'Girlboss' Star Britt Robertson Is About To Hit It Big

Based on a bestselling memoir of the same title, Netflix’s new series Girlboss follows the rapid rise of millennial entrepreneur Sophia Amoruso, who went from flipping vintage clothing on eBay to becoming the CEO of Nasty Gal, a fast-growing, multimillion dollar fashion retailer. While the show, which features Kay Cannon of 30 Rock and Pitch Perfect fame as its showrunner, is based on the true events of Amoruso’s life, it isn’t exactly a documentary. So who is playing Sophia in Girlboss?

The fictionalized version of Amoruso will be played by Britt Robertson, and the odds are good that you’ve definitely seen this 26 year old actor on screen before. She’s best known for playing Casey Newton, the protagonist of Disney’s Tomorrowland movie who unexpectedly finds herself lost in George Clooney’s world of nostalgic technology. You might also know her as Angie McAllister from the CBS drama Under The Dome, Cassie Blake in the CW’s witchy series The Secret Circle, or as Sophia (what irony!) in the Nicholas Sparks movie The Longest Ride. Most recently she starred alongside Asa Butterfield in The Space Between Us, about a boy born to an astronaut on Mars who falls in love with a girl on Earth.

But that’s not all. If you’re a fan of the popular MTV series Teen Wolf or the dystopian franchise The Maze Runner, then you’ve probably also spotted Robertson in many a paparazzi pic or red carpet photo alongside her boyfriend, Dylan O’Brien. The couple met while filming The First Time together in 2011, according to an interview she once gave to Brit & Co, and they’ve been the definition of #relationshipgoals ever since. During a press junket for The Space Between Us in January, Robertson even told the Huffington Post that she once flew across the country to visit O’Brien in the hospital. He ended up being fine, but dropping everything to visit someone like that is seriously true love.

While Robertson’s no stranger to the small screen thanks to her many TV roles, it’s safe to say that Sophia is unlike anyone Robertson’s played before — and not just because she’s the star of her own story rather than someone’s love interest. As she told the Australian website news.com.au, in Girlboss she got to play a flawed protagonist who makes mistakes.

"For me, what was really special about playing this character is the fact that she’s not perfect. She’s actually imperfect and she allows people to be that way and it showed me that it’s OK if you don’t know what you’re saying sometimes.”

Of course, from the outside it seems like the real life Sophia Amoruso has certainly made her share of mistakes. In January 2015, she told Re/code that she would be stepping down as CEO of Nasty Gal to take on an executive chairwoman role; two years later she resigned completely when the company filed for bankruptcy.

But, hey, if Girlboss has proven anything, it’s that problems that arise don't have to mean the end of your career. And, if the Netflix series turns out to be worth all the hype when it premieres on April 21, then something tells me it won’t just remind everybody why Amoruso was so compelling as a CEO — it’ll also launch Robertson straight into the spotlight.