It’s a bit hard to pin down Jordan Firstman. This notable Jew is a TV and film writer, producer, director and actor. But he also has an online following where he began as a comedian, creating and performing bits for his audience. Though he first started working and gaining recognition in the late 2010s and early 2020, Jordan has recently garnered even more attention through his recurring role in the comedy “English Teacher.”
Here are 18 things to know about him.
1. Jordan was born on July 8, 1991 on Long Island to a Jewish family.
2. He’s a Cancer!
3. “I grew up in the suburbs [of] New York with a pretty nice Jewish family,” Jordan told Short Film Window in 2015. “I started in the arts pretty young and did theater and was obsessed with it. Then came comedy, then film.”
4. His parents, Richard Firstman and Jamie Talan, were newspaper reporters and later wrote true crime books, including “The Death of Innocents: A True Story of Murder, Medicine, and High Stakes Science.”
5. Jordan was briefly in a musical theater undergrad program in Cincinnati.
6. Jordan first moved to Los Angeles when he was 20 and worked as a photobooth operator at dinner parties and bar mitzvahs.
“I was able to stop working those survival-y type jobs when I started writing on ‘Search Party’ when I was 23. I was very ambitious and I really wanted that job,” Jordan explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “I had just done an ayahuasca trip and I saw this version of God and he told me I needed to work really, really hard or he wasn’t going to give me anything.”
7. He wrote, directed and starred in the short film “Call Your Father.” The film explores the generational differences in gay men.
8. Speaking of queerness, Jordan is gay.
9. One of his favorite movies is “The Squid and the Whale.”
“Mommy and Daddy are fighting! I think I saw this movie in ninth grade, and I remember how much I wished these cruel, narcissistic, arrogant parents were my own,” Jordan writes on the Criterion Collection website. “My parents had the Jewish liberal and divorce parts down, but their quips were not jagged enough for my taste.”
You can see his top 10 favorite movies here.
10. Jordan “genuinely believes” he would be a great rabbi if he weren’t a comedian.
11. He first gained more mainstream recognition during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic through his going on Instagram Live and doing impressions. Perhaps his most notable impression is that of Banana Bread’s publicist:
@jtfirstman #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #bananabread #funny #comedy #tiktokcomedy
12. But who can forget his impression of a sin talking to other sins before Yom Kippur?!
13. Jordan wrote the iconic song honoring Laura Dern from the 2020 Independent Spirit Awards.
14. He’s had supporting roles in “Search Party,” “Ms. Marvel” and “You People.” He also served as a producer on “Big Mouth.”
15. In 2021, Jordan participated in “A Recipe for Change: Standing Up to Antisemitism.” In this hour-long special, Jordan gathered with other Jewish creatives to discuss the rising of anti-Jewish sentiments in the United States and Jewish pride.
His response to the prompt “Tell me you’re Jewish without telling me you’re Jewish” is fairly enlightening:
16. He starred in the dark comedy film “Rotting in the Sun,” playing a dramatized version of himself. The movie also boasts unsimulated sex scenes and approximately 30 penises.
“The scary part is that [my character is] not that heightened. There is one major piece that’s missing that makes it different, and it’s self-awareness. The character has no self-awareness, and I think I do,” Jordan said in an interview with Vanity Fair. “Sometimes it can waver. [Laughs.] The pendulum does shift into not being self-aware sometimes.”
17. He plays Malcom, the ex-boyfriend of Evan (Brian Jordan Alvarez) on “English Teacher.”
“So grateful to be part of this fucking great show! Brian and team created something so unique and refreshing and FUNNY. And this cast!!! Blessings to all of mankind,” Jordan wrote on Instagram.
18. He will be starring in Rachel Sennott’s currently untitled HBO comedy pilot.
