How does actress Katy O’Brian connect The Walking Dead to Z Nation? When Z Nation started airing back in 2014, comparisons were inevitably drawn between the Syfy TV series and AMC’s flagship show The Walking Dead – after all, they’re both about a group of people trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic America overrun with the undead. Some suspected Z Nation was piggybacking on the success of AMC’s hit, while others lambasted the low-budget show as a poor man’s Walking Dead.

In reality, the two shows are quite different aside from the fact that they co-habit the same subgenre of horror. The Walking Dead takes itself a lot more seriously than Z Nation which, by contrast, features plenty of tongue-in-cheek black humor. Their zombies are very different too; while The Walking Dead opts for the classic shambling undead, Z Nation has ghouls that can move fast and are capable of sentient thought. Plus, Z Nation isn’t afraid to use the word “zombie” unlike The Walking Dead.

That said, the two zombie horror shows do share a connection by way of actor Katy O’Brian, who has had roles in both The Walking Dead and Z Nation. O’Brian joined the cast of The Walking Dead during its eighth season and played a Savior also named Katy. She made her first appearance in the episode “Monsters” as one of the Saviors captured and imprisoned at Hilltop. Unfortunately, O’Brian was only in a handful of episodes before her character was hit by one of the Saviors’ poisoned arrows during their attack on Hilltop in “Do Not Send Us Astray”. After dying and reanimating, Katy was put down by Siddiq (Avi Nash).

A few months after Katy O’Brian’s time on The Walking Dead, she popped up Z Nation’s fifth and final season in a much meatier role as Georgia “George” St. Clair. A flashback in the episode “A New Life” revealed main Z Nation character Lt. Roberta Warren (Kellita Smith) saved a younger George during the early days of the zombie apocalypse when she was a college freshman. After that, George led a band of fellow survivors to safety and eventually became a political leader of the haven known as NewMerica. In contrast to O’Brian’s Walking Dead character, George made it out of Z Nation alive.

Despite her work in The Walking Dead and Z Nation, Katy O’Brian hasn’t found herself typecast as tough apocalypse survivor types. However, with recent roles in both Black Lightning and Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., it looks like she could be carving herself out a new niche in superhero shows.