Emily Bergl to Join William H. Macy for Season Four of Showtime's Shameless

Broadway vet and cabaret performer Emily Bergl has joined the fourth season cast of Showtime’s blue-collar comedy Shameless. She will play Sammi, a character who is the spitting image of Frank (William H. Macy), except more downtrodden and attracted to the wrong men—including Frank. She’s been married and divorced twice and has a six-year-old child, but her spirit isn’t broken.

Bergl most recently appeared on Broadway as Mae in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and in the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production of The Comedy of Errors. Other Broadway credits include A Touch of the Poet, The Rivals, The Lion in Winter and Ah, Wilderness! On television, she played Beth Young on Desperate Housewives and has been featured in Southland and Men in Trees. Bergl debuted a new cabaret show, “Til I Get It Right,” on October 14 at 54 Below and will will appear at Rockwell Table and Stage in Los Angeles on October 29.

Shameless, which centers on Macy’s character, an alcoholic who lives with his grown children, debuted on Showtime in 2011.