Gillian Jacobs

Gillian MacLaren Jacobs is an American actress and director. She is best known for playing Britta Perry in the sitcom Community and Mickey Dobbs in the Netflix romantic comedy series Love. Throughout her career, she has appeared in numerous television series, feature films, and theatrical productions, while also expanding into directing and podcast hosting.

Jacobs was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 19, 1982. She is the daughter of college administrator Martina Magenau and investment banker William Francis Jacobs III. After her parents divorced when she was two years old, she was raised by her mother in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Her maternal grandfather, John Martin Magenau Jr., was the president and CEO of the family-owned Erie Brewing Company until the business closed in 1978.

Jacobs began her acting training at age eight with weekend classes at the Pittsburgh Playhouse and performed with the Pittsburgh Public Theater, competing regularly in its Shakespeare Monologue Contest. After graduating from Mt. Lebanon High School in 2000, she moved to New York City to attend the Juilliard School, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2004.

Jacobs made early television appearances in series such as The Book of Daniel, Fringe, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and gained critical praise for her work in the 2006 Off-Off-Broadway play cagelove. She continued her stage work with productions including The Fabulous Life of a Size Zero, A Feminine Ending, and The Little Flower of East Orange. In 2009, she joined the cast of Community as Britta Perry, starring in the show across its runs on NBC and Yahoo! Screen until 2015.

Following her work on Community, Jacobs played Mimi-Rose Howard in the HBO series Girls and Mickey Dobbs in Love. She has held additional television roles in projects such as the animated series Invincible as Atom Eve, the miniseries Transatlantic as Mary Jayne Gold, and the comedy-drama series The Bear as Tiffany Jerimovich. Her voice acting also includes work on the animated show Monsters vs. Aliens.

Her film credits include Gardens of the Night, Choke, The Box, Revenge for Jolly!, Bad Milo!, Walk of Shame, Life Partners, Don't Think Twice, Lemon, Ibiza, I Used to Go Here, and Netflix's Fear Street trilogy. As a director, she helmed the short documentary The Queen of Code in 2015, the narrative short Curated in 2018, and an episode of Marvel's 616 in 2020. In 2021, she launched the STEM podcast Periodic Talks as co-host.

In her personal life, Jacobs chooses not to drink alcohol or use recreational drugs due to a family history of addiction. She is in a relationship with Christopher Storer.