As Emma Kenney prepares to wrap up her journey on The Conners, she isn’t ruling out any potential projects — including a possible onscreen reunion with former Shameless costar Steve Howey.
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Kenney, 25, said she “would love to work” with Howey again after they both made guest appearances on Happy’s Place episodes apart.
“I love him. He’s so much fun. He’s so funny. And he’s always been a safe place on set for me,” Kenney noted. “I’ve known him for so long ago and he is so wonderful. I honestly have to say the whole [Shameless cast] was quite a safe place for me.”
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Kenney rose to stardom playing Debbie Gallagher on the Showtime hit. The series, which ran for 11 seasons, focused on the Gallagher family as they dealt with their father’s alcoholism, poverty, affairs, crimes and scams while living in the South Side of Chicago. Shameless also starred Howey, 47, William H. Macy, Emmy Rossum, Jeremy Allen White, Shanola Hampton, Cameron Monaghan, Noel Fisher and more.
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After moving on from Shameless, Kenney was cast as Harris during season 10 of Roseanne — and its spinoff The Conners. Kenney also recently made an appearance on NBC’s Happy’s Place, which previously reunited leads Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman with their Reba costar Howey.
“It would be fun to do a meta moment between my character and Steve’s character on Happy’s Place. We actually did that on The Conners a couple years ago with Ethan Cutkosky and then William H. Macy joined for a couple of episodes,” Kenney recalled. “We had a little moment where he said to me on the show, ‘You look familiar.’ So it was something kind of silly.”
Kenney got her start acting when she was just 9 years old. Being in the industry most of her life has allowed Kenney to become a household name — but not every person recognizes her for the same memorable role.
“Both [Shameless and The Conners] have gone on for such a long time and they’ve attracted different audiences. It depends where I’m at and what city I’m in. But I would say I get recognized the most for Shameless,” she shared with Us. “It went for so long and I grew up on that show. I think people can really relate to my character in a way and they feel like they know me. A lot of people will come up to me and want to give me a hug.”
Despite having consistent work for decades, Kenney is looking forward to simply taking a beat and considering what could end up being her next chapter.
“I’ve been working so consistently since I was 9 and this is the first time in my career and in my life that I’ve been able to take a step back and think about what’s next for me. I really want to be intentional with my next role and my next project,” she explained. “I just want to explore a lot of different creative avenues, whether that’s multicam again or movies or anything. I want to try it all. I’m definitely excited.”
Kenney has already ventured into animal advocacy with her foster-based rescue Yogi’s House, telling Us, “It is probably the thing in my life that I’m most proud of. Ever since I’ve been a kid, I’ve always been super passionate about animal rescue and I always knew owning a dog rescue was going to be something I did one day. So to actually have it come to fruition and be something I’m doing every single day is such a dream come true.”
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While the actress said Yogi’s House— which she founded with Nicola Peltz-Beckham — is “a lot of work” it is also something Kenney is “so passionate about.”
“That is how I spend probably half of my day at least working on it,” Kenney continued. “I honestly feel like I’m getting a veterinary degree at this point because I deal with the foster vets every single day. I honestly feel I’m learning a lot about the medical side of raising dogs, which is really interesting and something that I would be interested in learning more about.”
She added: “Every single day something new comes up. It’s a lot of people. I deal with a lot of people every single day and we create these relationships and we have such an amazing foster community and we really couldn’t do the rescue without our fosters since we’re foster-based. So I’m so grateful for every single volunteer that we’ve worked with. We could not do it without everyone.”
In addition to her dog rescue, Kenney is looking forward to seeing how The Conners comes to an end, saying, “This season definitely is going to hit home for a lot of people. There’s humor always but also some really emotional moments that resolve a lot of story lines. It sets the rest of the characters up for their next chapter off camera ultimately.”
The Conners returns for its final season on ABC Wednesday, March 26 at 8 p.m. ET
Us Weekly
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