SA actress goes viral for role in ‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’

South African actress Lex King has gone viral on YouTube for her hook-up scene with Leighton (Broadway star Reneé Rapp) in the first episode of HBO Max’s 18SNL hit The Sex Lives of College Girls – currently the most popular international series on Showmax.

The 30-second clip, uploaded by Hot Hunter, has been viewed over 5.7 million times on YouTube already. You’ll recognise the distinctive redhead from playing Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, in Troy: Fall Of A City. Having made her name with roles in international films and shows made in South Africa like Dominion, Eye In The Sky, and SAF3, she’s now based in the US.

She plays Ilsa in the second season of The Mysterious Benedict Society and Callie in eight episodes of American Princess, in addition to smaller roles in NCIS: Los Angeles, Brave New World and the Emmy-nominated The Good Lord Bird.

The Sex Lives of College Girls has a 97% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Mashable calling it “a hilarious, sexy treat”. Entertainment Weekly says it’s “smart, sharp and sassy,” and The Wrap calling it “raunchy rom-com fun.”

Already renewed for a second season by HBO Max, The Sex Lives of College Girls was nominated for Outstanding New Series at the 2022 GLAAD Awards and the 2022 MTV TV Awards’ Here for the Hookup prize.

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The hit show is the latest offering from six-time Emmy nominee Mindy Kaling and her Never Have I Ever co-producer Justin Noble (who also wrote and produced on Brooklyn Nine-Nine). On-screen, Mindy is best known for her starring roles in hit series like the US version of The Office, as well as in movies like Ocean’s Eight. She’s also won multiple awards for her voice work on animated blockbusters like Inside Out (as Disgust) and Wreck-it Ralph (as Taffyta Muttonfudge).

But acting is practically a side-gig for this unstoppable multi-hyphenate, whose job titles include series creator, writer, producer, executive producer, director, author and Tony Award-winning stage musical producer.

The Sex Lives of College Girls, Mindy explains, “is about four young women who are randomly assigned to be freshman roommates at the prestigious Essex College. It’s about them having their sexual awakening”. “We wanted to do a show that was sexy and funny,” she says, and to “show college [as] I knew [it], which was really fun, really diverse… All my best friends are the ones that I made in college, which is why it was such fun to write.”