Hannah Einbinder

In Hacks (2021), Hannah Einbinder listens as though the next sentence is likely to give her something to object to. Her Ava is a young comedy writer whose professional troubles leave her working with Jean Smart’s veteran stand-up Deborah Vance. Einbinder makes it credible that someone in such a weak position would still challenge the woman she needs. We believe Ava has grievances of her own, rather than objections supplied to keep a scene going. It is a fine performance in a part that offers fewer immediate rewards than Smart’s.

Stand-up came first, beginning in 2018, and Hacks was her first scripted acting credit. Her stage comedy uses physicality, character voices and direct address to the audience. The debut special Hannah Einbinder: Everything Must Go (2024), directed by Sandy Honig, gives that side of her work its own space. A lead as Kris in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026) broadens the screen work beyond Ava. But the sustained partnership with Smart is where we have the clearest evidence of how good an actor she is.

Smart is the crucial partner, but the writing also gives Einbinder something substantial to play. Writers Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky understand how a discussion about work can become personal before either woman has noticed. The trouble comes when their disagreements are reduced to the difference in their ages. Ava then seems to have been sent into the scene to confirm a complaint about younger people, and Einbinder cannot always make the objection less predictable. These weaker exchanges ask her to supply individuality that should already be on the page.

We were moved by the warmth between Ava and Deborah because neither actor pretends it will cure their habit of arguing. Einbinder lets Ava care about her colleague without becoming easier to work with. The pleasure is in seeing affection develop between two people who continue to find each other objectionable. Start with Hacks, and watch Einbinder while Smart is speaking.