Gillian Jacobs

From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Actress

Biography

Gillian Jacobs (pronounced Gill-e-en) is an American stage and film actress. Jacobs grew up in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania suburb of Mt. Lebanon. She made her name locally at the Pittsburgh Public Theater. There she was a perennial contender in the Public's Shakespeare Monologue Contest, which led to her being cast as Titania in their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. After graduating from Mt. Lebanon High School in 2000, Jacobs moved to New York to study acting at Juilliard. Jacobs's first national exposure came in her recurring role as Adele Congreve on the television series The Book of Daniel. Although she played Kimberly in the pilot Traveler, the role was recast when ABC picked up the show. In 2006, Jacobs starred off-broadway in Chris Denham's cagelove. While overall critical reaction to the play was negative, Jacobs earned praise in several reviews. The New York Times advised readers to "make sure to remember the name of Gillian Jacobs, a stunning Juilliard graduate who has the glow of a star in the making". Among her other theater credits are The Fabulous Life of a Size Zero (2007) and The Little Flower of East Orange (2008), directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Jacobs's film work includes Gardens of the Night (2007); writer-director Adam Rapp's Blackbird (2007); and Choke (2008), based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel.