Indie Series Awards Spotlight: Best Lead Actress — Comedy

(Clockwise from top left) Melissa Archer, Laura Campbell, Claire Downs, Crista Flanagan, Jill Knox and Amber Nash

The 7th Annual Indie Series Awards ceremony is only 48 days away. As the countdown to ISA7 continues, Serial Scoop is shining a spotlight on the nominees in each category. Today we look at Best Lead Actress — Comedy. It will be impossible not to laugh when you watch the hilarious nominated performances below.

FIRST LOOK: 'Club 5150' Premieres on November 9, and Star Crista Flanagan Is Only Acting Crazy

Crista Flanagan

Club 5150, the new comedy from award-winning Pretty creator Steve Silverman, premieres on Monday, November 9.  The show stars Crista Flanagan (MADtv, Mad Men) as Angela, a woman with more than a few issues. The cast features an all-star lineup including Adrienne Wilkinson, Michael Caruso, Mary Gallagher, Wayne Wilderson, Sharon Houston, Mari Weiss, Eden Riegel, Crystal Carson, Lee Sherman and Deidre Hall.

In the exclusive new first look clip below, Flanagan talks Club 5150, and offers some insights about her own past. Is she anything like her troubled new character?

"When I got the script I had no idea what 'Club 5150' was," reveals Flanagan, "but I thought maybe it might be a spy thing."

It's more like an intervention thing. Angela arrives home to find a '5150' has been called on her out of fear she is a danger to herself. She has 72 hours to prove to a therapist, her husband, her best friend, and the nanny that she is indeed sane.

Crista Flanagan's 'The Garden Apartments' is a Dark Comedy with Heart

If you're looking for a new comedy web series to check out, Crista Flanagan's The Garden Apartments is smart, funny, and features and star-studded cast.

The show follows "Crista" (played by Flanagan), a woman dealing with a serial killer husband who has just been released from prison. All she needs is for him to sign the divorce papers and not kill her. Simple, right?

You may know The Garden Apartments creator and star Crista Flanagan as Lois, the one who ran over her boss with the new lawnmower at the Christmas party on AMC's Mad Men, or from her days as a writer/performer on FOX's MADtv. Adding to her long list of impressive credits, Flanagan will also soon seen on CBS' Mom and NBC's Marry Me.

Stephen Root & Crista Flanagan star in The Garden Apartments.

"I created The Garden Apartments just to be cast in a show that doesn’t start with the letter M," jokes Flanagan, "And I also wanted to experience the freedom of writing, producing, and performing for the web."

Co-starring Nick Paonessa (Law & Order: LA, The Cleaner) and Stephen Root (Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, Office Space), The Garden Apartments could be considered a dark comedy, but Flanagan believes otherwise.

"There's real heart there," she says, "Buried way, way, way down under all the mess that makes up these character’s collective lives."

Watch four episodes of The Garden Apartments below: