A Comedic Breakthrough with FX’s Adults
Owen Thiele may not always reply to group chats, but he’s definitely showing up in Hollywood.
The 28-year-old actor has emerged as a standout voice in FX’s new comedy Adults, a series that mixes millennial chaos with Gen Z angst, framed through the lives of New York roommates fumbling toward maturity.
In Adults, Owen Thiele plays one of several 20-somethings struggling with adulting in the digital age. One running gag? His character’s 4,000 unread iMessages.
Offscreen, Owen Thiele admits he’s not much better. “I’m always the one who doesn’t answer the group chat but still shows up to the dinner party,” he says. “Nobody knows I’m coming, so they have to pull up a chair. It really annoys everyone. But that’s why I always bring wine.”
The FX series, from creators Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold, is being positioned as a hybrid of Friends and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia for the TikTok era.
With backing from Nick Kroll and Atlanta’s Stefani Robinson, it marks Thiele’s biggest project to date—and he fits right in.
From Comedy Kid to Screen Star
Raised in Los Angeles by music producer Bob Thiele Jr., Owen Thiele was steeped in performance culture from the start.
He trained at performing arts schools and eventually attended Crossroads, the well-known Santa Monica prep school for budding creatives.
“This location is almost triggering,” Thiele says, referring to his THR photo shoot near his former school. “It’s where I waited to find out if I got cast in the school production of Bye Bye Birdie — which I did. First Black, gay Conrad Birdie.”
His comedy roots go back even further, to childhood classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade and endless reruns of SCTV. “I watched all those great improv actors and was like, ‘Oh my God, you can make a career out of having fun with your friends and making people laugh.’”
Casting, Chemistry, and a Real-Life Roommate Bond
Thiele’s big break came with 2022’s Theater Camp, a cult comedy where he starred alongside longtime friend Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, and an up-and-coming Ayo Edebiri. That experience lit a fire under him. Soon after, the Adults script landed in his inbox.
“I read the pilot and laughed five times per page,” he recalls. Once he saw the writers’ names, he realized they had already met during a general meeting. “We mostly talked about New York versus L.A. I was trying to sell them on L.A. using the weather, which I know is cheesy.”
After a lengthy audition process, Thiele joined an ensemble of stand-ups, TikTokers, and improv veterans. During production in Toronto, the cast even lived in the same apartment building. “It sounds like fake PR, but we really are family,” he says. “Please give us a second season. The group chat can’t die.”
Beyond FX: Streaming, Podcasting, and Amazon Development
Adults is just one part of Owen Thiele’s upward trajectory. He recurs on Prime Video’s Overcompensating, hosts a podcast on Alex Cooper’s Unwell network, and is developing a semiautobiographical pilot at Amazon with Broad City’s Ilana Glazer.
And then there’s his blink-and-you-miss-it moment in Taylor Swift’s “The Man” video. “Honestly? That was my ‘I made it’ moment,” he says. “I still have the screenshot of the text asking me to do it. That’s my claim to fame. Adults … and Taylor Swift.”
Finding Fame, Staying Grounded
Even as opportunities pile up, Thiele isn’t letting it go to his head. “When I got the Amazon deal call, I was sobbing,” he recalls. “Then I went straight to dinner with my parents and we said ‘Cheers’ a million times.”
Still, he understands the stakes. “It feels like the door just opened to a maze. Probably means I’m really in Hollywood now,” he says. For Owen Thiele, becoming an adult—on TV and in life—isn’t about pretending to have it all figured out. It’s about showing up, even if nobody saw the RSVP.
