Nobody Wants This: (L to R) Timothy Simons as Sasha, Jackie Tohn as Esther in episode 202 of Nobody Wants This. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025COURTESY OF NETFLIX
“She is a loyal, strong, opinionated Jewish woman,” Tohn says. “And her brother-in-law just left her best friend for this random girl, and they're already in a serious relationship. You’d be pissed at that, you know?”
Finding the heart of Esther’s disdain for Joanne in season one – mostly out of allegiance to her best friend Rebecca, who is also Noah’s ex – is key to the warmth of Tohn’s performance, but so is the personal Jewishness the actress brings to the role.
Born and raised by Jewish parents in Long Island, New York, Tohn says Judaism is inherent to who she is and evident in everything she does. This would certainly explain why she has been cast to play so many Jewish women throughout her career, from Fran Drescher’s sassy younger cousin in The Nanny to the quick-witted Melrose in GLOW.
“When Mel Brooks delivers lines as a Jewish person, you’re not wondering if he grew up Episcopalian,” she says. “Similarly, I am definitely bringing my Jewishness to Esther. It’s who I am and sort of what pours out of me whenever I open my big trap.”
Nobody Wants This. (L to R) Adam Brody as Noah, Timothy Simons as Sasha, Kristen Bell as Joanne, Jackie Tohn as Esther in episode 209 of Nobody Wants This. Cr. Erin Simkin/Netflix © 2025ERIN SIMKIN/NETFLIX
Put another way, it has not been difficult for Tohn to get into character for Nobody Wants This. When Esther’s daughter Miriam frets over the fusty red dress she’s forced to wear to her bat mitzvah in the final episode of season one, Tohn drew from her own bat mitzvah experience in which she too had a less-than-ideal outfit.
“I wore an ivory tuxedo with a fuchsia cummerbund and bow tie that we rented from the local tuxedo shop in Oceanside, Long Island – it was my mom’s idea,” she says. “It was a rented tux for little boys. We had to get it dry cleaned and return it two days later.”
It’s this reservoir of knowledge and experience gleaned through a Jewish upbringing, embarrassing bat mitzvah memories included, that has also given Tohn an advantage when it comes to delivering Yiddish phrases. She’s even given fellow Jew Adam Brody ad-hoc lessons in pronouncing certain words.
“There’d be some Yiddish here and there and Adam [Brody] would be like, ‘How do I say this?’ And then I'd tell him, but I'd call my mom to be sure,” Tohn says. “And so my mom is then on speaker with Adam and it's just all very homey and sweet and warm.”
For Tohn, representing a lovable Jew in Nobody Wants This seems to yield increasingly delightful returns – like getting gifts from the Jewish deli Zabar’s and being sent merch from Yiddish Dad Hats.
"I wore one of those hats in front of a friend the other day, and she said ‘you’ve really manifested some life for yourself. Someone messaged you on the internet because of your Jewish TV show where you play a very Jewish person so they could send you a Yiddish hat that says ‘schlepping.’
"It was a really cute pinch-me moment – as in yes, I did manifest this.”
Season two of Nobody Wants This is available on Netflix from October 23
