{"id":498676,"date":"2026-05-23T06:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T06:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/498676\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T06:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T06:50:17","slug":"mika-abdalla-on-allies-season-1-journey-in-off-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/498676\/","title":{"rendered":"Mika Abdalla on Allie\u2019s Season 1 Journey in \u2019Off Campus\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOff Campus star Mika Abdalla<\/a> is reflecting on her character\u2019s journey in season one of the romance series. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe 26-year-old, who plays Allie Hayes, is digging into the road to self discovery that the college student and aspiring actress takes in the series. The character is the best friend to season one\u2019s leading lady, Hannah Wells, portrayed by Ella Bright<\/a>, whose relationship with NHL-bound hockey player Garrett Graham, portrayed by Belmont Cameli<\/a>, is the central plot for Off Campus\u2019 first season.<\/p>\n

\n\tAllie is equal parts quirky best friend and fleshed out leading lady material of her own. Off Campus has adopted the Bridgerton model, so Abdalla\u2019s Allie will one day be the female lead of the series; however, it\u2019s unclear which season at this point.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI learned pretty early on that Allie\u2019s story is a lot more prevalent in season one than it is in The Deal, which is nice,\u201d she tells The Hollywood Reporter on a recent Zoom. The actress is referring to the Elle Kennedy novel<\/a>, part of the author\u2019s titular Off Campus book series, which the show\u2019s first season is based on.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe adds, \u201cAllie is Hannah\u2019s best friend and roommate. You can\u2019t let these people be side characters in a season [even if] they\u2019re technically not mentioned as much in the books because that just doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen season one begins, Allie\u2019s immediately introduced as the free-spirited and fun-loving best friend. She\u2019s in a seemingly never-ending on-and-off again relationship with her boyfriend Sean. But by the end of the season, things look quite different for the aspiring actress.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe\u2019s in this forced way of being. She has a lot of big ideas about what she wants for her life in an idealistic way,\u201d Abdalla says. \u201cLike most 18, 19, 20-year-olds, who have just left house for the first time discover, sometimes your expectations don\u2019t match up to what is meant for you in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAbdalla as Allie Hayes in Off Campus.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLiane Hentscher \/ Prime<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the season goes on, Allie comes to realize that the life she thought she wanted for herself doesn\u2019t actually align with her desires. \u201cWe see her find herself and feel comfortable in being honest in a way that\u2019s new and scary and overwhelming to her. But then we also see her put up this front for her best friend, who\u2019s going through something much more,\u201d Abdalla says. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe see this complex thing where Allie\u2019s extremely emotional and extremely vulnerable, but she\u2019s able to mask it in order to be there for the people that she loves, which is what drew me to her in the first place,\u201d she continues. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe actress was drawn in by how grounded the characters in the series are. \u201cThey all use fronts that are very who they want to be. Then we get to see them in the ways that they interact with other people that are maybe closer to them or the way that they are when they\u2019re alone,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t think that is something that you\u2019ll always see in this genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAbdalla has had a largely positive experience with fans of Off Campus, which had a dedicated fanbase long before Prime Video came into the picture. She describes the fans as so nice it\u2019s shocking.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s been exciting to give the people what they want because I think the characters are honored in such a beautiful way, and it is just a really cool opportunity to see these characters from a book that you know so well and that you already love in slightly different scenarios,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\n\tShe adds, \u201cImagine your favorite show from childhood was just redone. You get to see your most beloved characters in different situations, and you just get to see more of their lives. We do include a lot of the iconic scenes or moments or whatever from the books in the show, so I\u2019m really excited for the book fans to see those.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe book series\u00a0Off Campus, which begins with\u00a0The Deal, follows a new-but-connected couple in each book. The show plans to keep that model.\u00a0Season one dives headfirst into the age-old romantic trope of fake dating with music student Hannah Wells, who, in true hockey fashion, is often called Wellsy by her love interest, Garrett Graham. Graham is the son of a professional hockey legend and captain of Briar University\u2019s hockey team.<\/p>\n

\n\tLouisa Levy serves as the creator and co-showrunner, executive producing alongside fellow showrunner Gina Fattore. Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen and James Seidman executive produce for Temple Hill. Leanna Billings of Billings Productions and Neal Flaherty also serve as executive producers on the series.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll episodes of Off Campus are streaming now on\u00a0Prime Video<\/a>. Read\u00a0THR\u2018s show coverage here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Off Campus star Mika Abdalla is reflecting on her character\u2019s journey in season one of the romance series.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[209915,18,209916,117,19,17,212641,198934,3973,216862,128],"class_list":["post-498676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-belmont-cameli","tag-eire","tag-ella-bright","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mika-abdalla","tag-off-campus","tag-prime-video","tag-stephen-kalyn","tag-tv"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116622565332329317","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}