Editorial note: Slight spoilers ahead for season four of “The Bear.”
If there’s one thing I can always count on when it comes to “The Bear,” I know that it’s going to have amazing guest stars. Since season two of the Emmy award-winning culinary dramedy, actors like John Mulaney, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk and Olivia Colman have lent their talents to “The Bear.” Season four, which premiered last week, is no different.
For Jewish fans of the show, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and, briefly, Molly Gordon provided the cast with some Jewish talent. (No, Jeremy Allen White who plays Carmy is not Jewish.) But what about this jam-packed slate of guest stars? Are any of them Jewish as well?
The answer is yes! In no particular order, here are the new and returning guest stars on season four of “The Bear.”
Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Donna Berzatto, Carmy’s mother. Last season, Natalie (Abby Elliott) was forced to call her estranged mom for help when she started to give birth and couldn’t get ahold of any other family. Now, in season four, it seems that Donna and Carmy might have their moment of reconciliation. (If you’re unsure why they need to reconcile, might I suggest you watch season two episode “Fishes.”) Curtis won an Emmy for her performance in this role in 2024.
She is Jewish via her father Tony Curtis’ side of the family. (Her father was born Bernard Schwartz, the son of Hungarian Jewish immigrants.) In 2021, she shared that she was helping to revitalize the synagogue in Mateszalka, Hungary, her grandparents’ hometown.
Jon Bernthal returns as Mikey Berzatto, Carmy’s brother and the owner of The Original Beef of Chicagoland. (The restaurant that would become The Bear.) In the first episode of the season, we see a flashback where Carmy inspires Mikey to open up The Original Beef. Like Curtis, Bernthal won an Emmy for his performance in “The Bear” in 2024.
Though Bernthal hasn’t spoken publicly about his Jewish ancestry, his grandfather was Jewish music producer Murray Bernthal.
Kate Berlant plays an Al-Anon attendee named Georgie. In episode five, Carmy attends an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting where Georgia shares about her brother, who is an alcoholic. According to “The Daily Beast,” Berlant’s four-minute monologue is “the best part” of the season.
Kate is Jewish via her father, artist Tony Berlant. In the past, she has, jokingly, described herself as looking like a “Jewish broom meets Kathryn Hahn.”
Rob Reiner plays Albert, a business mentor for Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson). While everyone else at “The Bear” is dealing with fine dining since The Bear opened, Ebraheim has been tasked with manning The Beef sandwich window at the back of the restaurant. Things have been going well, so this season, Ebraheim hopes to expand on his success with the help of Albert.
Reiner is a filmmaker and actor known for directing “This Is Spinal Tap,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “The Princess Bride” and more. His first credit, though, is being the son of Jewish comedy legend Carl Reiner. He was bar mitzvahed as a kid and has spoken about how Jewishness is reflected in his work.
“It’s my sensibility,” he told JTA in 2017. “I’m a Jew. I was raised a Jew. I value honesty and integrity and knowledge and education and all those values I was raised with.”
Brian Koppelman returns as The Computer, Uncle Jimmy’s (Oliver Platt) business associate known for crunching numbers. The Computer is often the bearer of bad news and hard financial truths for The Bear, and that remains true this season. In addition to “The Bear,” Koppelman is known for co-creating the show “Billions” and co-writing “Ocean’s Thirteen” and “Rounders.”
Koppelman was born to Jewish parents Brenda “Bunny” Koppelman and Charles Koppelman. His father Charles was a musician and music producer. Koppelman is married to author Amy Koppelman, who is also Jewish.
Adam Shapiro returns as Adam Shapiro. In the world of “The Bear,” real-life chefs sometimes play themselves. In Adam Shapiro’s case, he is an actor playing a chef who is named after him. (You can see his explanation here for why that is.) In season three, Shapiro offers Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) the head chef role at his new restaurant. In this season, that drama continues.
