Esther Povitsky

Securing a spot on Forbes’ 2018 “30 Under 30” list, 29-year-old Esther Povitsky is undoubtedly one to watch. The Illinois-raised actress co-stars on Freeform’s upcoming series, Alone Together, which she also co-created. “It’s been a really long time in the making,” she reveals. “Originally, Benji [Aflalo] and I wrote a short film; we knew that we wanted to make something together for a long time and we knew that doing nothing wasn’t doing anything for us. We did the short without knowing what would come from it but that’s how Alone Together came about. We wrote the short in 2014, pitched it to networks in 2015, got it picked up as a series at the end of 2016, and we were renewed for a second season at the end of 2017 – right before our 2018 premiere.”

Recalling her childhood, the actress explains that she’s always felt empowered in her family. “My parents kept me safe but I wasn’t really ‘parented’ in any way,” she says. “I was always brought up as an equal; there wasn’t much of a divide between adults and children. Since we never had any family game nights, I spent a lot of time watching TV – that’s how I found my love for comedy; Saturday Night Live and Clueless were big sources of inspiration for me.”

Though Esther was always a fan of comedy, she was originally set on becoming a dancer. In fact, she even majored in dance through college. “I thought I was going to become a professional,” she says. “Then, one day, I realized it wasn’t really for me. I remember being at the ballet barre and thinking that this wasn’t all there was to me and I decided that I should be doing something else. I realized that the only reason why I loved the class so much, aside from the endorphins, was showing up and being funny for my friends.”

Eventually, Esther made the decision to drop out of school and pursue what she really wanted to do. “I was at a big-time school and it just wasn’t really a fit for me. I didn’t fit in and I remember thinking, ‘This isn’t what I want. I want to go be myself and learn what I want, when I want.’ My parents had lost their job and family had no money and here I was spending all this money in college; I didn’t know why I was doing it – there’s no guarantee that something would come from it. So, I quit school and moved to L.A. to start doing stand up full-time.”

The move, of course, paid off. Esther landed a role on The CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend in 2016 and now that she’s shifted gears to becoming a show creator, she’ll be sharing more of herself and her life experiences with fans and viewers. “I’m both excited and nervous,” Esther says about the Alone Together premiere. “I feel like there are a lot of subjects that we cover that I don’t think I’ve really seen before. Personally, there’s a lot of me in it; there’s an episode about wanting to freeze my eggs but not being able to afford it so, instead, I donate my eggs to be able to raise money for the procedure. That’s something that’s actually true for me; I did want to freeze my eggs but I couldn’t afford it so I considered donating my eggs to make money. I’m excited to share that stuff with people and have people relate to it. “

The series, already renewed for a second season, will find Esther and the rest of the writers back in the writer’s room sooner than later. “As soon as we wrapped Season 1, I had started a list of things I would want to do and see in the show if we got renewed,” Esther says. “I’m so excited to get to do more episodes because I have all these ideas that we didn’t get to go through in the first season; I’m so eager to get together with the writers and share my ideas and see what we can do with it.” With a project that’s so close to her heart, Esther hopes her audience connects with the show in a way that lets them know that they are not alone. “I hope that people watch the show and feel like they saw someone like themselves on TV,” she shares. “That’s all I ever wanted when I was watching a show so I hope this does that for someone. I hope that there are people out there like me who can see this and see that we are alike.”

When she’s not working on Alone Together, Esther hosts the female-centric podcast, Glowing Up, with Caroline Goldfarb. “Caroline was a writer on the show and we just hit off right away,” Esther says. “We would just hijack the writers room with our crazy antics and be so excited about random things. We realized that we were both obsessed with 1. Make up, 2. Celebrities, and 3. Food. At the time, I was looking to start a new podcast and I really wanted a show where the format was just two friends talking; it was a no brainer for Caroline and I to do it together.”

With every episode being different than the last, the variety of the show is what keeps the listeners coming back. “In some of our episodes, we interview people or bring in an expert or someone that we think is really cool so that our audience can get to know them,” Esther describes. “Other episodes are just us talking about our lives or reviewing products.” Esther and Caroline, who have recorded the podcast live on both the east and west coast, hope to take the show on the road a few more times in this new year. “It’s so much fun to do it live,” Esther says. “It’s different but it’s so cool to be able to meet the audience and the fans. It’s actually a very nice marriage of podcasting and standup; we definitely want to continue this.”