IU alumna lands role on new FOX show

When IU alumna Angelique Cabral was hired to be a female lead in FOX’s new comedy series “Enlisted,” it was a game changer for her career.

Cabral plays Jill Perez, an army sergeant in the Rear Detachment sector.

Her character has to deal with Pete, a soldier who unwillingly returns from Afghanistan to his two brothers and thinks taking care of the base at home is not worthy of his time.

Her character is constantly on Pete to get into gear, she said.

“Pete and I are kind of like arch rivals, but there’s a bit of chemistry under there, so they play with the idea of lust,” she said.

Cabral and her fellow castmates underwent an intense boot camp before filming the show.

“They put us through very rigorous training to give us an idea of what its like to be a real soldier,” she said.

She said it was life-changing as well as career-changing to go through what soldiers go through in real life.

“It was the most challenging thing that I’ve ever done, but I got through it,” she said. “It’s like I knew I could do this. I could be a female soldier in the army and I could be a sergeant, and that made me more confident as a character and as a female soldier.”

She had to be just as fit as the male soldiers, Cabral said.

As Perez tries to make Pete a better soldier, gender issues are highlighted.

“We definitely touch on the idea of Jill proving herself in face of the men and wanting to constantly be seen as an equal to the men,” Cabral said.

Cabral said her drive, competitiveness and pointed focus are traits that both she and her character embody.

“I’m so similar to this character that it’s scary,” Cabral said. “When I first got the script and I read it, I thought, ‘This is the character I want for sure.’”

She said she can also relate to the tomboy side of Perez.

“She’s cool,” Cabral said. “She can go and hang with the boys, and make fart jokes and be almost like a wingman.”

Part of the class of 2001, Cabral was a Wells Scholar, a former member of Singing Hoosiers and a sister of Delta Gamma.

She said she loved her experience at IU studying musical theater in the Individualized Major Program.

“I’m obsessed with IU,” Cabral said. “I literally had the best time. I had a full, full life.”

Follow reporter Sarah Zinn on Twitter @sarah_zinn