"I've never been in something that people watch," says Molly Gordon, "which is a very different experience." She's talking about her breakout turn in the bittersweet Emmy favorite The Bear and underselling her résumé a little: She's been on Ramy and Animal Kingdom, as well as indie movies like Booksmart. But it's true that playing the woman trying to get into the locked freezer of Carmy's heart has put a more intense spotlight on Gordon. "Carmy is a character that people feel so protective over, and it's been kind of controversial to bring a romantic element into the show," she says. "That's been at times annoying, fascinating, and interesting—just to be a part of something that people have opinions on."

Gordon will have to get used to it. The Bear's fourth season and her Sundance road trip movie Oh, Hi! both premiere this summer. In Oh, Hi! she plays a woman who goes to surprising lengths to convince her boyfriend to commit. Gordon worked with writer-director Sophie Brooks on the story for the dark comedy, which allows her to portray the sort of intense character she's always hunting around for. "We don't really get to be crazy," she says. "There's just still not that many great female characters out there—the kind of wild characters usually played by men."

Before The Bear, Gordon was probably best known for cowriting, codirecting, and starring in Theater Camp, a critically acclaimed 2023 comedy that won a Special Jury Award at Sundance. This summer she will start shooting her solo directorial debut, Peaked, an A24 high school reunion comedy she also cowrote. "I feel lucky that I can create things, because what's so hard with acting is that you have to wait for someone to go, 'Here, you can be creative today,'" she says. "With writing, every day you can wake up and have agency over your own creativity in your own life."

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A Los Angeles native, Gordon learned about storytelling from her parents, director Bryan Gordon and writer-director Jessie Nelson. "My parents were always breaking story"—i.e., plotting out movies and TV shows—"or trying to turn shitty things that happened to them into a funny idea around the dinner table," she says. She's aware that industry outsiders think second-generation writers and actors have an advantage because of their access, and she doesn't disagree, though she thinks there's more nuance to it: "It's access and all these things, but it's also just realizing how inconsistent and hard it is."

Gordon enrolled at NYU but only lasted a few weeks. She stayed in New York, working at Balthazar and taking acting classes: "I was really brave when I was 18. I don't think I'll ever be as cool as I was then, because I had no friends and took classes with 50-year-olds." Finally, the roles started to come, as did the friends. Gordon's social circle now includes Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott. "I actually can't imagine that I would have a career without those girls," she says. "I don't really have any doctor friends—I'm kind of friends with this circus. We're all insane."

Gordon met The Bear creator Christopher Storer during her three-episode stint on Ramy, which Storer also directed and executive-produced. They remained friends, and he offered her a role on his Emmy-winning series. She signed on knowing only that she'd play a doctor. It wasn't until later that Gordon realized she was Carmy's love interest. "I'm always 'the friend,'" she says. "I've never played the romantic person. I was like, 'Whoa, this is going to be a different experience.'"

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She says this season of The Bear will explore Carmy's struggle to add some life to his work-life balance, which is something that's been weighing on her mind as well. Last fall, Gordon found herself at the center of tabloid speculation when photos emerged of her and Jeremy Allen White cozying up and kissing off-set. She sidesteps the topic gracefully, saying, "With the internet, I just think—I even see it in myself as a fan of things—we're just a more judgmental society," she says.

Gordon's role on The Bear is much more dramatic than she's accustomed to and speaks to her hopes for the future—that she won't be stuck playing in her comedy ball pit. Yes, she loves projects with "a little bit of cheekiness," but she's drawn to darker material too. Even with her acting career taking off, Gordon's focus remains on writing and directing. (She's also cowriting a new take on the 1987 comedy Outrageous Fortune for Searchlight.) "I don't care about being the lead in something," she says. "I want to work with people that I admire, and that feels like more of the key to longevity for me in this career than trying to make it a name for myself as an actress."