‘English Teacher’s Brian Jordan Alvarez And Stephanie Koenig Know Their FX Comedy Was Worth The Wait: “Can You Believe We’re Here?”

Brian Jordan Alvarez and Stephanie Koenig have been creative collaborators for years, but with FX’s English Teacher, the real-life best friends took their professional and personal relationships to the next level.

Since meeting in their early 20s, the two built dedicated fanbases through YouTube, social media, television, and film. Among the various projects the dynamic duo co-starred in, Alvarez’s beloved 2016 web series, The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo, is not only the standout, but what ultimately opened the door for English Teacher‘s development at FX.

After failing to successfully navigate the system, Alvarez essentially gave up hope of creating television at a big studio level. Then writer and producer Paul Simms (Atlanta, What We Do In The Shadows) watched Caleb Gallo five years after its YouTube premiere, reached out to Alvarez for a meeting, and promised to show him the ropes. Now, English Teacher — a workplace comedy about Evan Marquez (Alvarez), an openly gay high school English teacher in the South — is being hailed as one of 2024’s best new shows. The high-scale series was a long time coming, but Alvarez and Koenig are confident it was worth the wait.

“I’m best friends with Brian. I think he’s an absolute star; one of the funniest people that I know. I knew he could do it. And I really wanted to make sure I was on the show,” Koenig told Decider in July while promoting the series at the Television Critics Association’s Summer 2024 press tour in Pasadena, California. In addition to playing Gwen, Morrison-Hensley High School’s history teacher and Evan’s best friend, Koenig serves as a writer and story editor on the FX series.

While speaking at the press tour on his 37th birthday, Alvarez took a moment to praise Koenig’s work on both sides of the camera. “I could not be more grateful to have her as a friend and collaborator. She was brilliant in the writers’ room. We’ve taken so many amazing trips together,” he told Decider. “Sometimes in life you just find somebody that you’re so happy you found. She’s really not only a deeply special and kind person, but a sublimely talented actress. I’m so happy to have her in every part of my life.”

Alvarez felt that a high school was an “interesting, non-homogeneous world” in which to set his show, but he also took inspiration from people and experiences in his own life when crafting storylines and characters. In addition to having great English teachers himself (shoutout Tom Gladstone and Phil White), Alvarez’s mother and sister are both educators. Growing up in rural Tennessee and attending high school in a more liberal area of the conservative state helped inform the series, which is set in Austin, Texas. And while Alvarez starred on big and small screens in Will & Grace, M3gan, and more, he feels his chronically online career is what helped cultivate the show’s undeniable timeliness.

“I think being very online is a big part of the flavor of the show, because, at best, the show really does feel like the current moment. And it’s sort of showing how right now, it’s different than it’s ever been, but it’s also the same as it’s always been,” Alvarez explained. “Having a real foot in the internet space — TikTok, Instagram, Twitter — I do feel present with the ever-shifting tides of this moment, and I enjoy getting to put those into scripts. What’s great is you can ask questions and look at things from different angles. You don’t have to come down on one way of looking at things.”

That refusal to explore political issues from a single perspective while weaving humor into serious topics like LGBTQ+ rights and gun control is what helps English Teacher uniquely subvert expectations. “The show is absolutely in present day. So anything going on out there is going on in the show,” Alvarez confirmed. “We love looking at news articles and making sure that we’re staying relevant,” Koenig added. “And if we have ideas [that we] don’t know will age well, we like always try to ask, ‘How can this topic be told in a year from now and still be relevant?’ It’s a nice art that we try to aspire to.”

In addition to Alvarez and Koenig, English Teacher stars Sean Patton as gym teacher Markie Hillridge, Carmen Christopher as college counselor Rick, Enrico Colantoni as Principal Grant Moretti, and more. The classrooms are also full of A+ young talent, including TikTok star and singer Aliyah’s Interlude, Sofia Coppola and Thomas Mars’s daughter Romy Mars, and Austin actor and comedian Ben Bondurant.

English Teacher‘s first two episodes premiered on FX Sept. 2, and as the debut season progresses, fans can expect everything from a homecoming dance to a school safety episode, plus “a lot of very funny drama,” per Alvarez. Koenig also teased a character named Sharon, played by Andrene Ward-Hammond, who will almost certainly become a fan-favorite. “She had made me break more than anybody. I was crying because we were laughing so hard. It almost ended up — there was a scene where [she was like] ‘Are you crying, girl?’ Because we couldn’t keep together. I couldn’t, because she’s so funny,” Koenig said.

While English Teacher shares the heart and humor of past Alvarez and Koenig collabs, in many ways, it’s unlike anything they’ve done before — a reality that’s only brought these friends closer. “Change is good,” Koenig said. “There’s a lot more people on set, so in a way, it fully enriched us and it made us stronger as friends. We are always looking at each other and checking in. And we’re always on a positive side. Almost every day we’re going, ‘Can you believe we’re here? Can you believe all these people are here?’ It’s nuts, because we had to do that all ourselves — the lights and everything.”

Koenig shared that English Teacher is already “pushing” for future seasons, with dreams of tapping into the longevity of shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. “I am completely ready to make as much of this show as is humanly possible,” Alvarez confirmed. “I’m very excited for the future.”

“So many brilliant people have worked on this show, and it’s grown slowly and so beautifully over time. When I look at it now, I just see so many amazing voices,” he said. “I see this show as the fruit of so much deep, sometimes calm, sometimes frantic work. And when I watch it now, I’m just so grateful. I really love the show and I hope other people do too.”

New episodes of English Teacher premiere Mondays at 10:00 p.m. ET on FX with next-day streaming on Hulu.