Career
Jacobs starred in the television series The Book of Daniel. Although she played Kim in the pilot of Traveler, the role was given to Pascale Hutton when ABC acquired the series; the series was canceled after eight episodes. Jacobs subsequently made guest appearances on Fringe and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. In 2006, she starred in an Off-Off-Broadway production of Christopher Denham's cagelove. While overall critical reaction to the play was negative, Jacobs earned praise in several reviews. The New York Times advised readers to "remember the name of Gillian Jacobs, a stunning Juilliard graduate who has the glow of a star in the making".
Jacobs has appeared in theatrical productions, such as The Fabulous Life of a Size Zero (2007), A Feminine Ending (2007), and The Little Flower of East Orange (2008). In March 2009, she joined the cast of the NBC single-camera comedy series Community as Britta Perry, a high school dropout who aspires to become a psychologist. Her film work includes Blackbird (2007), Choke (2008), Gardens of the Night (2008), The Box (2009), Revenge for Jolly! (2012), Bad Milo! (2013), Walk of Shame (2014), The Lookalike (2014), Life Partners (2014), Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015), Visions (2015), Don't Think Twice (2016), and Brother Nature (2016). She voiced Sta'abi in the Nickelodeon animated series Monsters vs. Aliens and Atom Eve in the Amazon Prime animated series Invincible.
Community was canceled by NBC on May 9, 2014, and later that month, it was reported that Jacobs had landed a recurring role as Mimi-Rose Howard in the fourth season of the HBO series Girls. In June 2014, Yahoo! Screen picked up Community for a sixth season. It was announced on September 16, 2014, that Jacobs was set to star as Mickey in the Netflix original comedy series Love.
Jacobs directed the 2015 documentary short The Queen of Code about computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral Grace Hopper. In 2017, Jacobs co-starred in Janicza Bravo's first full length feature, Lemon, which debuted at Sundance Film Festival. In 2018, she directed Curated, a narrative film short, as a part of a series produced by TNT and Refinery29.
In 2020, Jacobs starred in the comedy-drama film I Used to Go Here. She directed the episode "Higher, Further, Faster" for the documentary series Marvel's 616.
In February 2021, she and co-host Diona Reasonover premiered a STEM-focused podcast, Periodic Talks, on Stitcher Radio. In July 2021, she had a supporting role in the Fear Street horror film trilogy on Netflix as Christine "Ziggy" Berman.
Since 2023, she has guest starred in eight episodes of the television series The Bear, playing Tiffany Jerimovich. In May 2026, Hulu released Gary, a standalone special episode of The Bear streaming separately from the rest of the show's catalogue. The episode, written by stars Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Jon Bernthal, is set before the events of the series. Jacobs reprises her role from The Bear for the special.
