Is Nobody Wants This Creator Erin Foster Jewish in Real Life? How Her Conversion Story Differs From Joanne’s
Nobody Wants This fans know the ups and downs of falling someone who falls outside your faith. Now that the Netflix hit is out with a season 2, many are wondering if the show’s creator Erin Foster convert to Judaism.
The story focuses on Joanne (Kristen Bell), a sex and love podcaster, and Noah (Adam Brody), a rabbi who have an unconventional story about falling in love with each other. The two attempt to make it work, but does romance triumph in the end? The story based on a true story, “based on the only good decision I ever made: falling for a nice Jewish boy,” its writer Erin Foster told Tudum.
Is Erin Foster Jewish in real life?
Erin Foster is Jewish in real life and converted to Judaism. She converted to Reform Judaism right before she married her music executive (not rabbi) husband Simon Tikhman after he said he’d only marry a “Jewish woman.” She recalled to Vulture, “I was like, ‘You want me? Great. It’d be fun to be part of something.’”
According to the publication, Foster was the daughter of musician David Foster and enjoyed the life of a convert. “She liked being encouraged to doubt and ask questions, she liked that their rabbi told them their discussions during the car ride home were the most important part of conversion, and she particularly liked hearing that converts were closest to God. She shoots a mock-superior look at Tikhman.”
“It felt like they appreciated my spirit as, opposed to wanting to quiet it,” she told the site. “And that felt really cool to me to be accepted that way.”
As for making the show, she consulted her own rabbi, who “read every script,” she said. “Listen, … I’m sure some Reddit forum could find things that we did wrong if they want to. You have to let a few small things go because it’s TV.”
After the first season of Nobody Wants This aired on Netflix, Foster took the time to address it in the Los Angeles Times. “I think it’s interesting when people focus on, ‘Oh, this is a stereotype of Jewish people,’ when you have a rabbi as the lead. A hot, cool, young rabbi who smokes weed. That’s the antithesis of how people view a Jewish rabbi, right?”
She also defended her decisions in the show. “I was honestly very surprised, and I was disappointed,” she told Vanity Fair. “Find me another Jewish rom-com showing Jewish people in such a positive light, showing the Jewish faith in such a positive light. It’s something that I take very seriously as someone who converted and felt so welcomed by the Jewish community.”
“With the heaviness of what’s going on in the world around the Jewish faith,” she continued, “to have a lighthearted, sweet, happy show that reminds people how beautiful Judaism is — don’t find something wrong with it! Take the win, you know?”
