Diksha Sundriyal
A complicated romance ensues in Netflix’s ‘Nobody Wants This,’ when Joanne, a podcaster, falls in love with Noah, a rabbi. While he is religiously oriented, she is an agnostic who has not found any meaning in God so far. His family wants him to end up with a Jewish girl, and they are still not over his ex, Rebecca, who they think is perfect for him. Joanne, on the other hand, is a shiksa they immediately dislike. The story takes many twists and turns, opening up more challenges in their romance and leading them to wonder if it’s all worth it in the end. The show and its characters are made more interesting by the fact that they are inspired by real events and people.
Noah is Loosely Inspired by Erin Foster’s Husband
‘Nobody Wants This’ is created by Erin Foster, who drew from her own experiences to craft the mostly fictional story. The character of Noah is loosely based on her husband, Simon Tikhman, though there are several differences between them, starting with the fact that Tikhman is not a rabbi, though he is Jewish. His parents emigrated to the US in 1979 from the former Soviet Union, a detail that Foster kept in Noah’s background. She also kept the closeness Tikhman has with his parents and his family, though she did make some changes to the family members in the show. For instance, Tikhman’s parents weren’t nearly as disapproving of Foster as Noah’s parents are of Joanne. In the same vein, Tikhman revealed that his brother does not have the same comic timing as Noah’s brother, Sasha, in the show.
Foster met Tikhman in 2018. They used to go to the same gym and, after a while, connected with each other. Initially, they kept their romance a secret because they didn’t want it to turn into gossip. However, things progressed fairly quickly, and they were engaged within a year. Foster eventually converted to Judaism before she and Tikhman got married, which is something she brings into the show by putting it as a condition on Joanne if she wants to be with Noah. There are several other details and instances from her relationship with Tikhman that Foster added to the story to make the on-screen couple feel more relatable. All this while, the show’s creator also made sure to keep enough fiction in the mix so that Noah is a person of his own rather than a carbon copy of Tikhman.
Simon Tikhman Works in the Music Industry
Unlike Noah, who is a rabbi, Simon Tikhman is a record-label owner and talent manager. He is the co-founder, with Kevin “Chief” Zaruk, of a talent management company called The Core Entertainment. It was created in 2019 in partnership with Live Nation and has offices in Nashville and Los Angeles. Its roster of talent includes successful rock bands like Nickelback and Valley and other young stars like Bailey Zimmerman, Nate Smith, Anna Graves, Rachel Wiggins, Gavin Lucas, Dillion James, and Josh Ross, to name a few. Apart from being involved in music management, the company is also involved in other ventures focused on sports, technology, and Hollywood. The company has collaborated with professional athletes and dipped its toes into producing movies and TV shows.
In 2023, Tikhman, along with Zaruk, was on Billboard’s 2023 Country Power Players list. In the same year, the duo announced a collaboration with Universal Music Group (UMG), launching The Core Records, headed by Tikhman and Zaruk. Around the same time, they also expanded The Core Entertainment by launching its new Producer Management division, to provide space for music producers to grow. Since then, the roster of the talent they represent and nurture has expanded considerably. Tikhman is noted as one of the most notable entrepreneurs in the music industry and has appeared on several platforms to talk about his journey. In August 2024, he appeared on The Manager’s Playbook Podcast to give an insight into what it takes to make it big in the music industry.
Having an entrepreneurial spirit from the start, Tikhman founded his first company while he was a student at the University of Southern California. Called Interactive Athlete, it helped professional athletes and coaches in creating content and merchandise. He was also involved in a software development company, Monclarity, and a video game company, TikGames. In 2008, he dabbled in the liquor industry with his company Simont Enterprises and later got involved with the Fund by First Access Entertainment as its managing partner. He has also held investments in several companies in different fields, like RPST Ventures, Glympse, and Vision Venture Partners, to name a few.
Tikhman and Foster are Happily Married
Tikhman lives in West Hollywood in LA with his wife, Erin Foster, with whom he welcomed a daughter named Noa Mimi in May 2024. The couple also has a house in Hancock Park, which has been under renovation. They got engaged after Tikhman planned an elaborate proposal at Napa Valley Reserve, surprising Foster. They tied the knot on New Year’s Eve in December 2019 at Saddle Woods Farm in Nashville, Tennessee. Before their wedding, the couple attended eight weeks of Choosing Judaism classes. This is also when Foster converted to Judaism, mainly citing her husband’s Reform denomination. While Foster, who also runs a podcast, is very open about her personal life and experiences, she noted that Tikhman comes from a family who prefer their privacy. When she decided to write a show about their relationship, he was initially skeptical. However, he later agreed to it, saying that Foster has “an honest voice,” marked with a sensibility that shows her where to draw the line. The show was initially titled ‘Shiksa,’ and this is what Tikhman still refers to it as.
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