Get to Know Brian Jordan Alvarez, Star and Creator of the Breakout Queer Sitcom 'English Teacher'

Lockdown-Accelerated Fame

Alvarez told Time magazine he'd been interested in making thoughtfully planned, highly produced comedy sketches, "but then COVID strikes and I'm in my apartment with the same creative impulses that I've always had, and it made me just think, 'I'm gonna just put a filter on and be funny.'"

During the lockdown period when creators were confined to their homes, and their audience was too, with TikTok popping off, Alvarez decided not to overthink content creation and put out some silly little characters to make his followers laugh. The enthusiastic response from his audience – who could not get enough of his improvised videos as super-specific characters with deep lore that eventually grew to span years and multiple filters, each with corresponding wigs – inspired him to keep going, developing his own cinematic universe inside our phones. Then came the music!

TJ Mack's hit song "Sitting"

@brianjordanalvarez SITTING 🗣️🗣️🗣️🎶🎶🎶

♬ original sound - Brian Jordan Alvarez

With a quick improvised song, Alvarez harnessed the power of what Vulture called "Silly Song Summer" (the chaotic period soundtracked by "Padam Padam," "I'm Just Ken," and "Planet of the Bass") and dropped a song about one of life's greatest simple pleasures: sitting. When his upbeat character, TJ Mack, an enthusiastic husband who loves his wife and has the most fantastic, contagious laugh that bubbles up into his conversations, posted this song, Alvarez inspired countless fellow creatives - illustrators who animated lyric videos to the song, concert pianists who performed classic covers of the song, multiple fully produced remixes - and got radio play both in the States and in Australia, where he has gone viral for his remarkably accurate Aussie accent (more on that below!). It's a vibe, it's a hit, it's an anthem. When TJ Mack says it, you'll never forget: "Sittingm is the opposite of standimg, sittim is the opposite of runnim aroun." Vulture may have hit the nail on the head when they wrote: "We've all improvised this kind of nonsense to our pets, except now we, the viewers, are the pets."

@brianjordanalvarez Sublime sitting cover by @Isabel Schwartzbach ♬ original sound - Brian Jordan Alvarez

@brianjordanalvarez Gorgeous musical theater cover of SITTING performed by @NIC ♬ original sound - Brian Jordan Alvarez

Rick the Australian Bodybuilder Goes Viral in Australia

Alvarez has a wide range of characters you'll encounter if you visit his Youtube channel or TikTok account, and we highly recommend that you do! There's the student (pronounced "studempt") who is in America for his mathematical-equation-related "internshit" who delivers optimistic updates from his time abroad; there's a phenomenal rendition of your out-of-touch-rich Southern aunt who can't and won't stop mentioning how rich she is; and there's Australian bodybuilder Rick. HuffPost Australia wrote that "Actor Brian Jordan Alvarez has done what even three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep could not: perfect the Australian accent." Hilariously, he was not aware his accent work was that good, explaining that "A few years ago I watched a lot of episodes of 'Australia's Next Top Model,' and that's when I really started getting into it."

What's Next for Brian Jordan Alvarez?

With the way "English Teacher" is being received with equal exuberance by critics, TJ Mack fans, and the wider public who are just being introduced to all that great, gay talent that radiates from the comedian, this quote from Alvarez's 2018 interview with the LA Review of Books still hits hardest: "When I asked him what he wants to do next, he immediately replied: 'Make something with a big scope.'"

He wants to be a traditional movie star – but an openly gay one – who revels in making gigantic, fantastic, mind-blowing studio movies. Think "Mission: Impossible" but with a gay lead. As he puts it, "I want to make the best work I can. I'm gay and I'm not going to be in the closet when I make that work." Six years after he was quoted in that interview saying, "We are here, expanding the space for queer people," he continues to do so. A decade into a wonderful career that is equal parts joyous and groundbreaking, Brian Jordan Alvarez is just getting started.