She sings. She dances. She makes music videos. Suburgatory‘s Dalia Royce may be Chatswin High’s resident mean girl, but it’s kind of hard to hate her.

Whether she’s challenging her neighbor Tessa (Jane Levy) to a dance-off or burning up YouTube with her Rebecca Black-like single, “You Missed a Spot,” Carly Chaikin’s Dalia has quickly become a fan-favorite character on the ABC family comedy. Case in point: On last week’s episode, Dalia delivered a completely off-key and slightly off-lyric rendition of “Send in the Clowns” at Marty’s funeral. “I had an earpiece in my ear with the song and I kept messing up the first line,” Chaikin tells TVGuide.com with a laugh. “I guess in editing they thought it was funny and decided to use some of the wrong lines I did too.”

After first breaking out in dramas such as the 2009 Nicholas Sparks tearjerker The Last Song, Chaikin is enjoying the laughs, and even the many hours of dance rehearsal occasionally required of the role. “It is really nice to be able to now show that I can do comedy and I can do drama and I can play the b—- ,” she says. “It’s allowed me to broaden my horizons. Dalia has really allowed me to play something that I never thought I would be able to play. … TV always used to really scare me and when I saw this script, I was like this is the kind of show that I would gladly want to keep working on for 7-plus years because there is so much to it.”

Dalia will once again add to her impressive resume on Wednesday’s new episode (9:30/8:30c on ABC) when she takes it upon herself to give Mr. Wolfe (Rex Lee) a post-breakup makeover. “One of Dalia’s favorite things to do is get revenge, which ties into the rest of her story line throughout the season,” Chaikin says. “I think she’s good at getting back at people, and I think that she sees Mr. Wolfe and sees an opportunity in someone who is just losing it. She goes in and tries to help, or [does] what she thinks is helping.”

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