Adam Brody’s renaissance feels somewhat like a perfect storm. Twenty years after he brought Christmukkah and Death Cab for Cutie to the masses as Seth Cohen The O.CBrody picks up where he left off: winning the hearts of millennial women.
The 45-year-old actor charmed the audience with his portrayal of Rabbi Noah Roklov Nobody wants this opposite Veronica Mars star Kristen Bell. The romantic comedy series, which premiered on Netflix in September, quickly became a streaming sensation. As the “hot rabbi,” Brody’s character falls in love with Bell’s Joanne, a brash sex podcaster and atheist, after a breakup. The series, created by Erin Foster, is as heartfelt as it is funny and as endearing as it is relatable. The film has been praised for reinvigorating the rom-com genre and is in the running for a Golden Globe in the Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy category. The two leads also received acting nominations.
Fans have compared Roklov to an “adult” version of Seth Cohen, the affluent Southern California high school student who loves emo music and comic books that Brody starred in The OC from 2003 to 2007. The actor disagrees with these comparisons. “I don’t think Seth Cohen would have been a rabbi,” Brody recently told Yahoo Entertainment.
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It’s ironic that Brody is starring in a show called Nobody wants this when in reality it seems like many people want this. Everyone wants him.
Since the show’s release, Brody has been profiled in numerous publications, including GQ and InStyle. He sent fans into a tailspin with his cover shoot for the December issue of British Stylist magazine and was featured in People’s 2024 Sexiest Man Alive issue. Vogue called him “the defining millennial crush.” He and Bell, who have been praised for their “insane chemistry,” also set the internet on fire with “the greatest kiss of all time.”
“We are looking for someone who makes us feel safe. Someone who makes us feel seen,” Jane Owen, the founder of Jane Owen Public Relations, told Yahoo about Brody’s call. “He looks handsome in an approachable way, where you could have gone to school with him. He could be the guy you liked in high school, your best friend’s older brother who was actually good looking. … It really touches your heart.”
Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson enter The OC (Warner Bros./Courtesy of Everett Collection)
The year 2024 was a strong career year for ’00s Heartthrobs of Teen Dramas Past. Dawson’s Creek mainstay Joshua Jackson set off as a newly hired doctor aboard a luxury cruise ship Doctor Odyssey. One Tree Hill star chad michael murray put his six-hour dance lessons to work for the Magic Mike-coded romcom, The cheerful gentlemen. Josh Hartnett, who got his start on the ABC drama Cracker and became a heartthrob after appearing in films like The faculty, the virgin suicides And Pearl Harborplays a charismatic serial killer in M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film, Fall.
“All these guys represent a simpler time,” Owen said. “They hark back to our youth. They somehow make us feel comfortable because we know them a little. People love a comeback story. They like to think of people who can gain a new perspective on their career. People gather [celebrities] who they fondly remember from their childhood as a poster on their bedroom wall or as someone they were in love with.
“Millennials are very sensitive to the fact that they are getting older,” Erin Meyers, who researches celebrity, new media and audience cultures at Oakland University in Michigan, told Yahoo. “At the same time, [they’re] look back and [realizing that] these things we loved before are still part of our lives. ‘Here [Brody] and he still looks good and I still look good too.” … [It’s] the idea that you see your favorite stars growing with you, as it were.”
Brody himself has no public social media accounts, but his online presence is bigger than ever. Not only was he ranked No. 3 on Google’s list of most searched actors worldwide in 2024, but he’s also beloved on platforms like X and TikTok, where screenshots and fan-made videos of Cohen and Roklov, both individually and spliced together, created and massively shared by fans.
As millennials continue to age, they still remain connected to online pop culture. Although TikTok is traditionally believed to be a Gen Z haven, the number of millennial users in the 30 to 49 age range is increasing. Fans in this demographic use the social media platform to strengthen their connections with Brody and in turn strengthen his online presence.
“It’s portrayed as this place where Gen Zers are, but it’s really a place where millennials in particular are really finding their connections to pop culture,” Meyers said of the Brody buzz on the platform.
These days, courting your celebrity crush is a more digital endeavor compared to 2003. Instead of flipping through an issue of Us Weekly looking for off-screen photos of Brody, Meyers explained, social media allows fans to get more of See Brody – whether it’s behind-the-scenes scenes from the set or a photo of him on the road in Los Angeles – whenever they want. With options to repost, like, or comment, fans can also interact with this content more personally.
“We don’t just want to see it [actors] do their thing on screen. We want to see them in ‘real life’. We have always wanted that,” says Meyers. “We wanted paparazzi photos and the blogging culture of the early 2000s, but now it’s [looking] on Instagram, as we talked about how [Brody] is their favorite. I think it’s a participatory audience thing that social media helps us with, [giving] a way to go beyond just looking.”
Adam Brody and Kristen Bell enter Nobody wants this. (Netflix/Courtesy of Everett Collection)
Celebrity culture has changed significantly since Brody’s first taste of fame. Our desire for authenticity has increased, Meyers said.
“The rise of things like influencers and other types of digital stars is all about being authentic and ordinary, so we want to see that side of celebrities as well. To feel that they are just like us,” she said. “Our celebrity culture is really obsessed with authenticity.”
The continuation of Brody’s renaissance depends on how he is “valued in the marketplace” and whether he will continue to have roles in “well-financed TV shows and movies,” Owen said. Of Nobody wants this With Season 2 on the way and a potential Golden Globe Award under his belt, Brody’s future looks bright.
“He is the right man at the right time and in the right place in our zeitgeist,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what side of the aisle you’re on, politically, socially, economically, religiously, you can all say, ‘Yes, he’s a great guy.’”
