Lena Dunham Renaissance, here we come!
Earlier this week, Vanity Fair debuted a first look at the “Girls” creator’s upcoming and extremely hyped Netflix show “Too Much.” The rom-com series will be Dunham’s first major return to TV since “Girls” ended in 2017. It’s a semi-autobiographical series which follows Jessica (Megan Stalter) as she moves to London following the break-up of a relationship she thought would last forever. There, she immediately meets Felix (Will Sharpe) and thus starts a whirlwind romance that, according to the synopsis “creates more problems than it fixes.”
“This is a show that is very close to my heart,” Dunham said in a press release, citing that she created it with her husband Luis Felber. Felber, like Dunham, is also Jewish. She also credited the work of Jewish filmmakers Nora Ephron, Mike Nichols, Nancy Meyers and Elaine May as being aspirational to her, and what made her want to make movies. (Or, in this case, TV.)
While there’s not too much information yet about whether “Too Much,” will incorporate any of Dunham’s Jewishness, my first impression is that the cast itself is extremely Jewish. So, before the show debuts this summer, get to know the Jewish cast members of “Too Much.”
In no particular order…
Lena Dunham plays Jessica’s sister. While Dunham isn’t religious, she has described herself as “culturally Jewish.” In 2017 she posted on Instagram about connecting to her Judaism in the wake of the death of her grandmother Dorothy through the work of Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai. And in 2021, she married husband Luis Felber in a Jewish ceremony.
Just last year she starred in the movie “Treasure,” playing a Jewish woman named Ruth on a trip to Poland with her Holocaust survivor father.
Michael Zegen plays Jessica’s ex. According to Dunham, this character is not a portrait of her famous ex-boyfriend, Jewish producer Jack Antonoff. Still, Zegen is perhaps best known for playing a different ex, namely, Joel Maisel is “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” “I don’t want to get type-cast, but at the same time, if a character’s good, a character’s good,” Zegen said to Hey Alma in 2019 about playing Jews. “I don’t know if I’m necessarily drawn to Jewish characters, but I probably am subconsciously. I understand it, it’s something that comes naturally to me.”
His mother was born in a displaced persons camp in Austria following World War II, and his maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Earlier this year, he married actress Jennifer Damiano in a Jewish ceremony.
Emily Ratajkowski plays Jessica’s ex’s new girlfriend. She is Jewish via her mother’s side of the family.
Janicza Bravo plays one of Jessica’s co-workers. Bravo spoke to Hey Alma in 2021 about learning of her Sephardic Jewish roots as a child and the push and pull relationship she’s had with Jewishness ever since. In 2017, the filmmaker co-wrote and directed the movie “Lemon” with her then-husband Brett Gelman about a failed Jewish actor which includes an excruciating Passover seder sequence. Bravo has previously worked with Lena Dunham on the 2022 movie “Sharp Stick” and directs the eighth episode of “Too Much.”
Leo Reich plays another of Jessica’s co-workers. The British comedian rocketed into the spotlight in 2023 after his stand-up special “Literally Who Cares” debuted on Max. “I do this as representation,” he joked in the special. “You know I’m one of the first ever Jewish people to try stand-up comedy?” He grew up in a culturally Jewish family in Islington, London.
Rhea Perlman plays Dottie, Jessica’s grandma. Perlman was born in Brooklyn to a Polish and Russian Jewish family. Though her most notable role was playing Carla Tortellini in “Cheers,” Perlman’s resume is loaded with Jewish matriarchs. This includes Ruth Handler in “Barbie,” Matt’s mom in “The Studio,” Grandma Ruth in “13: The Musical,” Bubby in “You People,” Esther in “Lemon” and now, Dottie in “Too Much.”
According to Dunham, Perlman’s character is named after her own grandmother, Dottie. “I brought in pictures of my grandmother, of her outfits, of her house,” Dunham told Vanity Fair. “It was like the alternative version of reality, if my mom and grandma and I had just fully ‘Grey Gardens’ed-in instead of expanding into the world — which could have happened, don’t get me wrong.”
Stephen Fry’s character has yet to be announced! The British actor wrote in his autobiography that he grew up with no religion, but that his mother Marianne was Jewish, having been born to Hungarian Jews who emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1927. In a 2006 episode of the BBC show “Who Do You Think You Are?,” Fry connected with his Jewish roots more, learning about various relatives who perished in the Riga Ghetto, Auschwitz and the Stuthoff concentration camp. In 2023, he more fully embraced his Jewish identity during an address on the BBC.
“I’ve been on lists of British Jews that some ultra-right wing newspapers and sites have published over the years. And I’m frankly damned if I’ll let antisemites be the ones who define me, and take ownership of the word ‘Jew’, injecting it with their own spiteful venom,” he said, condemning antisemitism. “So I accept and claim the identity with pride, I am Stephen Fry, and I am a Jew.”
Fry previously starred opposite Lena Dunham in the movie “Treasure,” playing a Holocaust survivor.
Finally, I’d be remiss not to give an honorable mention to Naomi Watts. Naomi will be guest starring as the wife of Jessica’s boss. While Naomi is not Jewish, she is the mother of trans Jewish model Kai Schreiber.
“Too Much” debuts on Netflix on July 10.
