Gillian Jacobs

About Gillian Jacobs

Gillian Jacobs is an accomplished American actress recognized for her diverse roles. She gained fame portraying Britta Perry on NBC's sitcom Community, which aired from 2009 to 2015. In addition to her work on Community, she appeared as Mickey Dobbs in the Netflix romantic comedy series Love from 2016 to 2018, and played Mary Jayne Gold in the 2023 Netflix miniseries Transatlantic. Jacobs has taken on several notable television roles, including Mimi-Rose Howard in the fourth season of HBO's Girls in 2015, Atom Eve in the animated superhero series Invincible from 2021 onwards, and Tiffany Jerimovich in the FX on Hulu comedy-drama series The Bear starting in 2023. Her film credits include Gardens of the Night (2008), Don't Think Twice (2016), Ibiza (2018), I Used to Go Here (2020), and the Fear Street trilogy released in 2021.

In her early years, Gillian MacLaren Jacobs was born in Pittsburgh on October 19, 1982, and is the only child of college administrator Martina Magenau and investment banker William Francis Jacobs Jr. (actually the III). After her parents' divorce when she was just two, she was brought up by her mother in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Jacobs comes from a family that historically owned the Erie Brewing Company in Erie, Pennsylvania, where her grandfather was the president and CEO until the brewery's closure in 1978. Demonstrating a passion for acting from the age of four, she participated in weekend classes at the Pittsburgh Playhouse and performed with the Pittsburgh Public Theater, where she was frequently recognized in the Shakespeare Monologue Contest and later cast as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream. After graduating from Mt. Lebanon High School in 2000, she moved to New York City to enroll in the Juilliard School, earning her BFA in 2004.

Jacobs made her screen debut in the series The Book of Daniel and initially played Kim in the pilot of Traveler, but the role was eventually reassigned. Her guest appearances on shows such as Fringe and Law & Order: Criminal Intent followed. In 2006, she was featured in an Off-Off-Broadway production of cagelove, which, despite mixed reviews, highlighted her talent, with The New York Times predicting a bright future for her. Jacobs performed in stage productions including The Fabulous Life of a Size Zero, A Feminine Ending, and The Little Flower of East Orange.

In March 2009, she was cast as Britta Perry in Community, a role that significantly boosted her profile. Her filmography includes works like Blackbird, Choke, and several others, along with voice roles in animated series like Monsters vs. Aliens and Invincible. When Community was canceled by NBC in May 2014, it was soon picked up for a sixth season by Yahoo! Screen, and