Olivia Munn can make a supporting character seem worth following out of the scene. We rate her dry comic presence, though the writing too often gives more attention to less interesting people.
Fi1m perspective
In Magic Mike (2012), Olivia Munn’s Joanna is a psychology student who drops into Mike’s life and leaves again. Steven Soderbergh gives her only three scenes, yet she seems more alive than the people carrying the romantic plot. We enjoyed her appearances more than the hesitant exchanges between Mike and Brooke; she gives the scenes away from the stage some much-needed energy. It is a small part, but it establishes why we rate her: she can make us interested in someone without much help from the script.
With The Newsroom (2012–2014), that presence had room to develop in Aaron Sorkin’s writing for economist Sloan Sabbith. Her bluntness and social awkwardness suited Munn’s dry, slightly misfit comic timing. The awkwardness matters: a character can be professionally assured and still make a mess of talking to people. The supporting roles in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) and The Predator (2018) took her into large-scale action, though Psylocke in the former offered little reward for extensive fight preparation. The understated lead performance in Violet (2021) points towards quieter dramatic possibilities worth pursuing.
Your Friends & Neighbors (2025) gives us a more substantial reason to keep watching her. As Sam Levitt, she helps the relationship drama hold its own alongside the burglary story, with Amanda Peet’s Mel Cooper another reason to look beyond Jon Hamm’s Coop. We like the ensemble’s chemistry: these people can be enjoyable company without needing our approval. Munn belongs comfortably in that company, and the gossip is often more engaging than the programme’s familiar observations about privilege.
The limitation is how often the script returns to Coop’s dissatisfaction when Sam and the others deserve more attention. Munn and Peet make that imbalance noticeable, but cannot correct it from the sidelines. Start with Your Friends & Neighbors, with some patience for its insistence on returning to him.
Biography
Olivia Munn is an American actress. She began her career as a television host on the gaming network G4, including the series Attack of the Show! (2006–2010), before serving as a recurring correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (2010–2011).
On television, she has appeared in the HBO series The Newsroom (2012–2014) and the Apple TV+ series Your Friends & Neighbors (2025), in which she plays Samantha 'Sam' Levitt. Her film credits include a supporting role as Joanna in Magic Mike (2012), Psylocke in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) and Casey Brackett in The Predator (2018). She has also appeared in Iron Man 2 (2010), Date Night (2010), Deliver Us from Evil (2014), Mortdecai (2015) and Office Christmas Party (2016).
Munn married comedian John Mulaney in 2024.
