS came right at the right time for me because I had just finished the most intense shoot of my life in a really amazing way. Drama, so intense, complete physical transformation, and I was really drained in a great way, but that emotional, mental drain that only comes by playing someone bipolar, and this fell into my lap, literally, right at the right moment, right when I was feeling, ‘What I do now? I can’t do another one of these for a really long time.’ I want to do something where people will definitely see it, because I’m a hard worker, and I want to work hard, and I want people to appreciate it, not because I want people to look at me, but because I’ve been doing this since I was ten years old and when this came and it was Whitney [Cummings] and Michael [Patrick King], and having that Michael gave me my first sort of big job, it almost seemed like a gift, like this perfect thing that was just at the right time, and I was, like, God, this is exactly the answer to everything I’ve been wanting. I’m just really lucky that this came along.”
Admittedly this last tidbit of information probably won’t come as news to anyone who has seen Dennings’ scene-stealing work in the likes of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist or Thor, but all the same we feel it’s important to recognize that following tonight’s premiere of 2 BROKE GIRLS, the actress will finally be seen as the star she so richly deserves to be. No, the pilot is not perfect — thanks in no small part to a supporting cast littered with stereotypical characters that aren’t the least bit funny — yet Dennings, alongside co-star and relative newcomer Beth Behrs (Whom we profiled earlier in the summer) manages to elevate the pilot into light-hearted and fast-paced sitcom well worth thirty minutes of your time. 
2 BROKE GIRLS premieres on Monday September 19th at 9:30PM on CBS (CityTV in Canada) before moving to its regular 8:30PM timeslot on September 26th