It's amazing how finally getting something you've been waiting for your whole life can bring a sense of calm.
Or at least that was the case for Toks Olagundoye.
“From the moment I got it, I was very honest about it,” she says. “I told everyone because I knew I was going to be low on energy… [but also] I feel like it’s so common that it should almost be normalized in some way.”
The 49-year-old Nigerian-British actress and voiceover artist didn’t discuss her breakout role on Paramount+’s “Frasier,” the spinoff of the Emmy-winning NBC comedy that begins its second season Thursday. Instead, she spoke about the breast cancer diagnosis she received while going through the casting process for the comedy starring Kelsey Grammer.
Olagundoye was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, a fairly aggressive form of the disease but one she says can be stopped if caught early. She underwent three lumpectomy surgeries and chemotherapy before beginning work on “Frasier” and had a double mastectomy while filming the show’s first season, which premiered in 2023.
“From the moment I had it done, I was very honest about it,” says “Frasier” actress Toks Olagundoye of her cancer diagnosis.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
She knew several friends and a relative who had received a similar diagnosis, so Olagundoye gets tested regularly and admits: “I was so stressed about having cancer my whole life that when I had it, I was like, ‘OK, great, let’s just get it over with and get over it. ’”
Now he says, “I kind of wish I hadn’t stressed so much about it.”
“As long as you get checkups and make sure you go to the doctor regularly, and you’re really keeping an eye on your own health, and you catch things early enough, it’s going to be a little bit difficult, but you’ll be fine,” she says during a Zoom conversation in August that’s occasionally interrupted by her son, her husband and my cat. “I think if people think about it that way — the same way they think about minor illnesses like a cold — then it won’t be as stressful. I think a lot of us carry a lot of stress around with us because of that.”
This pragmatism is one of the things that distinguishes Olagundoye from her “Frasier” character, Olivia Finch. Though she is the chair of Harvard’s psychology department and thus the boss of the euphonious Freudian Grammer and his old friend, Alan (Nicholas Lyndhurst) — a job she apparently landed by sidelining her superior during a smear exercise at the office retreat — Olivia can be tense, nervous and uncomfortable in her own skin. Her love life was almost nonexistent during the first season. And, much like the way Frasier was introduced to American audiences on “Cheers,” Olivia’s free time is largely spent with friends at a Boston pub.
Alan (Nicholas Lyndhurst), Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) and Olivia (Toks Olagundoye) in Season 2 of Paramount+’s “Frasier,” at their usual hangout.
(Chris Haston / Paramount+)
That’s not necessarily how “Frasier” 2.0 creators Chris Harris and Joe Cristalli first saw the character. They laugh as they recall a first-season episode in which Olivia becomes deeply involved in solving a puzzle.
“At that moment, I felt like the whole character came together,” Harris says. “Yes, she’s brilliant. Yes, she’s smart. Yes, she’s theoretically Alan and Frasier’s boss. But she’s also a dork and a nerd.”
In the second season, as Olagundoye's health is improving and the writers have firmly established the new series' universe beyond its main protagonist, Olivia has more to do and her geekiness comes through. For example, she's very dedicated to her role in a murder mystery dinner party (elaborate costumes are used) that takes place later in the season.
“There aren’t many people who like to make fun of themselves,” Cristalli says of Olagundoye. “She likes to play around, she’s not a clown, but someone who is aware that what she does can be seen as strange or odd, and leans into it… It’s a very funny juxtaposition. She’s wearing a dress that looks like she’s going to an art museum opening and she’s talking about puzzles.”
Alan (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and Olivia (Toks Olagundoye) in a season two episode where they dress up for a murder mystery party. (Chris Haston/Paramount+)
“Yes, she’s theoretically Alan and Frasier’s boss, but she’s also a dork and a nerd,” series co-creator Chris Harris says of Olivia. (Chris Haston/Paramount+)
That aspect of the character that solves puzzles. is Something that came out of Olagundoye’s life. An avid crossword puzzler and other gamer who often plays alone, she even met her husband when she was socially unsociable and chatting on Twitter (he’s a mechanic with no ties to the film and TV industry and was a fan of her work on the ABC alien comedy “The Neighbors”). Her favorite thing to do as a teenager was to sit by her bedroom window while listening to Simon & Garfunkel and reading Sylvia Plath.
“I’m not afraid of missing out,” Olagundoye explains. “So I was the girl everyone would say, ‘Let’s go to a party,’ and I’d say, ‘I have two more chapters of this book to read.’”
This season, Olagundoye is excited that Olivia’s insecurities and imposter syndrome will come to a head when she comes face to face with her rival: her sister Monica. Her sister, who is only mentioned and not seen so far in the series, is the chancellor of Yale and will appear later this season. Her role is played by “Community” alum Yvette Nicole Brown, a casting choice that Olagundoye suggested, as the two actresses are friends in real life.
“Their relationship is interesting, because the moment Olivia is around her older sister in person, she really gives her consent,” Olagundoye says. “Yvette and I were talking about how we really wanted to continue the black family dynamic and that idea of respecting your elders, even if it’s a sibling. And that’s something Olivia would do. She might have all these things… but, once she’s around her, she’s still the little sister.”
It doesn't matter that Olivia is an extremely talented person, the actress says, because “we all know people who have spectacular lives and they focus on one thing. You think, 'Let it go. You have everything, you know?'”
Olagundoye could force his character to calm down completely, but what's the point in that?
“I get quirky with her really quickly, so I have to remind myself to stay calm,” Olagundoye says. “I want to get out of my comfort zone because she’s completely crazy. But I’m like, ‘No, no. You run the department at Harvard. You need to lighten up a little bit and put on an adult front.’”
