--- name: "Gillian Jacobs" canonical: "https://film.one/person/gillian-jacobs" roles: ["Actor"] born: "19 October 1982" reviewed_on_fi1m: 3 average_fi1m_score: 82 updated: "2026-09-17T01:58:00.415675+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Gillian Jacobs Actor. Born 19 October 1982 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 19 October 1982, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA - **Active:** 2009–present - **Also known as:** Gillian MacLaren Jacobs ## Fi1m on Gillian Jacobs > Gillian Jacobs plays women who are sure they are right and almost always wrong, and she plays them without asking to be forgiven. Six seasons of Britta Perry made the case; the parts since have kept her in the same territory, and it suits her. Britta Perry says something she believes at the study table, the rest of the group groans, and Gillian Jacobs does not flinch. That is the thing she does. Where another actor would let the character shrink, Jacobs squares her shoulders and carries on, wrong and sincere and unembarrassed. Britta began *Community* (2009) as the love interest and was written, season by season, into the group's designated failure, and Jacobs took the demotion gamely. Being the person the others laugh at is harder than being the one with the jokes, because the script keeps taking the character's dignity and the actor has to keep handing it back, and she managed it for six seasons. Comedy was not the plan. She trained at Juilliard and spent her first years in serious independent films and guest television parts, and by her own account she "was tired of doing really heavy, serious dramas". Dan Harmon's programme settled that. After it came a recurring part in *Girls* (2015) as Mimi-Rose Howard, then the lead in *Love* (2016–2018), produced by Judd Apatow, as Mickey Dobbs, another woman who is difficult to be near and difficult to give up on, and *Don't Think Twice* (2016), an ensemble film about improvisers in which she plays Sam. We have not reviewed those, but they sit where you would expect: flawed, idealistic, neurotic, hard to like and, in her hands, liked anyway. The habit is what she is best at, and it is also what she keeps being asked for. Jacobs is good at letting us see, half a second before the punchline lands on her, that the character believes she is helping. We laughed at Britta more than felt quite decent, and it was that half-second that did it: the joke is on her and she has just enough time not to know it. The criticism that follows her is that she is cast as the misfit again and again, and it is fair as far as it goes. She has not often been asked to be the still centre of anything. Recent work looks like a way out. There is horror in the *Fear Street* trilogy (2021), voice parts in *Invincible* and *Rick and Morty*, shorts she has directed herself, and a recurring role as Tiffany Jerimovich in Christopher Storer's *The Bear* (2022). She has spent a decade being the woman the table groans at. We would like to see what she does in a scene where nobody is laughing. ## Biography Gillian MacLaren Jacobs is an American actress. She is known for playing Britta Perry in the NBC sitcom *Community* (2009–2015). Jacobs was born on 19 October 1982 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She began acting classes as a child and performed with the Pittsburgh Public Theater. After graduating from Mt. Lebanon High School in 2000, she attended the Juilliard School in New York, where she earned a BFA in 2004. Her other television work includes the role of Mickey Dobbs in the Netflix series *Love* (2016–2018), a recurring part in *Girls* (2015), and voice work as Atom Eve in *Invincible* (2021–). Film appearances include the *Fear Street* trilogy (2021) and *Don't Think Twice* (2016). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (3) - *The Bear* (2022), Fi1m 82, as Tiffany Jerimovich — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-bear-2022.md) - *Girls* (2012), Fi1m 82, as Mimi-Rose Howard — [page](https://film.one/tv/girls.md) - *Community* (2009), Fi1m 83, as Britta Perry — [page](https://film.one/tv/community.md) ## Also known for - *Rick and Morty* (2013), Supernova (voice) - *INVINCIBLE* (2021), Eve (voice), Eve / College Girl (voice) - *Fear Street: 1994* (2021), C. Berman (voice) - *American Dad!* (2005), Christie (voice) - *Fear Street: 1978* (2021), C. Berman / Adult Ziggy - *Regular Show* (2010), BluRay / Computer V.O. (voice), BluRay (voice) - *Seeking a Friend for the End of the World* (2012), Waitress / Katie - *Fear Street: 1666* (2021), Adult Ziggy / C. Berman --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/gillian-jacobs