Exclusive: Jim Rash and Nat Faxon to Direct Community Episode

Jim Rash, Nat Faxon

In a Season 3 episode of Community, Dean Craig Pelton breaks down after trying to direct an out-of-control commercial for Greendale College. Now, Jim Rash — the actor behind the Dean — is stepping behind the Community lens for real.
Rash and his longtime directing/writing partner Nat Faxon have signed on to direct the second episode of Community's upcoming Season 6 (premiering in early 2015 on Yahoo! Screen). The episode represents the first time any of the Community stars have directed the show.
The Rash/Faxon episode will introduce Keith David's character, Elroy Patashnik, a retired scientist who comes to Greendale to reinvent himself.
Rash previously wrote an episode of Community during Season 4 ("Basic Human Anatomy"). He and Faxon's script for the film The Descendants won the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay, and the duo also wrote and directed last year's indie The Way Way Back. They also directed last season's Fox pilot Fatrick. Next up, Rash and Faxon are writing and directing the film The Heart, starring Sam Rockwell, Kristen Wiig and Allison Janney.
Among their other credits, Rash hosts SundanceTV's The Writers Room and provides a voice on Adult Swim's Mike Tyson Mysteries, while Faxon stars on FX's Married.

Exclusive: Community Hires Two New Series Regulars

Paget Brewster, Keith David

Two new Human Beings are on their way to Greendale. Paget Brewster and Keith David will join Community full time as the comedy enters Season 6 and moves to its new home on Yahoo! Screen.
Brewster plays Francesca "Frankie" Dart, a consultant hired to help shape things up at the underachieving school. David will appear as Elroy Patashnik, a retired scientist who comes to Greendale to reinvent himself.
Brewster is no stranger to Community fans, having played a different character, IT department staffer Debra Chambers, in the Season 5 episode "Analysis of Cork-Based Networking." Brewster's lengthy TV resume includes Criminal Minds (which she returned to last season for one episode), Friends, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Huff and American Dad. More recently, she was seen on Drunk History and Key and Peele.
David recently played Sgt. Major Donald Cody on the short-lived critically acclaimed sitcom Enlisted (a show that, coincidentally, Yahoo also considered rescuing). As a voice actor, he narrated last year's The Bible and plays the Flame King on Adventure Time. His feature credits include Platoon and Crash.
David is also familiar to Community die-hards: He narrated the faux Ken Burns-style documentary at the center of the Season 3 episode "Pillows and Blankets." David has won two Emmys for voice-over work (for The War and Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson.)
Brewster and David fill the void left by several departing cast members, including Yvette Nicole Brown, who has exited the fan favorite comedy after five seasons for personal reasons.
Also gone is Jonathan Banks, who is committed to AMC's Better Call Saul, while John Oliver, who played a larger role last season, is now focused on his HBO talk show.
Executive producers Dan Harmon and Chris McKenna have been busy at work on Community for several months now. Production on the Sony Pictures TV series' 13-episode sixth season begins on Nov. 17, and it will premiere exclusively on Yahoo in early 2015.
Cast members set to return for Season 6 include Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Jim Rash and Ken Jeong.