EJ Marcus does the perfect LA dad
Meet Jeremy O'Harris's favorite TikTokker.
Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, from Kate Lindsay and Nick Catucci.🧩
I need LA dad to pick me up from school. —Kate
While the 25-year old EJ Marcus only started seriously posting TikToks a month ago, it’s already hard to imagine a For You page without “LA dad” or “millennial sister,” two of the comedy characters the Los Angeles preschool teacher created.
“I think that people really resonate with familial relationships—relationships generally,” Marcus tells me over a video call. “Like someone in your life who occupies this ridiculous space.”
Marcus’s reach extends well beyond his 62,000 TikTok followers. His videos regularly receive hundreds of thousands, if not millions of views, and you can find people like Jeremy O’Harris and Caroline Calloway in the comments.
“EJ has very quickly become one of my favorite tiktokers in this month of pure hell on earth,” O’Harris tweeted in February.
A good TikTok character scratches a particular itch in your brain—if you’re like me, you watch them over and over, and then go digging in hopes that the creator has made more in the series. They’re little snapshots of a type of person you didn’t even realize you were familiar with, and a good one picks up on the idiosyncrasies that, especially in such a serious world, remind you that being a human is inherently silly.
In this interview for paid subscribers, EJ and I chat about getting on TikTok by accident, how he builds his characters, and the unique support of the TikTok comedy community.