Editor’s note: Lily Lester is the Audience Engagement Editor for the Nosher, which is part of Hey Alma’s parent company, 70 Faces Media. And yes, we’re very proud of her.
Perhaps you’ve seen Lily Lester on TikTok with her sharp stand-up clips and witty commentary. Maybe you’ve seen her pop up in the viral videos of other content creators like “Gaydar” with Anania or brands like the New York Jewish Week. Maybe you’ve seen her in a recurring role on FX’s “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette.” Or maybe you’ve seen her on your work video calls (just us?).
Regardless of where you might’ve encountered this Jewish actress and comedian before, however, we think you’ll be seeing a lot more of her in the not-so-distant future. (And yes, we’re a little biased when we say that. But it’s still true!!)
Here are 18 things to know about her.
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1. Lily was born on January 26, 1998.
2. She’s an Aquarius!
3. Lily comes from a family of actors and creatives! Her parents are actors Kelly Lester (aka Linda from “Dying for Sex” and Judge Katharine Miller on “Law & Order”) and Loren Lester (from the 2024 revival of “Cabaret” on Broadway, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and more).
Her uncle Lucas Richman is a composer and conductor, having conducted the film scores for “Se7en,” “Anastasia,” the 2004 adaption of “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl” and more. And her grandfather was actor Peter Mark Richman, perhaps best known as Nick Cain in the movies “The Murder Men” and “The Crimebusters.”
4. Meanwhile, her sisters are Jenny Lester, writer and actress from “What She Said,” and Julia Lester, who you might recognize as Ashlyn Caswell from “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” and Little Red Riding Hood in the 2022 Broadway revival of “Into the Woods,” for which she was nominated for a Tony.
4. She grew up in Los Angeles.
5. Lily graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2019 with a BFA in Musical Theater.
6. She is a world champion of a cappella! As a member of N’Harmonics, Lily won the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella in 2019.
7. She loves being Jewish, and also has thoughts about why Judaism is kinda like OCD.
8. Lily has extremely astute observations about Brooklyn:
@thelilylester Grateful to be a fraction of 2 of these things
9. Lily has starred in “The Great Lesbian Love of Eve Adams,” a play about early 20th century Jewish lesbian trailblazer Eve Adams. Eve ran a speakeasy, wrote lesbian literature, spoke five languages and wore pants!
10. In an essay for Hey Alma, Lily wrote about how playing Eve helped connect her to her own queerness.
“When Eve came into my life through [the play], I was just beginning to understand the depth of my own affection. And when I read the script, though it was a first draft, I was moved to tears,” Lily wrote. “Here was Eve, a woman begging for a chance to live just as herself, to walk around the world in the clothes she desired and to love whomever she loved. And there I was, a young pants-wearing woman, learning what love might really be. And I was just allowed to learn with another woman. The casual nature of my queerness was the very thing Eve had dreamed was possible, and though she was never able to live her truth without consequences, in part thanks to her legacy, I have the chance to live mine.”
11. People have told Lily she’s “Broad City-coded.” We’ll let her explain for herself how she feels about that:
@thelilylester usually they don’t even know why they’re saying it
12. As a comedian, she has performed at the New York Comedy Club, the New York Comedy Festival, West Side Comedy and more!
13. She previously co-ran her own comedy show called Mishegoss Comedy, featuring comics such as Liza Treyger, Molly Kearney, Chloe Troast and Lucas Zelnick.
14. In Ryan Murphy’s show “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette,” Lily plays JFK Jr.’s assistant Rosemarie Terenzio. Swipe for behind-the-scenes content:
15. “Love Story” is Lily’s “first big gig.”
“Paul [Anthony Kelly] was the best. He and Sarah [Pidgeon] both set such a great tone every day we were shooting. I immediately felt at ease,” she tells Hey Alma of her co-stars. “Also Paul had met up with the real Rosemarie a couple of times and told me all about her. She seems like the coolest person ever.”
16. Lily prepared for her role by reading Rosemarie Terenzio’s books “JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography” and “Fairytale, Interrupted.”
“[The books] really gave me a sense of how close they were in real life. Not only was she JFK Jr.’s personal assistant, but she also became Carolyn’s close confidante,” Lily explains, adding, “We’ve DM’d a couple times ~not to brag~.”
17. Lily says that “Love Story” costume designer Rudy Mance was meticulous about replicating each character’s look exactly. In episode seven, Lily wears the exact pair of shoes Rosemarie once wore to a gala.
18. And to end on an adorable note, are the Lester sisters the next Haim?! Only time will tell…
