Gillian Jacobs was born on October 19, 1982, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to William F. Jacobs Jr., an investment banker, and Martina Magenau Jacobs, an alumni relations officer at Carnegie Mellon University.
She is an alumnus of Mt. Lebanon High School and the Juilliard School, where she earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts. Jacobs began acting at a young age, attending acting classes at the Pittsburgh Playhouse on weekends.
Gillian made her acting debut at 16 in a stage adaptation of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Pittsburgh Public Theater. She later made her feature film debut in "Building Girl" (2005) and her television debut in "The Book of Daniel" (2006).
In 2006, she appeared in the off-Broadway production "Cagelove", which received negative reviews but praised her acting talent. Her performance in "Nonames" (2010) earned her the Special Jury Award and Copper Wing Award in the Phoenix Film Festival.
Gillian's breakout role came in the TV series "Community" (2009-2015),where she played Britta Perry for six seasons. She also appeared in the HBO series "Girls" (2012) and the Netflix series "Love" (2016-2018).
Gillian has also appeared in several films, including "Choke" (2008),"Gardens of the Night" (2008),"The Box" (2009),"Life Partners" (2014),"Walk of Shame" (2014),"Don't Think Twice" (2016),"Life of the Party" (2018),and "I Used to Go Here" (2020).
In addition to acting, Gillian has also worked as a director. She directed the short documentary "The Queen of Code" (2015) and the short film "Curated" (2018). Her latest directing credit is the short film "Higher, Further, Faster" (2020) for Marvel 616.
Gillian is a teetotaler and has spoken publicly about her decision to never drink alcohol or use drugs. She has also spoken about the impact of her father's addiction on her life and how it has shaped her perspective on acting and life in general.
Gillian has been influenced by several books, including "Go Ask Alice", a young adult novel about a 15-year-old drug addict, and "No Turn Unstoned", a collection of negative reviews of great actors.
