Actress Ally Maki Is Pregnant, Expecting Her First Baby: 'There's No Hiding It Anymore' (Exclusive)

The Big Door Prize actress is pregnant with her first baby and feeling great — other than constantly craving bagels with cream cheese

Ally Maki is having a baby — and it's a girl!

"There's no hiding it anymore," the actress, 37, tells PEOPLE with a laugh. "I'm showing a lot, so it's time to announce it. Plus, I don't want to hide it anymore. I'm at the point where I want my bump to be out and proud!"

Maki, who is currently starring in season 2 of The Big Door Prize with Chris O'Dowd (out on Apple TV+ on April 24), says she's already in her second trimester and has been feeling great.

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"I'm 26 weeks," she says, adding that pregnancy is already so different from how she thought it would be.

"It's been so beautiful in really unexpected ways," she shares. "But it's also been preparing me for parenthood in that you have the ultimate stress of doing all these tests after tests. That was just something I wasn't expecting —  just how many tests you do!"

"But as someone who likes to control a lot of the pieces of my life, it's been almost freeing," she continues. "Like, you know what? Whatever's going to happen will happen. We're just going to love this child so much. We already love her."

Maki, who also starred in Marvel's Cloak & Dagger and voiced Giggle McDimples in Toy Story 4, says she and her fiancé Travis Atreo first began talking about the idea of trying for a baby during the pandemic, but a surprising health issue got in the way.

"I went in for a routine physical and I tested positive for Grave's disease," she says, noting that she now encourages all women to get their thyroid tested.

"That was devastating because I'm in my 30s and we'd wanted to start trying but then we had to wait a full year and a half to go through everything, and get the all-clear from my endocrinologist to start trying."

Not long after, she had to get her thyroid tested and says her levels were "all in the red."

"I started sobbing, I was like something's wrong, my thyroid has gone nuts. I did the one thing you're not supposed to do, which is go on WebMD, to check why my levels would be so crazy. It said it could be the thyroid, it could be stress, or it could be pregnancy."

She took a test just to check, and says the lines were clearly double pink — she was pregnant.

"In the span of five minutes I went from thinking it was the worst news in the world to being so elated," she says. "And shocked!"

Now that she's more than halfway through her pregnancy, she says she has plenty of energy — a good thing since she's currently promoting The Big Door Prize.

"I'm so excited for people to see this season," she says. "They've really turned up the laughs, and my character Hannah's journey mirrors my own because she's kind of entering this new phase and kind of opening herself up to these new friendships for the first time, and I'm becoming a mother and starting that journey."

As for any emotions or breakdowns for the first-time mom-to-be?

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"I'm weirdly obsessed with watching Survivor," she says with a laugh. "I'll be watching Survivor and just crying. I've been watching it so much that we joke that we'll have to name the baby Jeff Probst. Oh, I crave bagels with cream cheese. My fiancé and I will go to Costco and get the 12-pack rolls and I'll just go right through them."

She adds that her hunger levels have been insane. "The other night I woke up at 3 a.m. and I was so hungry I got up and cooked up a full breakfast. Eggs, sourdough toast...the works!"

As for upcoming wedding plans, Maki says they'll play it by ear. "We'll have a big party at some point," she shares. "And it will be so cute because the baby will get to be there."

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