How Brian Jordan Alvarez’s English Teacher Made It to FX [Video]

The origin story of FX and Hulu’s English Teacher begins with someone in bed. Before you worry (or hope?) that this is going to take an erotic turn, know that what was happening was perhaps one of the least-sexy things someone can do in bed: Scrolling through social media.

“It was absolute happenstance,” executive producer Paul Simms tells Consequence, about the process of discovering English Teacher creator Brian Jordan Alvarez. “I was lying in bed reading Twitter, because I’d read the rest of the internet already, and someone said, ‘Oh, [this web series] is really funny.’ I’d never heard of it, but I clicked on [The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo] and 30 seconds in I was like, ‘Ah, this is fun.’ And then I just kept watching.”

This was three years ago, at which point Simms was not only an established television creator, thanks to the classic NewsRadio— …