Dash & Lily's Midori Francis Is An Ocean's 8 Alum

Netflix's latest series is an adaptation of the YA novel, Dash & Lily's Book of Dares. The show — which goes by the abbreviated title, Dash & Lily — follows its titular characters as they form an unlikely connection and get to know each other through a wholly unique method: communicating only through a red notebook Lily planted in the famed New York City bookstore, The Strand. Naturally, this means they don't interact with each other face-to-face for the majority of the series, much like a 2020 version of You've Got Mail.

Midori Francis stars as Lily and the actor is a relatively fresh face in film and television. She has previous credits in a variety of genres, including the 2019 horror mini-series The Birch, the 2019 coming-of-age comedy Good Boys, and the 2018 blockbuster Ocean's 8. However, Dash & Lily is Francis' first major lead role in a romantic comedy series, unlike her co-star Austin Abrams (Dash), who recently starred alongside Lili Reinhart in Chemical Hearts.

But as soon as Francis read the script for Dash & Lily, she just knew she had to be a part of it. "I saw 'Christmas,' then I read the scenes, and I was like, 'Oh, this girl has spirit. I have to go for this,'" she told PopSugar of her connection to the character. "I was joking with my family and my friends like, 'Well, today, I went in for someone who loves Christmas. Can you believe that? That's crazy.' Because everyone knows that I love Christmas."

Yet it was more than Lily's festive spirit that drew her to the project. "A lot of the shows that are out now about young adults — some of my friends are on them — are very dark, which is amazing because it gives people a place to see that reflected, and it doesn't shy away from those truth," she also told the outlet. "However, I think that we can be oversaturated with pain, darkness, and all that. So, when I saw this, I was like, 'Wow, something hopeful and optimistic.' There was love, and it wasn't in a corny way."