Hannah Einbinder, Emmy-nominated for the fourth consecutive year for her role as Ava Daniels in “Hacks.” (Bexx Francois \/ For The Times)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n When casting began in 2020 for the award-winning HBO Max series \u201cHacks,\u201d its three creators \u2014 Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky \u2014 saw hundreds of actors for the role of Ava Daniels, a 20-something comedy writer who teams up with a Vegas comedian, Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), whose act has grown as dated as her updo and glittery outfits. In choosing Hannah Einbinder, they put a little-known stand-up comic who’d never before set foot on a TV series shoot on a path to four Emmy nominations. So what did they see then that indicated Einbinder could hold her own with Smart, a storied actress who famously can do anything?<\/p>\n Downs, who also stars as manager Jimmy LuSaque Jr. on \u201cHacks,\u201d says Einbinder caught the trio\u2019s attention with her audition scene, in which Ava threatens to kill herself after learning that her tweet about a closeted senator and his gay son has rendered her unhirable. \u201cA lot of really funny, really talented actresses read for the part, but their reads were emotional,\u201d he says. \u201cHannah read it in a way that was dry, sardonic, the way that a comedy writer would say it, and she just had this toughness about her.\u201d<\/p>\n