When asked what he does for a living, Leo Reich rarely gives strangers the whole truth. “Usually I’ll say ‘writer,’” says the comedian, “because it sounds fancier and makes me seem like a serious person.” It’s not exactly a lie: Reich spent nearly four years writing It Gets Worse, the A24 comedy series he also created and stars in, which premiered yesterday. Before the show’s release, Reich told me, “It’s a weird period of limbo. It feels hubristic to talk about it in any detail before anyone has said they like it.” Lucky for him, The Guardian has since deemed Reich “a rare star and the future of TV comedy.”
The show has already taken Reich to uncharted territory. He’s setting alarms to schedule his own Instagram posts for publicity reasons. (“I never thought I’d be that person.”) He’s also playing a central role, putting him on-screen more than ever before. It’s an unexpected turn for someone who spent his youth in solitude.