Owen Thiele gives new meaning to the notion of “everything, everywhere, all at once.”
This year, the 29-year-old has starred in the great trifecta of chaotic, young adult summer smashes: Prime Video's Overcompensating, FX's Adults, and Netflix's Too Much, and now he's deep in development on his semi-autobiographical show Off Color, which Ilana Glazer has already signed on to executive produce.
Thiele is one of those rare celebrities who straddle undeniable star power and a unique ability to make anyone feel at ease in his presence. Woven into our discussion is: assignation of sexuality to different Gatorade flavors (Blue Frost is queer; red is straight, even if the flavor is Fruit Punch), being on a family cellphone plan until he dies, and his proclivity for talking to strangers on the subway.
Below, we speak to Owen Thiele as part of Teen Vogue's New Hollywood Class of 2025.
Owen Thiele: I feel like Girls raised me, so I'm lucky to be in this next era of young adult comedies…. Benny [Skinner], who's one of my best friends in the world, hired me [for Overcompensating] simply because I was his friend. Then Adults I got on my own, but [that cast] became some of my best friends. So just to be working with people who have become lifelong friends feels like not “work” at all. I want to do this for the rest of my life, and I hope there are articles that keep saying, “Why is Owen doing this?”
OT: Well, I've seen a lot of tweets that are like, “I don't know what show is which. And it's even more confusing that Owen is in both of them.” I hear that, and I think both parties, Benito [Skinner] and Rebecca [Shaw] and Ben [Kronengold]... feel lucky to be in the same space with each other. I think it's really cool that we have two queer shows.
Benny's show is about coming out, obviously, and Adults is more queerness in life. Two shows that feel similar, or even that have young people in them, will always be compared; but they're actually wildly different, and I think they're both wildly important.
To see queerness in the wild, like you do in Adults, and not talk about it, I think is absolutely crucial for this time. Also, I think Benny does such a brilliant, beautiful job of talking about a coming out story without being moralistic or prescriptive. I'm actually very glad they came out at the same time — I think they helped each other.
OT: We're still writing it. We're chugging along. You know what's so funny? The article came out like a year and a half ago saying I was developing this and everyone's commenting, “Can't wait to see it. When does it come out? Next month?” And I'm like, “No, my loves, it'll take three years to make.”
But that's what this business is. And it's frustrating and annoying, and also, understandable. I'm glad that I get to work with such smart executives at Amazon to really craft what the show is and dig in and understand it. But I joke that it's a therapy session for me every day, because I'm just talking about my family and my life.
OT: Well, I was adopted into a white family. I remember at a very young age, I went to a Black barber that my dad took me to because I had coarse hair. My dad was like, “Okay, we got to take you to someone who knows how to deal with this.” I sat in the chair, and because I had been with my mom so much at her salon, as she gets her hair straightened, I looked at the barber and he asked me what I wanted. Did I want cornrows? Did I want a fade? And I said, “I'll just take a blowout with the ends flipped in to frame my face.”
I was like, that is the show. Not really understanding who I am. Then finally being like, Oh, I'm Black, gay, and Jewish in America. What does that mean? How scary? How cool? The power that I have. And also, parts of the world hate me, which is very scary. So it's a comedy, yes; but also, we're diving into some topics that I think are really important right now.
OT: I think the saying should be, “Never meet your idols, except for Ilana Glazer.” I want that written on my wall. I am so obsessed with her. I have never met someone whose brain works in the way that hers does. She's a mile a minute, she's a joke a second, and she's so wise. Usually, people who are that funny don't have the depth and the wisdom, but she's like a mother, a grandmother, and a child wrapped into one.
I met her [when] I took a general meeting with her because I was such a fan of Broad City. It was the only show that I would watch over and over again. And by the way, last night, I couldn't sleep and I came out into the living room and I just turned on Broad City, pilot episode.
Anyway, I met her because I was a fan, and we just soul-connected. I was like, “I have this story that I really want to tell.” And she's like, “Let me help you tell it.” And still to this day, I get chills thinking about it. She's mother. She's literally mother.
OT: I'm going back to Overcompensating. I, hopefully, will be going back to Adults. And then I'm just writing Off Color, and I have some other things in the works.
I have a movie that I'm writing. Actually, I have two movies that I'm writing. One with Benny that I'm so excited about. It's about two people who consider, if they had had each other as kids, would they be better people? Me and Benny, if we were friends during our childhood, would we be better? Which is kind of a fun case study.
Then I'm working on an animated television show as well. My whole career is kind of throwing pasta against the wall and seeing if it sticks. Sometimes it slides down and I know I need to keep boiling. Sometimes it works, and I get to eat.
OT: I watched Sinners. First of all, I didn't know it was a horror film at all. So I kind of went in thinking, “Oh wow, what a gorgeous period piece,” and then vampires entered the picture and I nearly sh*t. The way I speak, the way I look is very modern, so it would be a stretch to take me there, but I'd love to try. Let's see if I can do it.
I also think that I would love to be in a drama. It was obviously veiled with humor, but in Adults, in episode three, I was deemed a “friend slut,” and I was sobbing in the car, telling my friends that I am broken and that I need people to find me, that I need people to like me, that I'm a people pleaser and such. I really had to feel those things, which is fitting because I sometimes do, in the back of my mind.
OT: I said this a month ago. Somebody asked me this question, and I said Sabrina Carpenter. And then she asked me very kindly to host an event with her for Man's Best Friend. The night of her album release, she asked me to interview her for something. I feel like every day a dream comes through. And I'm serious.
I really want to see that Paul Thomas Anderson film, One Battle After Another, and I think working with a director like that would be unbelievable. So, manifesting being in a PTA film at some point.
OT: Manifesting.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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