Athens native Laura Slade Wiggins shows up in the first episode of Showtime’s new family drama “Shameless” as a high school student in need of physics help. Her fellow high school aged tutor needs the money. She goes under the dining room table (with a convenient flowery tablecloth covering the table) to give the tutor something a bit more salacious than money.

Her parents, aware of the scene, won’t be holding a viewing party this Sunday at 10 p.m. when the show debuts.

But this is not a truly salacious show. It’s more an audacious show about a dysfuncational family led by a very drunken father Frank (Oscar-nominated William H. Macy), who spends $700  month of his disability check on booze. Set in Chicago, this adaptation of a British drama focuses on a poor family that uses its wiles to keep the fridge full and the bills paid. With the mother out of the picture, the 19-year-old (played with aplomb by Emmy Rossum) pretty much runs the house out of default.

It’s not a depressing story. Instead, it focuses on the family unit loving each other despite their problems. Wiggins’ character Karen Jackson isn’t part of the family. Rather, she plays Joan Cusack’s daughter.

Wiggins said she got the job despite suffering from swine flu and studying for four finals. “I took a lot of Dayquil,” she said.

Most of her auditions up to that point were more of the chipper G-rated Disney variety. In this case, she had to pull off the mouth-watering opening scene as her audition. She ultimately embraced the song’s title and went for it. And she can rationalize why her character does it. Her character has an overly controlling father and a mom who was afraid to leave the house. She believes Karen’s actions are merely a sign of her rebelling.

When she heard someone reference the act as a “hummer,” she had no idea what that was.

Now she knows.

Wiggins grew up in Athens, where she learned acting as a child at the Oconee Youth Playhouse. A musician, too, she loved going to the 40 Watt music venue. She remembers meeting Michael Stipe of R.E.M. when he attended “The Wizard of Oz.” She graduated from Oconee County High School in 2007 with no desire to go to college. Instead, she opted for the bright lights of Hollywood.

Her parents were skeptical but gave her a shot to “get it out of my system.”

She didn’t get much work the first year. She was “singer #4″ on an episode of “CSI.” She landed a role in an indie horror flick called “Dance With the Dead.” She played the best friend in a Lifetime film. She enrolled in a local college to study geology.

Now she has a regular gig on a pay cable show that is the furthest thing from Disney and fits right in with Showtime’s other shows such as “Nurse Jackie,” “Weeds,” “Diary of a Call Girl,” “Dexter’ and “Californication.”

“This is not for kids,” Wiggins said. “But it is definitely good for people with a sick sense of humor!”

TV PREVIEW

“Shameless” 10 p.m. Showtime Sundays starting January 9