Carla Gugino to Mentor Melissa Benoist in HBO Max’s The Girls on the Bus

Carla Gugino is the latest addition to the increasingly stacked cast of HBO Max‘s The Girls on the Bus.

Hailing from executive producers/writers Amy Chozick and Julie Plec and inspired by a chapter in Chozick’s book Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns and One Intact Glass Ceiling, The Girls on the Bus stars Supergirl alum Melissa Benoist as Sadie McCarthy, a journalist who romanticizes the original “Boys on the Bus” and thus scrapped her whole life for her own shot at covering a presidential campaign for the paper of record.

Sadie hits the trail and eventually bonds with three female competitors — Grace (to be played by Gugino), Lola (Mayans M.C.‘s Natasha Behnam) and Kimberlyn (Insecure‘s Christina Elmore). Despite their differences, these women become a found family with a front-row seat to the greatest soap opera in town: the battle for the White House.

Gugio’s Grace, per Deadline, is a veteran reporter known as “The Queen of Scoop,” who serves as a friend and mentor to Benoist’s Sadie.

The Girls on the Bus‘ ensemble also includes Tala Ashe (Legends of Tomorrow), Griffin Dunne (This Is Us), Scott Foley (Scandal) and Brandon Scott (13 Reasons Why, Dead to Me).

Gugino’s previous TV credits include (but are by no means limited to!) the gone-too-soon Karen Sisco, the gone-too-soon Threshold, Entourage, Californication, the gone-too-soon Political Animals, the good season of Wayward Pines, The Haunting of Hill House, Jett and The Haunting of Bly Manor.

Want scoop on The Girls on the Bus, or for any other show? Email InsideLine@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.