EXCLUSIVE: Emmy winner Alex Borstein (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) has attached to star in Turn the Lights Back On, a comedic family drama marking the feature debut of writer-director Dave Pantano that remains in development.

Based on true events and inspired by experiences many families faced during the Covid era, Turn the Lights Back On is described as being in the spirit of films such as Little Miss Sunshine, August: Osage County and The Brothers McMullen. The film centers on a family forced to confront decades of unresolved tensions while facing an unprecedented moment in modern history.

Borstein will play Emma, an exhausted elementary school teacher grappling with perimenopause, family responsibility, and the impossible decision to place her aging mother into assisted living just as the world begins to shut down. As old wounds resurface among her siblings, Emma finds herself navigating guilt, grief, and the unraveling of long-held family dynamics during one of the most isolating periods in recent history.

“Alex brings exactly the combination of humor, vulnerability, and emotional honesty that this role demands,” Pantano said. “Emma is carrying the weight of an entire family while quietly losing her grip on the version of herself she thought she knew. Alex is uniquely capable of capturing both the comedy and heartbreak of that journey.”

Producers on Turn the Lights Back On include Dino Maglaris, Harrison Chiu, and Addie Scott Irwin of Salado Pictures, plus Borstein and Marni Rosenzweig of The Rosenzweig Group. The project is fully financed as a SAG-AFTRA independent feature and is expected to begin casting additional roles this month.

Borstein is best known for her turn as Susie Myerson, manager to ’50s New York housewife turned stand-up comedian Midge Maisel, in Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, for which she earned two Emmys for Outstanding Supporting Actress. Her extensive body of work also includes HBO’s Getting On, Showtime’s Shameless, MADtv and her Emmy-winning performance as the voice of Lois Griffin on Family Guy. She is repped by WME, The Rosenzweig Group, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller.

Most recently, Pantano served as an executive producer on the Peacock documentary series Adaptive, which follows the journeys of elite Paralympic athletes on their road to the Paris Games. Prior to developing his own feature projects, he worked across independent film and documentary productions in a variety of creative and producing capacities.