Amazon cartoon role brings out ‘SNL’ star Aidy Bryant’s inner child

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Aidy Bryant attends the New York premiere of “The Big Sick,” which opens June 30 in Chicago. | Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Moonlighting on a side job while toiling away in the cast of “Saturday Night Live” can make for a grueling schedule, but Aidy Bryant thought she’d found an opportunity she could handle.

How hard could it be to voice a girl of about 10 in an animated series? “I went in thinking, ‘This is gonna be a breeze! I’m just gonna wear my pajamas to work and kinda roll in and roll out,'” said the Columbia College grad.

But the young heroine of “Danger & Eggs” is no genteel princess. D.D. Danger is the daughter of a famous daredevil who inherited his passion for thrills. As she charges from one hazard to another, protected only by safeguards set up by her best friend, an anxiety-ridden, walking, talking egg named Phillip, D.D. narrates her adventures in frantic, zealous, relentless chatter.

“And it’s really exhausting,” Bryant said. “We started doing long sessions, and we had to cut them down to four or five hours because my voice was, like, totally wrecked by the end.

“But she’s so energetic, and I think that’s the driving force of the show. So you gotta do what you gotta do.”

D.D. Danger (left, voice of Aidy Bryant) and her friend Phillip (Eric Knobel) in “Danger & Eggs.” | Amazon

D.D. Danger (left, voice of Aidy Bryant) and her friend Phillip (Eric Knobel) in “Danger & Eggs.” | Amazon

The 13-episode first season of “Danger & Eggs” debuts June 30 on Amazon, where the pilot (first posted in 2015) is available for free viewing. The date also brings the Chicago opening of “The Big Sick,” the movie featuring Bryant in a small role as a comedian helping the lead character (Kumail Nanjiani, also the co-writer) break into stand-up.

Though filmed in Brooklyn, “The Big Sick” is set in Chicago, where Nanjiani got his start in comedy. Bryant did, too, performing in two Second City revues and with the all-female iO troupe Virgin Daiquiri.

At the Annoyance Theatre, she not only co-starred in a show with her future “SNL” castmate Vanessa Bayer, but she also met her future fiance: actor-writer Conner O’Malley, who turns up often on “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”

A trip down the aisle next year is likely — provided the couple gets its act together. “I hired a wedding planner and that’s about as far as I’ve gone,” Bryant confessed. “It’ll happen, but I don’t know when. … I’m telling myself that in July I’ll give some mental energy to it.”

Aidy Bryant (left) plays Sarah Huckabee Sanders alongside Melissa McCarthy as White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer during the May 13, 2017, episode of “Saturday Night Live.” | NBC

Aidy Bryant (left) plays Sarah Huckabee Sanders alongside Melissa McCarthy as White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer during the May 13, 2017, episode of “Saturday Night Live.” | NBC

The actress is coming off her fifth season at “SNL,” an especially high-profile one dominated by the election and then administration of President Donald Trump. She joined the Trump team late in the season when cast as Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the fill-in for White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

“I am like a true Chicago improviser,” she said. “So what I love is, like, character-y, goofy, silly, insane, musical stuff. Impressions are certainly not my first love. But what I like about doing Sarah Huckabee Sanders is that I see a character there. She has a lot of quirks that are fun to grab onto and kinda heighten. So I was like, ‘This works for me.’ ”

Bryant also played a role — an extremely tangential, extremely peculiar role — in helping the Chicago Cubs celebrate their World Series victory last fall.

A troupe of dancers (host Benedict Cumberbatch (from left), Dexter Fowler, David Ross, Anthony Rizzo and Mikey Day) entertains a bachelorette they don’t know is dead (Aidy Bryant) during the Nov. 5, 2016, episode of “Saturday Night Live.” | NBC

A troupe of dancers (host Benedict Cumberbatch (from left), Dexter Fowler, David Ross, Anthony Rizzo and Mikey Day) entertains a bachelorette they don’t know is dead (Aidy Bryant) during the Nov. 5, 2016, episode of “Saturday Night Live.” | NBC

After clinching the title and partying at Grant Park, Cubs Dexter Fowler, David Ross and Anthony Rizzo flew to New York for an “SNL” cameo, playing scantily attired dancers thrusting their hips for the elderly bride at a bachelorette party who, unbeknownst to everyone, had just dropped dead.

Bryant played the corpse.

“I have to tell you, I am not, like, a huge sports fan,” she said. “But, like all the people who love Chicago, I got totally obsessed in those finals. Watching that final game — it was so emotional! I watched the live stream on WGN of the parade, and then they were grinding on my head. “I was truly living every Chicago woman’s fantasy for sure.”

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