ENGLISH TEACHER – Season 1 Key Art | ©2024 FX

Stephanie Koenig is pulling double duty on FX’s new comedy ENGLISH TEACHER, which airs Monday nights and is then available for streaming on Hulu. Koenig plays high school teacher Gwen Sanders, best friend to title character Evan Marquez (series creator Brian Jordan Alvarez). She is also the series’ story editor.

This sort of hyphenation isn’t new for Koenig. She wrote, directed and appeared in the 2021 feature A SPY MOVIE, which starred Alvarez, and was an actor/writer on 2019’s WEB SERIES: THE MOVIE, which Alvarez directed, starred in and co-wrote.

As a performer, Koenig’s other credits include the Emmy-nominated LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY, THE OFFER, and THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT.

During FX’s portion of the summer Television Critics Association press tour, Koenig participates in a Q&A panel for ENGLISH TEACHER, then stays for some follow-up discussion. This interview combines her panel remarks and the after-panel talk.

Koenig explains how she and Alvarez first came together as both friends and collaborators. “I moved out to L.A., and I was pretty lonely, I didn’t know a lot of people out here. A friend had asked me to do a student short film at U.C. Santa Barbara. They were recasting somebody, and they had sent me a video of Brian, saying, ‘This is our actor in it, and do you want to come out?’ I was like, ‘Well, yeah. This is no student film with somebody like that in it!’ He elevated it.

“So, then, when I went and met him, that first night, it felt very kismet. We were asking each other why they were so funny. We were like, ‘What are you doing? What’s going on? Are you a comedian?’ I remember driving home after meeting him and acting with him that first night, and really dorkily going, ‘Yes!’ Because I had found a soulmate, a friend. And then I asked him shortly after, ‘Do you have room for a best friend in your life?’ And he was like, ‘I really need one.’”

Does Koenig prefer to write for herself or for Alvarez? “I like both. But it is one of my favorite things to do, to write for him. He’s always in all of my scripts, because I know he’ll nail it. He can take a script and make it come alive as an actor.”

On ENGLISH TEACHER, Koenig relates that she was first considered as an actor, but in fact began as a writer. “I was in the [writers’] mini-room first. Brian wrote [the role of Gwen] for me, but I was on LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY at the time, I was shooting that in L.A., and we had to shoot the [ENGLISH TEACHER] pilot in Atlanta, so there was a good month there where they were like, ‘Oh, I don’t think we’re going to be able to get you off of that show,’ which was terrifying to me, because I’ve been working with Brian for years, and I was like, ‘I cannot miss this. I love the show.’”

Fortunately, the timing worked out. Koenig explains how the writers’ room functions on ENGLISH TEACHER. “We all went off and wrote our episodes by ourselves, and then came in – obviously, we worked on all of it in the room together. But I don’t work script to script with Brian or ever have, really. Usually, we write something for each other. Like, I’m a sole writer and he’s a sole writer. Like, on our past movies, stuff like that, we just like to act in each other’s scripts.”

Having Alvarez and director/executive producer Jonathan Krisel on set, Koenig notes, “felt very familiar, because we were in the writers’ room, and I’ve worked with Krisel for years as well, but it felt familiar instantly, first day.

“I think because the scripts are so good and so well-written and the characters are so defined, it felt so easy to slot into [playing knowing the other characters] forever. And I think there’s also an excitement about coming to set. There was like a little fever, everyone, crew, they were all giddy together, trying to make each other laugh.”

What sort of research as both a writer and a performer did Koenig do into real high school teachers? “I found a high school teacher, so I called and talked to her for a while. She gave us some really great insight. And then my best friend’s sister is also a high school English teacher, so I called her for a couple questions we had in the writers’ room. Mainly calling them during the writers’ room, trying to think of what’s actually happening in the schools now, and it was really cool to hear about their day-to-day.”

So far, Koenig hasn’t been able to use any direct anecdotes from her research in an episode, but that could change. “We had them as brainstorm, but very specific stories didn’t make it in. I’m wishing for it next season. But I think talking to [the high school teachers], there might be more influence than I think. There might be something that was kept, but I think for the most part, we made up a lot.”

Koenig would like to have more scenes between Gwen and school principal Grant Moretti, played by Enrico Colantoni. “I like the relationship. I’d love to see it more fleshed out. Me and Enrico are like best buds.”

ENGLISH TEACHER affords its actors the chance to do some physical comedy, which Koenig enjoys. “With physical comedy – I watched a video of myself at my own wedding, and it’s like I’m doing a bit up at the altar. That was embarrassing. But yeah, it comes pretty naturally. I think my comedy is actually in my body, more so than maybe the lines.”

The ENGLISH TEACHER writers, Koenig says, consider factors including, “‘What can be surprising about what we’re saying? And how can you take that left turn? Everybody is expecting it to go this way, how can we [subvert expectations]?’ We’re always trying to make each other laugh, so I think we’re trusting what makes each other laugh, that other people will like that.”

Related: ENGLISH TEACHER: Erico Colantoni on new FX TV series – Exclusive Interview 

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Article: ENGLISH TEACHER: Actress and story editor Stephanie Koenig on new FX TV series – Interview 

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