Attention, all TJ Mack shoppers! You’re gonna want to be sitting for this news. Brian Jordan Alvarez, actor, comedian, Archduke of Vulture Festival, and father to a whole menagerie of fictional TikTok characters, is writing and starring in a new workplace comedy series for FX and Hulu. On English Teacher, Alvarez plays a high-school English teacher in Austin “trying to balance the competing demands of the students and their parents in a world where the rules seem to change every day.†Along the way, he’ll deal with bad students and conservative parents and bring in Trixie Mattel for a stint teaching football players how to cheerlead.
In a new trailer that hints at the show’s throwback soundtrack, Alvarez plays Evan Marquez, a teacher who still actually believes in education (Evan: “This job is important to me, I like watching young kids bloom and grow.†Student: “Don’t say that, it sounds creepyâ€) despite an apathetic system and occasional bouts of workplace tokenization. It makes high school seem as scary as ever, even if you’re the adult in the room. “The kids this year, they’re not into being woke anymore,†he tells his work bestie, played by longtime collaborator Stephanie Koenig. “It circled back around, they’re saying the R-word again,†she says. Chilling!
In addition to Koenig, Alvarez will be joined at school by fellow cast/faculty members Carmen Christopher, Jordan Firstman, Langston Kerman, Enrico Colantoni, and Sean Patton. English Teacher will premiere just in time for the return to school with two back-to-back episodes on September 2 at 10 p.m. on FX, streaming on Hulu the next day.
“Brian is an incredibly talented writer, actor, and creator who has fully delivered on his vision,†said the president of FX Entertainment in a statement for Deadline when English Teacher was announced. And we would expect truly nothing less. Longtime followers of Alvarez’s comedy will know that “Texas high school†is the perfect setting for his brand of sharp, funny character comedy. Just look at his “lunchtime teacher supervisor in the South.â€
In addition to starring, Alvarez is executive-producing alongside Jonathan Krisel, Dave King, and Paul Simms, the EP of such solid-gold comedy bangers as Girls, Atlanta, and What We Do in the Shadows. When it premieres this fall, English Teacher seems primed to join them on the honor roll.