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Ellie Kemper

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Though their careers have crossed paths multiple times, actress Ellie Kemper recently revealed to Andy Cohen that her working relationship with Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt co-star Jon Hamm began all the way back in high school, when she was just a freshman.

“He was my drama teacher,” Kemper revealed to Cohen in a sit-down interview on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy, per Entertainment Weekly. “To give people some background, he went to my high school, went to college, came back and taught drama for a year at our high school.”

Cohen asked if Kemper was attracted to “Mr. Hamm” during her days at John Burroughs School in St. Louis.

“He’s the youngest teacher by far. He’s not bad looking and he’s teaching drama,” she said. “He’s, in fact, great-looking. Dreamy.”

Cohen, always the hard-hitting interviewer, asked if other students thought Hamm was gay (since he was a drama teacher, of course!).

“What an interesting question,” she said. “I never thought that.”

Kemper reconnected with her fellow St. Louis native when she moved to Los Angeles, when Hamm was already starring on Mad Men.

“I was doing this one-person show in Los Angeles, and at that time, he was already famous on Mad Men. I emailed him from our high school directory. I said, ‘Hey, I’m doing this show. I know you’re really busy, but it’d be great if you could come.’ And he came, and that’s when I really reconnected with him,” she explained. “I mean, that’s a class act, right?”

Ellie Kemper and Jon Hamm — Photo: Getty Images

Back in 2015, Kemper told the Television Critics Association panel that she was nervous to work with Hamm after their high school theater days, as she worried that there would still be a “teacher-student dynamic,” per People.

“Acting with him was a little bit nerve-racking just because I felt like he was still grading me on some level,” she said.

Those worries seem to have come and gone, as Kemper and Hamm have gone on to work together in the Academy Award-nominated 2011 comedy Bridesmaids, and starred together in Netflix’s hit sitcom Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which went on to earn 20 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, including nods for both Hamm and Kemper.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is now streaming on Netflix.