Jake Epstein

Jake Epstein, born Jacob Lee Epstein on January 16, 1987, in Toronto, Ontario, is a Canadian actor and singer whose career spans television, film, and stage. His mother, Kathy Kacer, is a Norma Fleck Award-winning author of children's books about the Holocaust, and his father is a lawyer. He has an older sister, Gabi, who works as an actress and jazz singer. Epstein was raised in Conservative Judaism and has described his current relationship with his faith as spiritual rather than religious.

Epstein's stage career began in Toronto at age twelve, when he made his professional debut in a production of Our Town at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in 1999. That same year, he played the Artful Dodger in Oliver!, which ran at the Princess of Wales Theatre from November 2, 1999 through January 2, 2000. A decade later, he appeared as C.B., the Charlie Brown analog, in a Canadian production of Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead. In July 2009, he joined the first national tour of Spring Awakening, replacing Kyle Riabko in the role of Melchior Gabor. His first performance with the tour was on July 7, 2009, and he remained with the production until it concluded in 2010. In July 2011, Epstein joined the original Canadian production of Billy Elliot the Musical at the Canon Theatre in Toronto, playing Tony Elliot, Billy's older brother. He subsequently took on the role of Will in the first national tour of American Idiot, which launched in December 2011. In a 2013 interview, Epstein identified Will as the most challenging role he had played to that point, noting that the character remained onstage for the majority of the show without leaving the couch, requiring sustained internal work to sustain the performance.

Epstein made his Broadway debut in 2012 in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark at the Foxwoods Theatre, where he served as the alternate for the lead role of Peter Parker. He described the opportunity as a childhood fantasy realized. His next Broadway credit brought him considerably more visibility: he was cast as Gerry Goffin, the songwriting partner and first husband of Carole King, in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, opposite Jessie Mueller. The production had a pre-Broadway engagement at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, running from September 24 to October 20, 2013, before transferring to the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, where it began Broadway performances on November 12, 2013. Epstein originated the role and remained with the production for approximately a year before departing in 2014, citing vocal difficulties and the cumulative strain of portraying a real person whose depiction in the script grew increasingly negative. King herself had encouraged him not to play Goffin as a villain, a note that complicated his approach as the material evolved. Epstein returned to the production temporarily in 2016, reprising the role opposite Chilina Kennedy, a fellow Canadian actor who starred as Carole King.

Also in 2016, Epstein appeared in the off-Broadway production Straight, playing a closeted gay man. He spoke publicly about the script's focus on the fear of being labeled rather than the fear of coming out, describing that distinction as an argument he felt was underrepresented in contemporary discourse. In 2019, Epstein premiered a solo cabaret show, Boy Falls From the Sky, at the Toronto Fringe Festival. The show draws on his personal experiences in the entertainment industry, including his years on Degrassi: The Next Generation, the audition process for musicals, and his time on Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. He has credited his wife with encouraging him to develop the piece. Mirvish Productions subsequently presented the show at the Royal Alexandra Theatre from April 19 to May 29, 2022, and Epstein has since performed it at venues across Canada, including in Hamilton, Barrie, and at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts in Quebec. He is also set to star as Frank Carter in the pre-Broadway engagement of Life After, scheduled to play at the Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto from April 16 to May 4, 2025.

Before establishing himself in theatre, Epstein built a substantial television profile. Following an appearance on The Zack Files, he was cast as Craig Manning on Degrassi: The Next Generation, a role he played for five seasons. The character was a musician who navigated parental abuse and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, and storylines involving the character included a pregnancy and abortion that Epstein noted were initially banned from broadcast in the United States. He won a Gemini Award for the performance. Epstein left Degrassi during its fifth season to attend the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal, after which he made periodic guest appearances on the series in seasons six through eight. From 2016 to 2018, he played Chuck Russink, an FBI computer specialist, in the American series Designated Survivor. The show was cancelled by ABC after two seasons, and Epstein was not part of the cast when Netflix revived it for a third season. He has also had a recurring role in The Hardy Boys.

Epstein married actress Vanessa Smythe in 2018. The couple welcomed a son, Miles August Epstein, on May 25, 2023. His recorded work includes contributions to the Degrassi: The Next Generation soundtrack in 2008, the Degrassi Goes Hollywood film soundtrack in 2009, and the original Broadway cast recording of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical in 2014.