PEN15: Season 1 | Rotten Tomatoes (2025)

FAQs

What was Maya from PEN15 diagnosed with? ›

They spend time reminiscing with each other, and whether they've made the right choices in their lives. When Yuki returns home, she spends time alone with Maya and Shuji, and tells them both how much she loves them. Maya is diagnosed with ADD and Irlen syndrome.

Have been watching with my 11 yo daughter . Some of the content is mature and uncomfortable but has been a great way to talk about stuff that is sure to be on my kiddos mind. Maya and Anna make some awful mistakes about friendships and popularity and boys, and these are all learning moments.

Erskine was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of Mutsuko Nigatawa and jazz drummer Peter Erskine. Her mother is Japanese, from Tokyo. Her mother also plays the role of her character's mother on PEN15. Erskine attended Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences and graduated from Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.

Maya, whose masturbatory habits were interrupted by Ume's visit, sneaks off to a bathroom to get some alone time. Unfortunately for her, Ume winds up catching her fully nude, jerking off. Every fear Maya's had about her burgeoning sexuality looks as though it's going to come true.

Shuji Ishii is the older half-brother of Maya Ishii-Peters in Pen15.

The pair said that they always envisioned the series as three seasons but the pandemic – the show was forced to shut down production due to Covid19 – hastened the ending. The first seven episodes of Season 2 launched in September 2020 with an animated special airing earlier this year.

Showcasing the real-life experiences of Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle, the duo play middle-school versions of themselves as they re-experience the trials and tribulations of their teenage years.

PEN15 shouldn't work—two 33-year-old women acting like 13-year-olds while surrounded by a cast of actual 13-year-olds—but good God, does it. PEN15 is a strange, funny, and often poignant series in which creators and actors Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle play fictionalized versions of their middle school selves.

Erskine emphasized that the concept of the show is not to distract from the middle school setting or from the rest of the cast (who are all played by teenaged actors), but to actually help tone down the discomfort for viewers who might cringe away from watching actual middle schoolers suffer through, well, the cringey ...

Often awkward and usually excruciating, PEN15 conjures all the most painful parts of growing up and forces its characters to act them out, slowly, as if tiptoeing over a cliff edge.

Is Maya half Japanese? ›

Maya Ishii-Peters is one of the main characters of Pen15 on Hulu. She is the thirteen year old version of her actress, Maya Erskine in the 2000s. Family and background: Similar to the actress who plays her, Maya is born to an ethnic Japanese mother (played by her real life mother) and a Caucasian father.

In a heartwarming Instagram post on Wednesday, Maya Erskine shared the joyful news of her second pregnancy with fans. The PEN15 actress, alongside her husband Michael Angarano, posted a charming snapshot featuring Erskine donning a chic black dress that delicately highlighted her burgeoning baby bump.

The show picks up just two days after the events of the Season 1 finale, which included Maya and Anna being felt up by Maya's crush Brandt (Jonah Beres) in the janitor's closet at the fall dance. Brandt admitted he likes Maya, too, but warned her not to tell anyone.

“We're taking from all of our different experiences, but obviously we all didn't go to middle school together, we didn't all grow up in the same place,” Erskine said. Of the budding relationship between the Maya and Sam characters, Konkle clarified that in real life Erskine and Zvibleman aren't in love.

Meanwhile, Maya gets diagnosed with ADD and Irlen Syndrome. She is prescribed medication for the former and Matrix glasses for the latter. But don't worry, her doctor seems to say, Haley Joel Osment has the same glasses!

The symptoms were something her doctors had already diagnosed as complex regional pain disorder — an illness causing intermittent chronic pain that can be disabling. But once inside the hospital, doctors questioned Maya's diagnosis and the treatment she'd received and separated the girl from her family.

Kirkpatrick diagnoses Maya with advanced complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a disease that can be treated with ketamine.

Basically said I had autistic tendencies, but I'm just near divergent. Yeah, I got like a whole lot of things going on. I mean, I have. I have ADHD and I have OCD together.

In a heartwarming Instagram post on Wednesday, Maya Erskine shared the joyful news of her second pregnancy with fans. The PEN15 actress, alongside her husband Michael Angarano, posted a charming snapshot featuring Erskine donning a chic black dress that delicately highlighted her burgeoning baby bump.