A former collaborator has accused Brian Jordan Alvarez, the creator and star of the hit new FX comedy series English Teacher , of sexual assault. The allegations were made by Jon Ebeling, an actor who performed regularly alongside Alvarez and English Teacher collaborator Stephanie Koenig, the latter of whom he briefly dated.
In an extensive report published by Vulture, Ebeling says Alvarez pressured him into sex and turned the incident into a plotline for their 2016 web series The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo. While filming a reenactment of the incident, Ebeling says that Alvarez sexually assaulted him. In September, Ebeling filed a report with the Los Angeles Police Department and the Screen Actors Guild. Alvarez, meanwhile, has denied the allegations and asserts that Ebeling consented to their sexual interactions.
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One of the best new shows of 2024, English Teacher is a near-universally beloved comedy created by and starring Alvarez as Evan, a high school teacher in Austin, Texas, who struggles to reconcile his progressive views as a gay man with his career in a conservative environment. Alvarez, who made a name for himself online with viral comedy videos featuring characters like breakout favorite TJ Mack, plays a fictionalized version of himself in the series - a trend that goes back to Caleb Gallo, which also starred longtime collaborator Stephanie Koenig, Alvarez's co-writer and co-star in English Teacher.
The Messy Allegations Against 'English Teacher's Brian Jordan Alvarez
Before English Teacher premiered, Ebeling gestured toward the alleged assault in a post to his Instagram Stories that read, "My personal experience with the Cre*tor of this show was much closer to the plot of B*by Reind**r than whatever this is." The post referred to the Netflix series Baby Reindeer, in which star and creator Richard Gadd detailed his experiences being stalked by a mentally unstable woman named Martha as well as being repeatedly assaulted by a TV creator named Darrien. Speaking to Vulture, Ebeling compared Alvarez to both Martha and Darrien, while Alvarez's friends said Ebeling was the Martha in the dynamic. The report contains numerous conflicting accusations along these lines; some say that Ebeling was using Alvarez, while others say Alvarez has a history of taking advantage of his friends and collaborators.
In addition to Ebeling, Vulture spoke with former friends and collaborators who detailed a complicated dynamic: Ebeling had feelings for Koenig, whom he dated on and off. Koenig was best friends with Alvarez, who had feelings for Ebeling. According to the latter, he was pressured into allowing Alvarez to perform oral sex after the pair watched The Wolf of Wall Street. Alvarez and Ebeling have conflicting recollections of that incident and the fallout with Koenig. What everyone seems to agree on is that Alvarez used that incident as the basis for the second and third episodes of Caleb Gallo. Alvarez included a note when he sent out the script for Episode 2, which read, in part, "if anything is too much let me know and we can adjust." Ebeling said he agreed to shoot the script as it was written because he believed Alvarez was a "genius."
Episode 3 of the series included a reenactment of the sexual encounter between Alvarez and Ebeling. According to the latter, Alvarez used the scene to sexually assault Ebeling on camera, under a blanket:
"I am assuming nobody on set knows what's going on under the comforter, and I'm just frozen. I didn't know what to do. I'm on set with my director, who is assaulting me. It was a horrible feeling."
Ebeling says he immediately told Koenig about the incident, which he describes as rape. In his telling, Koenig didn't understand how Ebeling could "let" the incident happen. In a statement provided by his lawyer, Alvarez says that Ebeling was "pretending to be upset":
"This was the performative Kabuki theater of a self-described manipulator, who was distorting the situation to ingratiate himself to [Koenig]."
Representatives for Alavarez told Vulture that Ebeling "verbally consented" to performing the sex act on camera. Ebeling vehemently denies this. According to Ebeling, Koenig and other friends seemed to blame him for sending mixed signals to Alvarez and allowing the incident to happen. Koenig's friends say she still doesn't believe that Ebeling was assaulted. Reflecting on the fallout, Ebeling says:
"None of my friends were seeing me as a victim and this guy as an abuser. It was too hard to look at it as if I had been raped. I convinced myself this was a miscommunication."
Former classmates and friends who attended USC with Alvarez detail a history of abusing prescription drugs and alcohol, and getting jealous of his female friends' boyfriends (he allegedly stalked one boyfriend, who filed a no-contact order against Alvarez). One classmate accused Alvarez of groping him without consent, saying, "It got to the point where I was so uncomfortable I didn't want to be in the same room with him." Alvarez says he has "no recollection" of these events.
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English Teacher Release Date September 2, 2024 Main Genre Comedy Network FX Cast Brian Jordan Alvarez , Savanna Gann , Sarah Kopkin , Ben Bondurant , Treylan Newton , Matthew Smitley , Mason Douglas , Ralphael Lester