Among the pilots in development for Amazon Studios is Betas, a comedy about a group of socially awkward mega-geeks who are on the verge of creating the next must-have app. Four actors have boarded the project, three of whom will play the mentioned computer geeks, while Bent's Margo Harshman has signed on to play the female lead.
Produced by Michael London for Amazon Studios, Betas is written by Evan Endicott and Josh Stoddard and set in Silicon Valley, a fitting location for a show about four computer geniuses developing a social networking app that "could transform the social lives of about 6 billion people for the better." Of course, they'll have to figure out how to get over their "crippling personality flaws" in order to sell their product. Deadline says Joe Dinicol will play the frontman of the group, a character named Trey who's an aspiring dot-com maverick. Dinicol's credits include The L.A. Complex, Life with Derek and Flashpoint, as well as the role of the "Elevator Hipster" in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Charlie Saxton and Karan Soni have been cast to play two of the other computer techs, Mitchell, a junior coder, and Nash, the group's tech brains. Saxton played Jay in "The Pitch" segment of Movie 43 and was Damon in HBO's Hung. He also played the part of Chaz in an episode of New Girl last year. Meanwhile, Soni's credits include a part in Safety Not Guaranteed and appearances in Touch, Are You There, Chelsea?, 1600 Penn and The Middle.
Finally, there's Margo Harshman, of NBC's shortlived comedy Bent, who sounds like she might be the "Penny" of this concept, which is fitting as Harshman's credits include a recurring role on The Big Bang Theory. In Betas, she plays Lisa Rudolph, a "young, attractive investment firm workaholic who realizes the app's potential." Maybe she'll be the one to help them overcome their personal issues to get the thing off the ground… if Betas manages to get off the ground, that is.
