In Mindy Kaling’s razor-sharp new comedy Not Suitable for Work, Jack Martin plays Josh, an aspiring journalist who lands a job at a media company where, purely by “coincidence”, his father happens to be the CEO. On paper, he’s a textbook silver-spoon douche, but through excellent writing and acting, Josh gradually reveals enough vulnerability, charm and comic timing that you end up rooting for him. Set among the ambition and arrested development of Manhattan’s Murray Hill, the show is a clever send-up of the neighbourhood’s infamous finance bro culture, following a group of twenty-somethings fumbling their way through work, romance and adulthood. The funny thing is, Jack had already perfected the archetype years before Kaling came calling: during Covid, his self-made TikTok comedy sketches roasting finance bros and corporate climbers racked up millions of views. His next role in the romantic drama Happy Hours – written and directed by Katie Holmes – sees Jack star in his favourite genre of movie.

Alex James Taylor: Hey Jack. Let’s talk about when Not Suitable for Work first came into your life and what attracted you to the show?
Jack Martin: I first heard about it really early, before it was called Not Suitable for Work. It was called Murray Hill first, because that’s the neighbourhood it’s about in New York. It’s a neighbourhood that has a reputation as basically what the show is. These young professionals move there right after graduation, and it’s almost like they’re in college 2.0 – I had a bunch of friends who moved there after graduation. I saw the show announced on Deadline maybe three years ago, and I was like, oh my god, I would love to be in that show because I’m also a big fan of Mindy. So it was like two great worlds colliding, and it feels like the luckiest thing ever that it ended up working out. I auditioned really early, and then they were casting it a while later and they ended up calling the director of Pizza Movie, that I was in, and he recommended me, which is crazy. I had no idea he was doing that. I didn’t know that conversation was even happening. Then the next day they called me in, and I booked it two days later.

AJT: What did you think of Josh when you first read the script? He’s really got that love-to-hate personality. He seems like such a douche at first, but then you gradually see this sweeter side to him.
JM: I love ‘love-to-hate’ characters – I feel like all my favourite characters are those. I clocked that about him really quickly and I was like, hell yeah, because I tend to find that stuff really funny. Like, I love Dennis Reynolds from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. So I was excited about that aspect, but I always think it’s important to find what you like about the character and what you can say in their defence. When you’re playing a character, you have that real sense of empathy for them, like you’re in their corner. Because otherwise, it feels like you’re making fun of them in your performance, which isn’t realistic. That was my main focus, trying to find the earnestness, how sincere he is and what he believes – and I think there’s a lot there. He’s a really well-written character, so they made that easy for me.

AJT: We’ve all met people like that, so it’s easy to go full throttle into that annoying personality, but you have to pull back because otherwise he becomes a crazy caricature.
JM: Yeah, exactly. It starts with the writing, really, and the writers are so good on the show. That’s what really made it easy. They wrote a really nuanced, smart character.

“When you’re playing a character, you have that real sense of empathy for them, like you’re in their corner.”

AJT: Speaking about the writers, what was it like working with Mindy on the show?
JM: Mindy’s fantastic, and I’ve been a fan forever. I mean, I used to watch The Office when it was on air, from season one, when I was about ten years old. She’s just so brilliant. She also has extensive experience across many different areas. She’s a tremendous actor, but she’s also a really great writer, a really great showrunner, and those are all really different roles. And she’s written a lot of shows that are different from each other, and you can really tell that she has that breadth of experience because it would come into play on set. She would give these notes that were so precise and so usable. You could feel the amount of knowledge that she has. It was amazing having her on set.

AJT: It’s interesting because the show is so joke-heavy, and yet it maintains this dramatic, romantic side. It really nails that balance of absurdity and reality.
JM: I think that’s a testament to the writing too, because they’re juggling so many balls at the same time. It’s exactly what you said, they really wanted it to be hard comedy and full of jokes, which it is, but it was definitely important to them to have the romantic plotlines, the dramatic arcs, love triangles and family relationships with each of the characters. Definitely with Josh, there’s so much going on.

AJT: The best shows that stand the test of time have that blend. The likes of Seinfeld and Friends.
JM: Totally.

AJT: I wanted to ask you, did you have any jobs before acting that you really sucked at?
JM: [laughs] That’s so funny. Yeah, I’ve been an intern about a million times. I was also a barista, and I worked at a salad shop. I was, like, shucking corn and preparing the ingredients in the back. I don’t really think I was particularly good at any of it. I tried my best, but having to get a lot of coffees ready for a lot of really frustrated, tired college kids is a challenge. It’s a high-stakes environment. [both laugh]

AJT: I used to work for a coffee shop when I was about seventeen and they really wanted everyone to be super smiley, which I just wasn’t having. [both laugh]
JM: I remember at the coffee shop I worked at, the manager on my shift one time was one of my friends, and he was just chilling on a stool, and it was rush hour, there were a million people there, and he was like, “Hey, man, you got to go faster.” I was like, “Help me out!” [laughs]

“I used to watch The Office when it was on air, from season one, when I was about ten years old.”

AJT: Another thing I wanted to talk to you about is your TikTok videos. You started by doing comedy sketches on TikTok. The funny thing is that the first videos you made were of this finance bro character, somewhat similar to Josh in Not Suitable for Work. How long ago were those initial videos?
JM: I started that in 2020. I had graduated early to be an actor, and I was fully pursuing it. I’d signed my first agent in college at this summer programme I did at NYU, and I graduated at the start of 2020, so Covid started almost immediately. I was home and I couldn’t do anything, so the internet was kind of the only option that I had. All productions were shut down. I started making comedy pretty much because that was the only choice – I think it’d be weird to post dramatic acting on [TikTok]. [both laugh] So I started making sketches about the world that I knew – I knew so many people in that super corporate world – and I wasn’t expecting it to take off. I didn’t really think I was very funny, but people liked it, and I really liked making them. So I kept doing it, and yeah, it ended up helping me a lot, which was really cool.

AJT: It is funny that it’s a similar character to the one you play now. Had the casting people seen them?
JM: When I got to my screen test, which was the very last part of the process, Mindy was like, “They were showing me all your videos and they’re so funny.” So I think by that point they had. But yeah, it’s this hilarious coincidence. What’s also funny is that Will Angus is in the show, who I’ve been friends with for years. We met doing comedy online, and we have this whole backstory that I don’t want to go on the tangent about, but we’ve done a bunch of sketches together, including a sketch where the joke is that he’s not a real person, and I’m an actor in a full mocap suit in CGI pretending to be him. So there were all these jokes in comment sections where any time me and him are in something together, it’s just me twice. [both laugh]

AJT: There are a lot of Jack Martin Easter eggs in this show. [both laugh] If you know, you know.
JM: The [casting people] didn’t know about mine and Will’s relationship either. I told them, and they were like, “Oh my god!” They had no idea we even knew each other.

“All productions were shut down. I started making comedy pretty much because that was the only choice”

AJT: That must be so much fun, acting with a friend.
JM: Oh yeah, it was a dream. I was ecstatic about booking the show, and I was probably equally ecstatic about finding out Will Angus was in it. We lived together when we shot it.

AJT: Oh really?
JM: Yeah. And I ended up becoming really good friends with everybody on the show. It’s been this really great thing where the friendship group [in the show], we’re all truly friends in real life, and I think that helps a lot because we really enjoy each other’s company and hanging out.

AJT: Lastly, I want to ask you about Happy Hours, your new film with Katie Holmes that premiered at Tribeca in June. What can you tell us about that?
JM: I love the movie. I think it’s so special, and Katie Holmes is just… She’s brilliant. A brilliant writer, director, and actor. I love romance movies, I think it’s maybe my favourite genre, and I’d been dying to do one, so that was so exciting. I think people hear romance and they think rom-com… There’s definitely funny moments to it, there are whimsical moments, but it’s one of those movies that has a lot of heart and emotion. I feel very grateful that I got to be a part of it.

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