Airline comedy gets a pilot

British comic Ed Weeks is set to be the lead star in a new US sitcom.

He is to headline the new Fox pilot LA -> Vegas, a workplace comedy set on the weekend flights between the two cities.

Weeks will play  Micah, an accountant who regularly takes the jet to visit his family in the Nevada resort.

He will star opposite Dylan McDermott, from legal drama The Practice, as the pilot; and Kim Matula, from daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, as the head flight attendant.

The comedian is known to American audiences through his role as Dr. Jeremy Reed on The Mindy Project. This week it was announced that the Mindy Kaling vehicle was to end after one more season on Hulu – but it seems Weeks won’t be out of work for long.

Hollywood website Deadline reports that he will appear in the final series of The Mindy Project as well as the new pilot.

Weeks also previously appeared in HBO's Project Greenlight, a documentary series about first-time filmmakers being given the chance to direct a feature film, produced by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and others. And he guest starred on Showtime’s House Of Lies as an auction-house boss. 

Weeks previously sold a script to America's ABC network.  He wrote Wing Person, a half-hour comedy about a lesbian lothario and her more cautious straight male best friend, with Peep Show producer Hannah Mackay.

He started in comedy at Cambridge university, becoming president of the Footlights, and later forming a double-act with Tom Bell.

Published: 1 Apr 2017