Abbi Jacobson, one half of the iconic Broad City duo Abbi & Ilana, is simply amazing. The 34-year-old is not only a comedian, but a writer and illustrator. Her debut essay collection, I Might Regret This: Essays, Drawings, Vulnerabilities, and Other Stuff, highlights a different side of the actress.
In one passage, titled “Jewish genes,” she writes: “I grew up in a town that wasn’t very Jewish at all. I was probably one of ten Jewish kids in my school, and my only Jewish friends were from camps I went to over the summer. I wasn’t very religious, but did go to Sunday school and even had a Bat Mitzvah. I could read Hebrew, but was never taught what I was reading… [At my Bat Mitzvah] I could have been reciting a Hebrew dictionary for all I knew.”
With the release of her book, we’re here to give you — you guessed it – 18 things to know about Jacobson:
1. She was born in Wayne, Pennsylvania to Jewish parents who are both artists. (Her mom is an artist and her dad is a graphic designer.)
2. She studied art in college, and no one thought she would go into comedy. As she explained, “I think that I am funny, but it was more of a social thing, where that was my part in my circle of friends. It was never a thing I thought could be a career. I never thought about that until I went to college and pushed my funny side away. I don’t think anyone I went to college with would ever have thought that I would do this later in life. But it was in college that I decided that I wanted to pursue acting.”
3. Jacobson met Ilana Glazer while taking classes at Upright Citizens Brigade. From there, they started Broad City as a web series and eventually turned it into the show we know and love. And yes, they’re really best friends.
4. Jacobson opened up about her bisexuality in a Vanity Fair interview, saying, “I kind of go both ways; I date men and women. They have to be funny, doing something they love. I don’t know — I’ve never really been interviewed about this before.”
5. She hosts a podcast called A Piece of Work, in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art. The show is about making modern and contemporary art more accessible. (It’s one of our favorite podcasts with chutzpah.)
6. She also wrote (drew?) two coloring books and one illustrated book! The illustrated one, Carry This Book, is a “look at the world around us — all through he framework of what we carry.” The coloring books are a spin-off of that: Color This Book: New York City and Color This Book: San Francisco.
7. Jacobson played Gloria Steinem, Jewish feminist icon, in an episode of Drunk History. It’s narrated by Katie Nolan, and it’s so good:
8. She’s also the voice of Princess Bean on the animated Netflix show Disenchantment. (Which has already been renewed for seasons 2 and 3!)
9. She is a HUGE Phish fan.
10. Even though Broad City is ending after its upcoming fifth season, Abbi & Ilana signed a development deal with Comedy Central, promising much more great TV out of our favorite duo. As Jacobson said, “I hope we have careers long beyond Broad City, but I don’t think there ever will be roles that are as unique for us, because it is a version of us.”
11. Something she has learned? It’s okay if you can’t please everybody. Jacobson told Marie Claire, “You can’t please everybody. It’s something I have to continually remind myself of — especially as the show is about to premiere. Everything is not for everybody, and that’s okay — that’s why there’s so much content. If someone doesn’t like it, I can’t really do much about it.”
12. She’s good pals with D’Arcy Carden (Janet on The Good Place)! Random, but we had to include.
13. Her parents confuse her show character with the real her.
14. Speaking of Instagram, her account is filled with the cutest throwback photos:
15. Her book, I Might Regret This, is the most personal thing she’s ever done. As she explained, “Broad City is pretty personal, but that’s a character. It’s amplified. This book is the closest [to me]. It’s intense! I’d never written in that [essay] format, either. It was challenging, and I finally found a good voice. But it took me a while. It was really difficult.”
16. Abbi and Ilana have always known how Broad City was going to end: “We always knew what would happen in the last scene. We didn’t have the whole season written, we didn’t have all the details, but we knew how it was going to end.”
17. In a “money diary” for Wealthsimple, Abbi explained her first business was selling NFL pencils. She remembers, “My cost on the pencils was maybe a nickel each, and I sold them for a quarter. That’s like a 500 percent markup. And the best thing was that I had no overhead costs…. Supply and demand can be overshadowed by little-kid cuteness. It’s still probably the Jew-iest thing I’ve ever done.” (And this is from someone who starred in a very Jewy TV show.)
18. Really, we just love Abbi Jacobson so much.
