Brian Jordan Alvarez shares his experiences creating and starring in English Teacher

Brian Jordan Alvarez joined us to share his experience in creating, writing, producing and acting in the FX tv series English Teacher which has fast picked up an already loyal fanbase. He immediately had a strong idea for the story he wanted to tell on screen and felt it was important from the very beginning to center on characters who all mean well and are simply doing their best with the tools they have.

He spoke about the writers room and how they navigate not only creating narrative setups for these characters, but also the importance of always seeing how many jokes they can fit into a scene. He loves the idea of people rewatching episodes and finding even more humor in each rewatch.

Among his many collaborators is Stephanie Koenig who he met several years ago and worked with on past projects including a web series they collaborated on. He shared how much of a gift it is to have her both acting in the series as Gwen and also writing for the show.

As well as creating the show, Alvarez is also a creator on social media and shared how a lip sync, dance video he made fast become a social media trend and also in turn great marketing for the show. The ‘I love your daughter’ trend on tiktok has been led by him and is now something he tries to do daily and seems to only keep growing, just as the fanbase for the show itself.

Watch the full conversation below:

Q&A on the FX series English Teacher with actor/creator/showrunner/director Brian Jordan Alvarez. Moderated by Mara Webster, In Creative Company.

English Teacher follows Evan, a gay high school English teacher, and his coworkers as they try to balance the demands of the students and their parents.