Once upon a TikTok scroll, amidst a sea of thirst traps and political rants, a soft-eyed, absurdly funny Canadian twink appeared—part celestial nerd, part chaotic improv baby deer. That twink was Jack Innanen, and he wasn’t just performing; he was disarming us with 15-second sketches that felt like watching a Wes Anderson character trapped inside a Gen Z fever dream.
Born on April 7, 1999 (yes, an Aries—make of that what you will), Innanen launched into TikTok stardom in 2019 with offbeat, often dialogue-heavy micro-skits that made you feel like you were eavesdropping on two unhinged drama majors in a broom closet. He played both characters. Naturally.
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But he didn’t stay in the glow of ring lights forever. By 2022, Jack moved to New York—where gays and comedians alike go to be taken just seriously enough. The move was no surprise. What was surprising? The speed at which he went from TikTok’s weird cousin to the scene-stealing sweetheart of streaming comedy. (Someone call Lorne Michaels. Or better yet, don’t—Jack is doing just fine without SNL’s cold opens.)
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He debuted in the Canadian sketch comedy The Dessert, served some face and timing in Crave’s The Office Movers, and now stars as Paul Baker in FX’s Adults, a comedy set in Queens, filmed in Toronto (don’t ask). It’s a show about five roommates navigating adulthood like emotionally ill-equipped Sims. Innanen plays the kind of guy you’d both swipe right on and ask to help you emotionally process that swipe.
But don’t let the goofy exterior fool you—he’s more than a walking Tumblr meme. Jack originally studied astrophysics at the University of Toronto. Yes, like real equations and telescopes and dark matter and everything. So when he spirals in a monologue about love and loneliness, it’s not just because he’s watched too much Phoebe Waller-Bridge—it’s because he understands the actual void.
Jack’s humor is niche, unapologetically strange, and occasionally haunted by the ghost of Internet culture. He’s like if Miranda July and a Hot Topic employee had a baby and raised it on Vine compilations. He’s also a soft queer icon—if not openly out, then at least deeply understood by gays who know a kindred spirit when they see one nervously adjusting their thrifted sweater vest.
Whether you first met him while high at 2 a.m. on TikTok or caught his tender chaos on FX, one thing is clear: Jack Innanen doesn’t just make you laugh—he makes you feel seen. And in an industry still wrestling with the idea that masculinity can be weird and sensitive and occasionally wearing a pearl necklace, that’s no small feat.
Also? He’s worked with Louis Vuitton and Coors Light. So yes, girls and gays, we got ourselves a comedy prince who can serve both looks and existential crisis. And honestly? We deserve that.
Jack Innanen is what happens when you give a gay-coded theater kid a platform, a punchline, and just enough serotonin to believe in dreams again. Protect him at all costs. Or at least binge his show.