Nobody’s Having More Fun Than Jack Innanen

All month long, Bustle’s annual The Entertainers Issue is celebrating the performers and creators who lit up our screens and beyond in 2026.

Three years ago, Jack Innanen was a 24-year-old Canadian with a mustache and a dream. Now he’s one of the small screen’s most exciting comedic actors, starring on two of television’s buzziest half-hour comedies: Adults, FX’s hit Gen Z spin on the Friends formula, and Big Mistakes, Netflix’s Dan Levy-led screwball crime show. Thanks to his Adults alter ego, the human golden retriever Paul Baker, he’s also become both a budding style icon, born to pull off Baker’s cropped tees and bicep-baring sweater vests, and the rare straight-male-gay-icon as his character becomes TV’s poster boy for being fluid (a running joke on the show, which is packed with them).

It’s a lot to manage at once. But Innanen, who cut his comedy teeth on TikTok before moving to New York and quickly booking Adults (it was literally the second part he ever auditioned for), is keeping his head down and his spirits high, promoting Season 2 of Adults while shooting Season 2 of Big Mistakes. “I’m very lucky to have those pinch-me moments quite often,” he says via Zoom from his downtown apartment. “Last night we were doing Big Mistakes near Newark Airport, and at the same time, my castmate Boran [Kuzum] and I turned to each other and were like, ‘This is so cool, man, that we get to do this. What the f*ck? This is awesome.’”

While he and his breakout Adults character share a sense of enthusiasm and some degree of childlike wonder, Innanen insists they’re quite different in one big way. “I think there’s an anxiety that Paul Baker doesn’t have that I definitely do,” he says. “He’s pretty easygoing and laissez-faire in many ways, but I definitely am much more anxious and a little more frazzled than him for sure.” So can it feel like a relief to step into Paul Baker mode? “It’s the best. There’s some Paul Baker days where I just show up to set, I got a couple lines, and the scene directions are like, ‘Paul Baker chilling on the couch.’ Perfect.”

On his famous facial hair:

I auditioned in the mustache. I’ve had the mustache since 2020. This is me. And it’s funny because the last time I’d shaved the mustache was New Year’s Day 2024, and I auditioned for Paul Baker for the first time late February 2024. So it was good that I had grown it back in time, and it was locked in. But if that was a couple months off, Paul Baker maybe wouldn’t have a mustache — which is scary. I remember I shaved it and didn’t recognize myself in the mirror, so now I’m like, I think I need to have it forever.

On being a fashion-world favorite...

It’s really fun. Through acting and through these great shows, I have a lot of fun opportunities to wear some fun stuff. Huge shout-out to my stylist Brian Meller. And we had a lot of fun this past Adults Season 2 press tour, wearing some fun, provocative T-shirts. I’ve been wearing some Loewe recently. I just was at TIFF, where I wore some fun Jacquemus and some Tiffany. When I was at the Adults Season 2 premiere, some fun YSL stuff. Sometimes stuff from Dior.

…and a gay-world favorite:

I love the online gay world. It’s been a pleasure. It’s been really cool. Something I don’t think I expected so much was the amount of people who’ve DMed me about how the show, and specifically Paul Baker’s fluidity, helped them figure out their own sexuality. That was so special to me. Before this experience, I always would hear actors talk about stuff like that — that people reached out — and I was like, “Yeah, sure.” But the amount of people that did, I’m like, “Whoa, truly I did not expect this.”

On the Adults Season 2 love triangle:

There’s an intrinsic bond between Owen [Thiele, who plays Anton] and me, and that’s really special. So Owen and I never really had any trouble pretending to like each other or had to try to work on onscreen chemistry. It was really fun to bring to fruition. It’s funny, when I talk to friends who aren’t in this world, they’re surprised to hear that we don’t get the scripts in the beginning. We’re getting them throughout filming, so we don’t know how it’s going to end. So that’s always a fun surprise. I’m so glad that there was some resolution to the love triangle — and then a whole new cliff-hanger that throws it all into chaos again.

On his family watching Adults (and his edgier scenes):

Oh, they love it. They’re so supportive. It’s been fascinating for them to watch, and they’re very good at that now. I’m like, “Hey, guys, by the way...” They’re like, “We get it. Don’t worry about it.” But it was funny, when Big Mistakes came out, I was like, “Hey, episode 4 — my butt’s out.” They’re like, “We know, it’s all fine. Don’t worry about it.” So they’re completely supportive and are there for it. They’re just excited to see me, I think.

On his Adults castmates’ connection:

There was an incredible job done by the producers and the creators where, the first two weeks of shooting the pilot, we just would hang out every night and get margaritas in each other’s rooms. We bonded fast. And then you shoot a whole season of TV and you’re locked in together.

I am a Friends guy, and I think it was Jennifer Aniston who said something along the lines of, “No one would understand what we went through except those of us who went through it.” Not that I’ve ever met Jennifer Aniston! But that definitely rings true about going through an experience together. Obviously it’s not to the same degree as Friends, but with any cast, you’re the only people who understand what this experience is, which is really, really special. That’s lifelong friend stuff. It’s also fascinating to watch these major shows and people who grew up on them, and then the show stops — what an interesting experience for that cast that must be, too. I hope we go for 35 seasons.

On his favorite pop culture this year:

I love a good teen drama and really get into a teen romance. Like The Summer I Turned Pretty — I was really into that. Now it’s Sterling Point, and I’ve been getting involved. I’m Team Ellis all the way.

On the directors he’d like to work with:

An all-time goal would be Wes Anderson. I would love to make that happen. There’s so many people I’d like to work with. Luca Guadagnino, I think, makes gorgeous movies. A lot of the old-school comedy, like the Judd Apatow-era stuff, I love so much. There’s the beautiful, sad European stuff and then the hard-C comedy American stuff. I’d like to do both.