The actress, writer, and GREAT ONES podcast host discusses authenticity, human connection, and the stories that exist beyond the spotlight.
Photographer: Storm Santos
Glam: Kimberly Bragalone
What does it mean to be great? That’s a question Susie Abromeit has spent years exploring—first as a competitive athlete, later as an actress, writer, and musician, and now as the host of GREAT ONES, her long-form interview podcast. The answers, she’s discovered, are rarely as straightforward as they appear.
Best known for roles in Jessica Jones, The Forever Purge, King Richard, Chicago Med, and numerous other film and television projects, Abromeit has spent much of her career stepping into the lives of fictional characters. “I’m always wanting to uncover the truth and the shadow,” she explains. That desire became the foundation of GREAT ONES.
“I just love this podcast because I get to explore the complexity and vulnerability that every artist and every human being can connect with and share,” she explains. Through the podcast, Abromeit has sat down with an impressive roster of guests, including Baz Luhrmann, Erin Moriarty, Ian Somerhalder, Ron Howard, Spike Lee, Joe Wright, and many others. For Abromeit, those conversations are rarely about success alone.
“There was always a cost on the other side of success,” she says. It’s an answer that seems to surface often in her interviews. Behind every achievement is usually a less visible story—one involving sacrifice, timing, disappointment, persistence, or some combination of all four. Having spent years chasing ambitious goals of her own, first as an athlete and later as an artist, Abromeit understands that success rarely tells the whole story.
Long before Hollywood entered the picture, Abromeit had tennis. After moving to Florida at 12 years old to train full-time at Evert Tennis Academy, she found herself competing alongside some of the top junior players in the world. A professional career wasn’t out of reach, but as her ambitions on the court grew, so did her interest in storytelling.
Acting camps, school plays, writing, music—creative pursuits had always been there. Eventually, Abromeit realized that while tennis could be a career, it wasn’t the thing she wanted to spend the rest of her life doing. “I felt in my soul that I was an artist,” she says. That instinct eventually led her to television, film, music, and, years later, podcasting. But one of the most significant experiences to shape her perspective came much later.
In late 2024, shortly after Abromeit moved to New York to be closer to family, her mother unexpectedly passed from a heart attack.”I was literally texting my mom the day before,” she recalls. “And then just like that, she was gone. It just rips you apart—I thought my heart was going to stop.”
The loss would eventually inspire Death and Friends, a dark comedy short that Abromeit co-wrote and stars in alongside Alok Vaid-Menon, Anthony Lee Medina (Hamilton), and Lily Mirojnick (Cloverfield). Directed by Alona Tal (Cross), the project has drawn comparisons to Girls and Fleabag for its blend of humour and heartbreak.
Drawing from Abromeit’s own experience, the short explores grief through humour, friendship, and human connection. “It’s not just about what you go through, but who you go through it with,” says Abromeit. Filmed just months after her mother’s passing, the short will soon begin making film festival rounds.
“If you alchemize everything that comes your way, you can use it to your benefit,” she says. “You can work with it and paint with it.” The connection between Death and Friends and GREAT ONES feels natural, both rooted in what exists beneath the polished version of a story.
“I think people are craving authenticity,” she says with a smile. “We’re really all contradictions. We’re all messy—that’s the trick of it all.” It’s a philosophy that feels less like a mission statement and more like a way of moving through the world—one that continues to shape both the questions Abromeit asks and the stories she’s drawn to tell.
Listen to GREAT ONES wherever you get your podcasts, and follow @greatonespodcast and @susieabromeit for updates on the show, Death and Friends, and upcoming projects.
