The real relationship that inspired Netflix’s Nobody Wants This
Netflix’s beloved rom-com Nobody Wants This is officially back on our screens – but did you know the hit series is inspired by a real-life love story?
Starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody, the show follows the unlikely romance between Joanne, an outspoken agnostic woman, and Noah, a young Jewish rabbi. Their relationship might seem like the stuff of rom-com fantasy, but the real-life inspiration behind the series proves that sometimes truth really is sweeter than fiction.
Created by Erin Foster, daughter of legendary music producer David Foster, Nobody Wants This draws heavily on her own love story. After starting her career as an actress, with appearances in The O.C. (!!!) and Gilmore Girls, Erin eventually moved into writing and producing, finding success with a show that feels all the more personal thanks to its real-life roots.
Much like Joanne, played by Kristen Bell, Erin is a chatty blonde with plenty to say about life. She even co-hosts a podcast with her sister, where the pair do what they do best: yapping about pretty much everything.
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When Nobody Wants This debuted on Netflix in 2024, viewers fell for its witty take on love, faith and family. But behind the fictional romance lies Erin’s relationship with her husband, Simon Tikhman. Like Joanne and Noah, the couple come from different religious backgrounds, making their relationship an interfaith love story of their own.
There is one rather significant difference, though: Simon isn’t a rabbi. He is Jewish, and he’s a music executive and record label owner. Simon met Erin at a gym in Los Angeles in 2018, and the pair initially kept their budding romance under wraps.
After sparks first flew, the couple would regularly make out in the gym car park, keeping their relationship a secret from the trainers. But as their initial attraction developed into something more serious, Simon made one thing clear to Erin: he would only marry a Jewish woman.
Erin, however, was more than happy to embrace the idea. Recalling the moment to Vulture, she said: “I was like, ‘You want me? Great. It’d be fun to be part of something.’”
Erin went on to convert to Reform Judaism before marrying Simon on New Year’s Eve in 2019. Erin appears to have found her own happy ending, much like the characters whose romance has captured the hearts of Netflix viewers.
“It all worked out,” Erin told The New York Times, adding, “I love being Jewish.”
In a May 2024 Instagram post announcing Nobody Wants This, the show’s creator summed up the inspiration behind the series perfectly, writing: “We have a Rom-Com born out of me falling for a nice Jewish boy and never looking back.”
In an interview with Netflix's Tudum, Erin detailed all the elements that had to be included and one was the fourth episode in season one, called “The Ick” which explored what happens when you meet someone who is ‘wonderful’ and who ‘wants to show up for you’ but you find something ‘really stupid’ and a way to ‘ruin’ it, or in other words, self-sabotage.
“You find something really dumb and decide you don’t like them because of that.”
She explained: “I’d done that to plenty of people but my husband was just he first person who stood in front of me and said, ‘I’m not gonna let you do that, this is stupid, so call me when you’re ready to grow up’. And it woke me up.”
Proof is in the pudding that real-life romance can be just as charming.
And in a fun nod to the real-life story behind the series, Erin Foster even makes a cameo appearance in the new season of Nobody Wants This which just dropped on Netflix. What are you waiting for? Go and check it out!
Topics: Netflix, Sex and Relationships
Greg Harris