While talking to actress Cleopatra Coleman, I learn a shocking truth: There are dead zones that can extend across whole communities in Los Angeles and that are impervious to whatever magic it is that makes cellphones work. And Coleman seems to be living in one of those dead zones now.

If this were the set-up to a sci-fi movie, it would probably be right up Coleman’s alley, but it’s just a case of poor reception. I’m listening about as hard as a person can, but I might as well be talking to a ghost calling from a subway pay phone circa 1983. I’m both talking to her and not.

When we try again, she’s all apologies. “It’s my fault,” she says in her warm Australian accent. “I moved to this house in the Hills, and I absolutely love it, but I get the worst reception. Which I kind of love, too, but it makes for annoying interviews.” But, bless her, she has left her house now, and I can finally hear her speak in complete sentences.

That’s good, because I, like you, have questions. For instance, “Who is Cleopatra Coleman?”

At the moment, that’s a fair question. After beginning her career in Australia, Coleman started popping up in American films and television around 2012, when she was cast in Step Up Revolution thanks to a childhood spent in dance.

But she didn’t stay in the dance world. Instead, she showed her funny side, holding her own playing opposite a couple of SNL heavyweights—first with Will Forte in the post-apocalyptic comedy The Last Man on Earth and then, in 2017, with Jay Pharoah in White Famous. More recently, she’s been playing in the sci-fi genre. And while sci-fi is a common stepping stone for a lot of young actresses, Coleman’s love of the genre feels genuine. Why else would she write and star in Hover, a sci-fi thriller about killer drones?

“I think it’s a really important genre,” she says. “I don’t know what about it attracted me. Maybe it was my parents. I used to watch this obscure British show called Red Dwarf, and I used to watch Star Trek. After that, I learned that Star Trek had the first interracial kiss on television. That was important to me. It’s a great way to hold a mirror up to society without being preachy.”