‘Archer’ Star Aisha Tyler Teases Tonight’s Episode, Talks Abbiejean and More

Aisha Tyler probably has more jobs than anyone you know combined, but the Archer star insists she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Along with voicing Lana Kane, Archer’s on-again-off-again love interest and mother of his child in the popular FX series Archer, Aisha also currently co-hosts The Talk as well as her podcast Girl on Guy and (as if that weren’t enough) she stars on Whose Line Is It Anyway.

When reading her long resume and list of current gigs, it makes sense that one of the first questions most people want to ask her relates to her time management skills. “Well, let me just say first of all that I realized probably in the last 18 months that I’m probably a clinical workaholic. That’s not entirely an enviable way to live your life. I’m really only happy when I’m punishingly busy, and it’s less about me being kind of work slutty and saying yes to everything and just needing to be constantly kind of mentally occupied.”

Working as a voiceover artist on Archer falls under that category of things to keep Aisha mentally occupied, and tonight’s new episode is all about Lana Kane. Fans of the series will finally get to meet the agent’s parents and possibly learn more about how she was raised (fingers crossed for flashbacks of kid Lana!). “We got some pretty amazing, well I didn’t do anything I just showed up, but we got some pretty amazing actors to play my parents, CCH Pounder, who you guys know from a million things, including The Shield… and Keith David. I think we’re going to find out a little bit more about Lana’s background and kind of see her as a child and see her formative years. This is going to be really fun. And also find out that her parents may not entirely approve of her line of work, so it should be interesting.”

One major new character in the series is Lana and Archer’s daughter Abbiejean (aka AJ). We’ll get to see different sides of the dysfunctional characters we know and and love all thanks to the little bundle of joy (even if her conception was a little… out of the ordinary). “I think what’s interesting about AJ coming into the show is she’s altered in a lot of ways the dynamic, not just between Archer and Lana, but between Lana and Malory and Malory is a pretty conniving self-involved person and now she has a new thing to connive over, so that, obviously, has changed the dynamic.

What I love about the fact that Lana had a kid is that she’s now dealing with the same things that all working women and, honestly, working parents deal with, which is trying to find reliable daycare, dealing with it when you don’t have a babysitter and you’ve got to go to work, trying to manage your personal life and your professional life, trying to find quality downtime. This is stuff that almost everybody who watches the show can relate to on some level.”

Compared to the other characters on the show, Lana is arguably the most level-headed, but that could change soon. “I think the insanity is nigh on Archer for Lana. That’s about all I can tell you, but she’s about to enter a world of reckless pain for in a few episodes, so I think that will be very fun. And I did kind of beg for this storyline, so I’m really excited to see it coming to fruition.

“She is kind of the straight man in a lot of ways, but she has to be somewhat nuts to have dated Archer and then also to have absconded with his sperm and made a baby with his genetic material. So, she’s not entirely sewn tightly.”

Meet Lana’s parents tonight when you tune into Archer at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on FX!

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