Brian Jordan Alvarez

Brian Jordan Alvarez (born July 9, 1987)^[1][2] is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for creating and starring in the FX comedy series English Teacher.^[3] He is also known for his original songs, recurring roles as Estéfan in Will & Grace (2018–2020) and Wesley in Jane the Virgin (2015–2016), appearances in such films as M3GAN and 80 for Brady, and his own self-produced films and series, most notably his 2016 web series The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo.^[4]

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Alvarez was born in Manhattan, New York City to Paul Jordan and Angela Jordan Alvarez, an electrical engineer and Spanish instructor, respectively.^[5][6] He has a sister, Catalina.^[6] He is of Colombian descent matrilineally and has roots from the American South from the other side of his family. He speaks Spanish fluently.^[6][7]

He spent his childhood in Winchester, Tennessee,^[7] where he began acting and making movies.^[5] In middle school, he was teased and bullied for his sexuality.^[4] He went on to attend Saint Andrew's Sewanee School and then the high school program at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.^[5][8] Heavily involved in his school's theater program, he continued to study acting at the USC School of Dramatic Arts.^[4] He graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting and settled down in Los Angeles the following year.^[9]

In 2012, Alvarez collaborated with CollegeHumor on an episode titled "Gay Men Will Marry Your Girlfriends".^{[10][non-primary source needed]} He has performed roles in several television shows including: Will & Grace, Hot in Cleveland, Life in Pieces, Jane the Virgin, Go-Go Boy Interrupted, and 2 Broke Girls.^[4] In October 2014, he was cast in a supporting role in the MTV scripted comedy pilot Self Promotion.^[11] The show, directed by Zach Braff, was ultimately not picked up by the network.^[12]

In 2016, Alvarez wrote, produced, directed and starred in the five-part web comedy series The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo. The series played at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival as part of its New Online Work.^[13] The series was nominated for the Gotham Award for Breakthrough Series – Shortform and was named Indiewire's number-one web series for the year.^[13][14]

Alvarez played the recurring role of Estéfan Gloria, Jack McFarland's fiancé and later husband, in all three seasons of the 2010s revival of NBC's Will & Grace.^[15] In August 2020, it was announced Alvarez was cast in the Netflix quarantine anthology series Social Distance. He appeared in the episode "Zero Feet Away" opposite Max Jenkins.^[16] Alvarez has also made appearances on Australian television due to his ability to do a convincing Australian accent.^[17]

Alvarez has gained prominence for his viral videos on Instagram and TikTok, in which he often portrays a rotating cast of absurdist characters using thick accents and distorting facial filters.^[18] In September 2023, he posted a video featuring his character TJ Mack performing an improvised song titled "Sitting", which quickly became an online sensation, accumulating millions of views and being remixed and covered by fans in various genres.^[19][20][21] Versions of "Sitting" have appeared on the radio in both the United States and Australia, and Vanity Fair has described it as possibly 2023's "song of the summer."^[21][22] In November 2024, he went viral for daily shirtless dancing videos promoting his show English Teacher.^[23]

In November 2023, it was announced that FX had ordered Alvarez's 2022 English Teacher comedy pilot to series. Alvarez created the series and stars as the protagonist, an English teacher working at a high school in Austin, Texas.^[24] He is also a writer, director, and producer on the show.^[25] In September 2024, the first season premiered to critical acclaim.^[26]

While a student at University of Southern California, Alvarez allegedly stalked one of his female friend's boyfriend who later filed a no-contact order against him. Another student alleged that Alvarez groped him without consent, saying, "It got to the point where I was so uncomfortable I didn’t want to be in the same room with him".^[27][28][29] In August 2024, Alvarez's The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo co-star Jon Ebeling, who played Billy in the series, posted an Instagram Story alluding to having been sexually assaulted by Alvarez, comparing his experiences working with him to the plot of the Netflix series Baby Reindeer.^[30] Ebeling filed a sexual assault report against Alvarez with the Los Angeles Police Department the following month. A story published by Vulture in December 2024 alleged that Alvarez sexually assaulted Ebeling by performing nonconsensual oral sex on him during the shooting of a 2016 episode. Alvarez denied the story through a spokesperson alleging that "all interactions with Ebeling were always entirely consensual" and that he believed the 2016 incident to be consensual because of their prior sexual history.^[31][32][33]