EXCLUSIVE : Gina Gershon ( Borderlands ), Katherine Waddell ( Dinner in America ), Ethan Slater ( Wicked ) and Jesse James Keitel ( Queer as Folk ) have signed on to star in The Designer , a new body horror feature from writer-director Em Johnson . The film centers on Gerry (Waddell), whose need for an identity pushes her to join the massive multi-level marketing company, Kismetta, opening her up to a world of chaos that succumbs her to her own delusional reality. Others in the cast include Michelle Hurd ( Star Trek: Picard ), Annie Golden ( Orange Is the New Black ), Jessica Belkin ( American Horror Story ) and Gwendoline Yeo ( Star Wars: The Bad Batch ).
Hailing from Incandescent Entertainment, First Bloom Films and Hemlock Circle Productions, the film’s producers are Jiarui Guo ( Oh Canada ), Warner Davis ( The Re-Education of Molly Singer ), and Waddell. Yuchuan Cao is serving as co-producer, with WME handling domestic sales. Currently, Gershon can be seen in Borderlands , Eli Roth’s adaptation of the hit video game for Lionsgate.
Over the last few years, she’s also been seen in Roth’s horror hit Thanksgiving and the acclaimed Aubrey Plaza thriller Emily the Criminal , as well as such series as Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens and New Amsterdam . Previously collaborating with Johnson on her debut feature Balloon Animal , Waddell has also been seen in Adam Rehmeier’s acclaimed Sundance drama Dinner in America , among other projects. Next to be seen playing Boq, the .