jesse ferrin

Kenneth and Ayla Ferrin would have never imagined when their second child was born that he’d someday wind up in the business of show, but one way or another, that was exactly what happened. Jesse Amos Ferrin was born in the middle of summer of 1985 and was a showman as soon as he could walk. This made him very much the opposite of Kayla, his elder sister, who tended towards being more soft spoken and shy. Jesse was a jokester from the moment he understood the concept of laughter and at five years old, he discovered applause. It was a Christmas play that helped him find his love for performing — somewhat ironic, considering his half-Jewish upbringing. He learned every word of the production when he was cast as the understudy for Santa Claus and put it on nightly for his parents and sister in anticipation of getting to go on stage, but Jesse’s Santa Claus would never see a proper audience and that only fueled him to keep going. Eventually, after a class at a local playhouse, he began getting speaking roles in local productions and roles in school plays where he wasn’t only an understudy. By the time he was ten, he was getting fairly regular roles and in his early teens, his mother quit her job to begin managing him after he booked his first paying gig in a local commercial.

When Jesse was fifteen, his parents decided to divorce. It was heavily implied by his father that a major reason things were no longer working out between he and Ayla was the amount of time and money she had begun spending in order to help Jesse’s career along. The divorce itself was messy, no prenup and a decent amount of money involved. Needless to say, it weighed heavily on Jesse’s mind to think that it was his fault that his parents had wound up in this situation and it became a little more difficult for him to find that passion for acting that he’d had to start. His mother wouldn’t let him give up though. No point in quitting now, so when he graduated he moved to Los Angeles with her.

By this point, his father had essentially cut him off financially, especially after his SAT scores had been good enough to get him into practically any college he wanted. He was determined to make the acting thing work, but keeping himself and his mother with a roof over their heads was also of major importance and her alimony checks only went so far. The acting scene in LA was predictably far more intense than it had been back home and audition after audition was met with lukewarm responses. Jesse got used to hearing that he didn’t seem nerdy enough to play the nerd and he wasn’t cool enough to play the cool kid. It didn’t seem as though there was a sweet spot for him in all of Hollywood and his optimism was only taking him so far. Things began getting to the point where he was working so much that he hardly even had time to audition, but he tried to remember that he hadn’t come to LA to follow his dream of being a waiter at Buca di Beppo and stuck it out.

His first feature film endeavor fell into his lap when Jesse was almost twenty. The audition didn’t go as well as planned, but by some amazing stroke of fate, the casting director was seated in his area at one of his restaurant jobs a few days later and liked his look sans-facial hair and glasses. She invited him for another audition and the rest was history. Thumbsucker, although low budget and not widely released, was a critical success and Jesse’s performance alongside Tilda Swinton, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Keanu Reeves was lauded. It wasn’t long after Thumbsucker’s Sundance premiere that Jesse was cast in what would likely become his most defining role for a long time, even though he spent a good portion of the film in complete silence. Thumbsucker could have never prepared him for the success of Little Miss Sunshine. Multiple Academy Award nominations skyrocketed the popularity of the little film that they’d all had a very conservative amount of faith in and before Jesse knew it, he was getting recognized on the street.

All of this led to a decision to do what his dad had wanted him to do in the first place and go back to school. He had the money now, he felt like he could handle balancing a career with academics if necessary. More than anything though, he was scared. A taste of big success had made him paranoid that it was all downhill from there and on top of it, he wasn’t exactly sure if playing the awkward guy in indie films was what he wanted to do with the rest of his life and those seemed to be the only roles people were clamoring to offer him. So, he stepped back a little. His mother re-evaluated her own priorities as well and he helped her and his sister open a small organic foods market and juice bar in LA while he got his BA in film and really began to realize his passion for writing and comedy.

The old adage that networking is everything was never more true than it was when it came to getting his foot in he door for his first foray into writing. Through friends of friends he’d worked with on his first post-school project, Easy A, Jesse became heavily involved in the writing process for Horrible Bosses which went on to do very well in theaters. The friends he made while working on it gave him what would become the best opportunity of his professional life. Being introduced to Lorne Michaels was like meeting God, only so much more intimidating than he imagined God would be if he believed in that sort of thing. Jesse had grown up watching Saturday Night Live and it sounded like a dream to him to work on something so iconic, so he packed up his bags and moved to New York to give it a go. His sense of humor was unique enough to set him apart from the crowd and when he was brought on as a writer for the 2012-2013 season, he couldn’t have hoped for more. That was, until he was offered a spot as a featured player. It was an easy decision. Jesse made his SNL debut with five other new featured players on September 28, 2013 alongside Tina Fey. Jesse Ferrin dancing in gold hot pants was, for a lot of people, the first time that they’d seen him since his role in Little Miss Sunshine. Performing live was as amazing as it had been when he was a kid and the combination of being able to write comedy and perform in front of a live audience was everything that he’d never known he’d wanted until he had it. He knew that he’d found his place and he was determined from the start to do whatever he could to keep it. The 41st season of SNL saw his debut as a Repertory player and as far as he’s concerned, he’s in it for the long haul.