Mika Abdalla has famous hair. They’re calling it “the Allie,” after her character in the hit show Off Campus, and, in the tradition of “the Rachel,” it has inspired a million imitators to run to the hair salon in search of their own shaggy layers.
But there can only be one original, and I’m talking to her on a Friday morning, Vancouver time, before she has to run to set. “The Allie” is up in a messy bun, bangs clipped back, framing tiny glasses. It’s breakfast time, and Abdalla is mixing a yogurt bowl.
“The funniest part is now everyone loves my haircut, and none of that is Allie at all in the books,” Abdalla says. Off Campus—which broke Prime Video viewership records in its first 12 days, amassing an audience of 36 million almost overnight—is based on a hockey romance series of the same name and set in the fictional amphitheater of Briar University. The books describe Allie Hayes as blonde with “blazing” blue eyes, neither of which applies to Abdalla.
“I was a bit nervous about the blonde of it all,” the Texas native tells me, “especially when the casting announcement came out and people weren’t thrilled with the creative liberties the team took with their beloved characters… but from what I had read in the books and in the script, I was like, No, this all feels right.”
“I just wear a hat and a hoodie now and try to keep it low-key.”
Abdalla initially came in to read for season one’s protagonist, the classic wallflower archetype, Hannah. But she quickly found herself more drawn to her spunky best friend and coworker at the canonical campus bar, Malone’s. Season two is set to delve deeper into her love story with hockey star and party boy Dean Di Laurentis.
“I just fell in love with Allie,” Abdalla says. “She reminds me of one of my best friends, Kiara. She has that fun, hype girl energy, but there’s clearly a lot of depth to her.”
It’s hard to describe the popularity of Off Campus without giving way to hyperbole or cliché. Like Abdalla, 26, I’m a member of what you might call “elder Gen Z,” so while I had definitely heard of the show before watching, I wasn’t tapped into the lore. But said lore runs deep—rabid, even. Imagine the Heated Rivalry craze, but for teens and recent college grads rather than suburban moms and millennial marketing managers.
Off Campus has the highest combined Rotten Tomatoes score of any romance from the past year; it has spawned countless stan pages, message boards, fancams, and conspiracy theories. Abdalla is now the subject of paparazzi photos; she was spotted in Paris this summer with her co-star, Josh Heuston, after breaking off an engagement earlier this year. The TV writer Raina Morris, who is not even affiliated with the show beyond her relationship with Abdalla’s co-star Belmont Cameli, recently put out a statement urging fans to stop messaging members of her family.
All of this passion invites a level of scrutiny that, even for a former child actor like Abdalla, is new and difficult to metabolize. “We’ve all been able to lean on each other for mental support,” she tells me. “I just wear a hat and a hoodie now and try to keep it low-key.”
Part of the psychological devotion to Off Campus may stem from its steamy romance scenes, a rare offering to a generation that is, it has been argued, “anti-sex.” The show has spawned articles like “All 8 of the steamiest ‘Off Campus’ sex scenes, ranked,” becoming a release valve for an audience that grew up surrounded by porn but starving for romance.
“We have an intimacy coordinator,” Abdalla says of shooting those scenes. “And her job is basically to make the sex scenes feel as choreographed and unsexy as possible for the actors—while keeping it whatever it needs to be for the characters in the show.”
“I’m almost addicted to things feeling hard. But from the first time I read for Allie, it felt so easy; it was freaking me out.”
When it comes to acting for TV, it’s more than the sex scenes that can grate on a person’s nerves. But as she enters this next phase of her career, Abdalla finds Allie’s world to be a respite. “I’m typically a very neurotic, anxious person,” she says. “I’m almost addicted to things feeling hard. But from the first time I read for Allie, it felt so easy; it was freaking me out.”
Maybe that’s what all the young women asking for “the Allie” are after. In character, Abdalla makes even the dark moments look easy. With the right hair, maybe we could, too.
Order the Cult of Personality issue here.
Photography by Elizabeth Miranda
Styling by Caitlyn Beattie
Hair by Tania Becker
Makeup by Maria Renée Walton
Executive Production by Amber Palson
Production Management by Ivy Thomas
Photography Assistance by Patrick Menard
Styling Assistance by Ruby Curtis
Location: JW Marriott Parq Vancouver
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