Jackie Tohn Reveals Why She Lived With Jessica Biel for 6 Months as a Teen

“Nobody Wants This” star Jackie Tohn has revealed how her fellow A-lister and close friend Jessica Biel persuaded her to drop out of college when she was a teen—then welcomed her into her family home when she was left with “nowhere to live.”

Tohn, 45, who stars as Esther Rocklov in the hit Netflix series, alongside Adam Brody and Kristen Bell, sat down with Bell’s husband, Dax Shepard, on a recent episode of his podcast, “Armchair Expert,” during which she opened up about her unique living situation as a teen.

She explained that she and Biel, 44, had met at an event when they were just teenagers and quickly became close friends. So close, in fact, that when Tohn began to grow frustrated with her studies at the University of Delaware, she turned to the “7th Heaven” star for advice.

After they connected, Tohn—who was an 18-year-old college student at the time—often confided to Biel about her life in Delaware, telling her pal that she dreamed of making it big in Hollywood.

And, like friends do, Biel—who was 17 at the time—persuaded Tohn to drop out of college and chase her dreams.

“I don’t know if she admits this, but she is who convinced me to drop out of college,” Tohn revealed of best friend, although she conceded that she “wasn’t a hard convince.”

Though the budding actress was eager to move from Delaware to Los Angeles to pursue her on-screen career, she was left with one major issue: She had nowhere to live in the California city. So, Biel stepped in again, this time offering her close friend a room in the L.A. home her family was living in while she was filming the hit show “7th Heaven.”

“It was literally like, ‘I can’t live here, I have nowhere to live,'” Tohn recalled of her first thought when she made her way to Los Angeles. “And [Biel] was like, ‘Live with my family.’ And I was like, ‘See ya, U Delaware!’”

When asked by Shepard whether the rest of the Biel family was concerned about welcoming a relative stranger into their household, Tohn insisted that they couldn’t have been kinder.

Biel’s mother treated her like one of her own children, she said.

“Kim Biel, Jess’ mom, taught me how to write a check. Literally, taught me how to pump gas,” she said, before clarifying that her own family also made sure that she was safe and being taken care of when they learned of her decision to leave college.

“I moved out of the house so young. I went to college for one semester. I barely had my driver’s license for a year,” she recalled.

“I was so young and my parents, to their credit, once they knew I was moving in with this TV star’s family, my parents met her parents and everything was super sweet. I wasn’t going to stay for long. It was just to get me on my feet and move me out here.”

In the end, Tohn stayed with the Biel family for “less than six months.” Although she admitted that she and her best pal found plenty to occupy themselves with during that time—revealing that they used to frequent UCLA parties together, often dressed up in wigs.

Looking back on how she and Biel first became friends, Tohn explained that they met at the now-defunct TV Guide Awards, which she was attending with a friend while on a break from classes at college.

Tohn flew to the West Coast to spend time with actor Benjamin Salisbury, whom she connected with when they starred on “The Nanny.” Salisbury took her as his plus-one to the awards ceremony, where he introduced her to Biel.

“He knew that I loved Jessica Biel,” Tohn explained. “She must’ve been [nominated] for ‘7th Heaven,’ and Ben was probably nominated for ‘The Nanny’ because that was still on.

“So I was Ben’s plus-one and I met Jessie Biel there … and I was just immediately like, ‘Oh dude, I love you. I’m like obsessed with you.’ And she was like, ‘Oh, thanks so much, dude.’ And then we became immediate friends.”

The two women exchanged information and quickly became inseparable.

Since then, Tohn has come a long way from the 18-year-old who was desperately searching for a shot in the industry while studying in Delaware.

Her role in “Nobody Wants This” has since earned her critical acclaim—and has also helped her star to rise significantly in Hollywood, coming off the back of another stellar appearance in the Netflix series “GLOW.”

Today, the New York native has a home of her own in the Los Angeles area. Tohn resides in a contemporary-style house in Glendale, CA, with her partner, Joe Gillette. Gillette moved into the property in 2021.

Meanwhile, Biel has since left Hollywood, relocating to Montana with her husband, Justin Timberlake, and their children, a move they made to give their sons more privacy, something they struggled to find in L.A. and in New York.

In a 2024 appearance on Kelly Ripa‘s SiriusXM show “Let’s Talk Off Camera,” Biel explained that she and Timberlake felt like they were constantly being watched whenever they set foot outside of their homes, even when they were with their kids.

“I don’t really think [fans and paparazzi] necessarily respect that, you know, if we’re out and about with our kids,” she explained.

“It can be somewhat country-dependent, where if we’re in this country, in the States, it’s kind of like state by state, you know. You get hammered on the East Coast, you kind of get hammered on the West Coast. That’s why we don’t really live there anymore.”