English Teacher Star Stephanie Koenig Reveals One Of The Crew's Favorite Gwen Lines & Shares Her Hopes For Sharon's Return In Season 2

Created by and starring Brian Jordan Alvarez, English Teacher premiered on FX on Monday, September 2. Season 1 consists of eight thirty-minute episodes and follows Evan Marquez, a teacher in Texas who “finds himself at the intersection of the personal, professional, and political aspects of working at a high school.” In addition to Alvarez, the main cast includes Stephanie Koenig, Sean Patton, Enrico Colantoni, Carmen Christopher, and Jordan Firstman.




Koenig plays Gwen Sanders, an optimistic history teacher at Morrison-Hensley High who tends to see the best in people, even when she shouldn’t. The actor starred in Apple TV+’s Emmy-nominated series Lessons in Chemistry alongside Brie Larson and has also been featured in projects such as Sick Girl, The Offer, and The Flight Attendant. While English Teacher is yet to be renewed for a second season, the cast remains optimistic about the show’s return.

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ScreenRant interviews Koenig about her onscreen and offscreen friendship with Brian Jordan Alvarez, capturing today’s generation of high schoolers, and her hopes for Gwen’s storyline in English Teacher season 2.



Alvarez Wrote The Part Of Gwen Sanders With Koenig In Mind

“I was quietly getting excited for the potential to work with Brian in a big way with a budget for once.”

Stephanie Koeing in English Teacher looking surprised

ScreenRant: To start, I would love to know how you got involved in English Teacher since you also have writing credits.

Stephanie Koenig: I’ve known Brian for a really long time. I’ve made a lot of sketches with Brian and movies and web series, so I’ve been working with him for a while, and I knew that he was creating this show—I think around 2020 he wrote the pilot. I don’t remember when it was, but it’s been a while, and I’ve been tracking it and knowing that he had written a part for me and knowing that probably wouldn’t work out because maybe I’d be filming something else, or maybe I would audition and not get it.

So I was quietly getting excited for the potential to work with Brian in a big way with a budget for once. Before they shot the pilot, he had asked me to do the mini writers’ room for the other episodes of the show. I know how good Brian is at making shows, and I knew how good the pilot was, but seeing all of the topics that we could address in this show and how funny it could be, I was just really excited to possibly act in it.

And then they were shooting the pilot, and I was shooting Lessons in Chemistry on Apple, and there was a time there where I thought I couldn’t shoot the pilot, and FX was trying to work out my schedule with Apple, and it looked like it might be too hard, and then they just kept really working at it, and they kept pushing for me and Apple was like, “Hold on, let’s just figure this out for her.” And they let me go shoot the pilot, and I’m forever grateful that they let me shoot the pilot.


The sitcom addresses a lot of hot-button issues. When you’re in the writers’ room, how do you decide what topics you can address, and which ones can’t be viewed through a comedic lens?

Stephanie Koenig: Honestly, it all has to be funny. I think it’s whatever makes us laugh. But we also just talk about it with extreme care. There are some sensitive things that we want to make sure that we’re approaching with care, while also being funny, which is a hard thing to do, but there are just so many smart writers in the room, and the EPs and Brian are so smart at doing that teeter totter. It’s just making sure that we really, really talk about it, and then the thing that sticks, the thing that makes us laugh the most, is usually the avenue we’ll take.

This is separate from hot topics, but that stone face mom in the field trip episode with Sharon, played by Andrene Ward-Hammond, who is so funny, was a topic that we could not stop laughing about. That some mom was just constantly talking about this ridiculous kind of made-up sex game that she’s afraid the kids are playing and she won’t stop talking about it. We just laughed so hard about that and so it just made it in, and we trusted that that would be pretty entertaining for everybody to watch and pretty relatable.


So many people want to see more of Sharon.

Stephanie Koenig: There are already, like, Emmy campaigns for Sharon!

Could you see her coming back for more episodes of the show?

Stephanie Koenig: I pray. I want that so bad. She is one of the funniest people I’ve worked with. I could not keep a straight face with her. Everybody needs more Sharon. I’m loving the Emmy campaigns for her, so I retweet those as much as possible.

Koenig Hopes English Teacher Will Continue To Explore Gwen’s Friendship With Evan

“I think they kind of call each other out while being the most supportive they can possibly be like a real friend should.”

Evan explains something while Gwen and Markie listen at the lunch table in English Teacher

Gwen is so fun. I feel like she’s one of those characters who can do anything and it’s entertaining. What do you enjoy most about playing her?


Stephanie Koenig: People keep saying that they love the looks that I’m giving people, and I’m like, “God, I love that,” because I think that’s something I’m maybe organically doing that Brian and the editors are using. One of my favorite scenes is in the pilot.

It shows her to a T when she’s in the gym and Evan is having to explain to the kids what non-binary means and the way that she is trying to be helpful and caring too much and not knowing what to say. I think it’s her not knowing what to say around kids and not wanting to offend anybody. She just is caring too much, and I love seeing somebody juggle how hard that is to maintain.

I also love her friendship with Evan. You two have such great energy together. How do you think these characters complement one another most?


Stephanie Koenig: I love seeing real friendships in TV shows. I think that’s where we find a lot of really great stories about friendship and where we feel comforted watching TV shows. It feels like they’re our friends too, and you kind of get to be inside of this. It’s made up, but it feels so real. Just anything like Friends or New Girl or Pen15, it’s just a special thing to watch a friendship displayed on television. Brian and I are real friends, so it’s an easy thing to do. And I think they kind of call each other out while being the most supportive they can possibly be like a real friend should.

It’s like they’re going to maybe be a sounding board for some crazy stuff. I think actually maybe Gwen doesn’t call him out enough and is very, very supportive of everything that he’s doing. But it’s a beautiful friendship. I hope we can explore it more. And I love the episode where we got in a fight. I think it was fun to see those two fight. It used to be an earlier episode. I’m glad they pushed it to a little bit later so that you could get to know Gwen and Evan as solid friends and then have it be a big deal when they actually have something go wrong.


The show focuses on Evan’s life, but I’d also love to learn more about Gwen and her background.

Stephanie Koenig: I want to know about Gwen too! More Gwen all day. I wonder what’s going to happen with her boyfriend—if they’re going to stay together or they’re going to break up. Is Gwen going to be single or is she going to be back and forth? I don’t know. I don’t know what we’re going to do in season 2.

She did say that “your husband is the one most likely to kill you,” so maybe marriage isn’t something she’ll want. [Laughs]

Stephanie Koenig: I had to say that line three times. We had to shoot that scene in like 45 minutes. The light was dying, all that self-defense stuff by the car. We were running out of light, and they were like, “Just go, go, go, go, go!” So we were really improvising stuff, coming up with stuff with the writers on the spot, and then one of our writers, Dave King, came up with a line pitch.

He’s like, “Okay, so you’re going to propose to him, and then you’re going to get up and say, ‘Boom, you’re dead. Your husband is the most likely person to kill you.’” So every time I got up from the proposal, I couldn’t say it. So I had to keep going back on the knee and be like, “Hold on, hold on, hold on,” just because it was such a funny line that he came up with.


I even saw it circulating around TikTok with a caption, like, “I love the show.”

Stephanie Koenig: Our crew made little stickers that said, “Boom, you’re dead,” on them for a wrap gift and that just made me so happy.

Koenig Is Glad That English Teacher Resonates With Real-Life Educators

“Many teachers have expressed, ‘How did you guys nail the reality of that generation?’ I’m like, ‘Thank God we did.’”

Gwen and Markie stand on the football field while arguing in English Teacher

Gwen and some of the other teachers are hilariously informed about the students’ drama. The teenagers bring so much to the show. Which one of those characters resonates most with your sense of humor?


Stephanie Koenig: Oh my God, it’s so hard to pick. What I love about the show is that each episode kind of highlights a different student and lets them shine, and other guest stars too. I think that’s what this show does really well. I was so happy with how everything with the students came up. They’re so unique, and they’re so funny in their own right. So I don’t know if I could pick. I love them all. I’m diplomatic like a teacher should be. It’s like, “Oh, you can’t ask a teacher who their favorite student is!”

Those are your children!

Stephanie Koenig: I know! I want them to prosper and grow and feel loved.

They’re such a great addition to a series like this.

Stephanie Koenig: Yeah. It’s so important to see what these main characters are actually having to debate or help with. Their lives are basically making sure that these kids do well and teach them well, and it’s hard to do that. And you know what’s really nice? I just got a text from my best friend’s sister. She’s an English teacher, and she’s like, “You’ve made the teacher chat.”

So apparently all of her teacher friends are debating episodes and stuff, and many teachers have expressed, “How did you guys nail the reality of that generation?” I’m like, “Thank God we did.” It’s just so funny. They’re so sweet. They have something to teach us. We have something to teach them. It’s a nice microcosm of just how the world is with new generations coming in and how you deal with each other and help each other.


Lastly, are there any other genres you’d like to explore that you haven’t had a chance to?

Stephanie Koenig: I want to do horror for sure, but probably with comedy in it. Either that or also be in a Mel-Brooks-type movie that I would direct and write and make like a spoof comedy.

About FX’s English Teacher Season 1

Created by Brian Jordan Alvarez

FX’s English Teacher is a comedy series created by Brian Jordan Alvarez, in which he stars as “Evan Marquez,” a high school teacher in Austin, Texas who often finds himself at the intersection of the personal, professional, and political aspects of working at a high school.

English Teacher is currently available to stream on Hulu.