Colton Dunn Of ‘Superstore’ Talks Dina’s Halloween Costume — Sort Of

Anyone who tuned in for Superstore‘s Halloween episode likely got a good belly laugh out of the straight-faced Lauren Ash, the comedic actor behind assistant manager Dina, spending an entire day in a spontaneously picked out, physically-revealing costume that proved distracting for employees while she interrogated them over an alleged employee theft.

Ash posted a shot to Instagram for anyone who missed it, and Colton Dunn, the man behind Garrett, who could not look away despite his best efforts, wrote on Entertainment Weekly about Dina’s noticeable outfit — sort of.

In fact, Dunn spent most of his blog post talking about Karey Dornetto, who wrote the episode and once beat Dunn out for an Emmy. Although Dunn was a writer on the sketch show Key & Peele, he apparently never received a golden statue — although Dornetto did, while working on Portlandia. He also got in some jabs at John Oliver, the host of Last Week Tonight, which apparently also got to take home some hardware for writing while Dunn and Key & Peele were overlooked.

The slight may have been particularly raw for Dunn, who was obviously poking some fun at his fellow comedy writers. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver just beat the team at Key & Peele for an Emmy during the September, 2016, broadcast. Dunn was in a good company of losers, however, as the teams of Saturday Night Live and Inside Amy Schumer also lost, according to the official Emmys site.

Eventually, Dunn wrapped his EW post with a recap of the episode, “Employee Theft,” including Dina’s cop uniform and Garrett’s inability to avert his gaze. But he didn’t drop the sensitive issue of the Emmys completely.

“Anyway, Jonah and Cheyenne try to find common ground through gossip, Amy and Glenn check out another Cloud 9, and Garrett gets ‘busted’ by Dina. The Emmys are rigged.”

But even if he doesn’t yet have an Emmy, Dunn told The Maine Edge that his experience crafting the comedy of such shows as Mad TV has given him a bit of a pass to influence the scripts of Superstore. Anyone who enjoyed the transitional shot of a cashier gathering an excessively long receipt while a customer waited with just one item can thank Dunn — he told one of the writers about having that experience in a big box store.

He also revealed that there is usually room for improv during the episodes, where comedians like Ash, Mark McKinney, and Nico Santos particularly shine.

In a summer interview with Ebony, Dunn revealed what fans of Superstore have perhaps come to notice: Garrett is interested in all kinds of women.

“My favorite thing is you get to see the eclectic group of women that interest Garrett. He doesn’t have a specific type. He’s all over the board.”

He also hinted that Garrett’s personal life will continue to play out this season.

“[W]e definitely saw that he was very flirtatious in that first season. We’re actually going to see what his dating life is like. We’re going to find out about his love life and get a little bit more adventurous.”

When Ebony asked about his preference for writing or acting, Dunn weighed in on the differences between those two roles in the entertainment industry.

“As far as a job, actors get treated a lot better than writers so I definitely prefer acting. A writer has to make his own coffee and an actor has somebody bring them coffee.”

But Dunn claimed to love both writing and performing, as he’s long done both.

If Halloween was fun for fans of the crew at Cloud 9, they should have high expectations for what’s coming up next. The November 3 episode is titled “Election Day.”

Superstore airs Thursday nights on NBC.

[Featured Image by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images]