Erin Foster’s new Netflix rom-com, “Nobody Wants This,” is based on her real-life love cross-cultural story with her husband, entertainment executive Simon Tikhman.
The series, which Foster created, co-wrote and executive produced, tells the story of a rabbi named Noah, played by Adam Brody, and an agnostic sex podcaster named Joanne, played by Kristen Bell, who meet and fall in love despite the differences in their backgrounds.
“The emotional journey, I would say, is very accurate to my experience of meeting my husband,” Foster told TODAY.com of the show’s real life inspiration.
Foster, 42, is the daughter of legendary music producer David Foster and former model Rebecca Dyer. She was raised without religion or even much family tradition, unlike Tikhman, 40, whose Jewish heritage was a key part of his identity, the couple told the Los Angeles Times.
After the couple fell in love, Foster converted to Judaism and the pair tied the knot on New Year’s Eve in 2019. They now share a nearly 5-month-old daughter, Noa Mimi.
Read on to learn more about Foster’s husband, Simon Tikhman.
The couple met at a gym in Los Angeles
Foster first spotted Tikhman working out at the same gym she went to in Los Angeles, the couple told the Los Angeles Times.
After checking out his pics on Instagram — and being charmed by the wholesome snaps with his parents he posted — she sent him a follow request.
During their first date (grabbing juice after a workout), Tikhman told Foster he intended to marry a Jewish woman. They started dating anyway.
According to a profile of them in New York Magazine’s Vulture, Tikhman said they met at a point in his life “where I was just having fun.”
Foster and Tikhman “would make out in the parking lot and then pretend not to know each other to prevent their romance from becoming gossip among the trainers,” Vulture shared.
Tikham is an entertainment executive
Tikhman is the co-founder of The Core Entertainment, an artist management company that partners with Live Nation, according to Music Row.
The company partnered with Universal Music Group (UMG) to launch The Core Records music label in 2023.
What he’s shared about his Jewish upbringing
Tikhman’s parents fled the former Soviet Union in 1979 because of anti-Semitic persecution, he told the Los Angeles Times.
The couple, who settled in San Francisco, later expressed to Tikhman they had he an obligation to have Jewish children, he told the publication.
“I really respect my parents and know the adversity they went through because they were Jewish,” said Tikhman. “I wouldn’t want to disappoint them.”
He told Foster that she would have to convert for them to be together. Foster told Vulture she was open to converting. “I was like, ‘You want me? Great. It’d be fun to be part of something,’” she said.
He’s ‘private,’ Erin Foster shared. How it impacted the show
Foster, who previously worked as a staff writer on Ryan Murphy’s NBC series “The New Normal,” and also co-hosts “The World’s First Podcast” with her sister Sara Foster, told the Los Angeles Times that her husband was shocked when he learned about her deal with Netflix to create a series based on their love story.
“He was like, ‘Sorry, you sold a show about what?’” she recalled. “I immediately panicked. I hadn’t even considered it (being a problem). To me, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m taking our story and turning it into something cool. You’re welcome.’ And he had a different point of view.”
“I’m from a very private family,” Tikhman explained. “My mom would always tell us stories about how if you said the wrong thing in the Soviet Union as a Jew, you could be taken to jail.”
While speaking to TODAY.com in September, Foster said made an effort to distinguish supporting characters from the real people, partially out of respect for her husband.
“I had a lot of anxiety around that, and I intentionally made the characters really different than the people are in real life because I didn’t want to get divorced,” she joked. “My husband is, like, really private. Being married to someone like me is his personal hell. Literally today, he was like, ‘Have a great day. Good luck with the interviews. Please don’t talk about me.’”
Tikhman’s parents, however, loved the idea of the show. His mom showed her support by agreeing to be an extra in the background of a scene shot at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, the pair told the Los Angeles Times.
Foster told TODAY.com she has a “great relationship” with her in-laws. “She’s nothing like the character,” Foster said of her mother-in-law.
Eventually Tikhman came around to supporting the idea of the series himself because, he told the Los Angeles Times, “This is what Erin’s supposed to be doing.”
“She’s a writer and she’s incredible at it. I was sitting here the other day watching an episode and thinking, ‘I wish I was as good as this character,’” he said.
Foster and Tikhman tied the knot in 2019
Foster and Tikhman got married on New Year’s Eve 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee in front of family members and friends, including Kate Hudson and Rachel Zoe, according to People.
Foster’s dad, David Foster, walked her down the aisle, and her stepmom, Katharine McPhee, performed at the wedding reception.
They are parents of a daughter
They welcomed their first child, daughter Noa Mimi, two weeks early in May 2024. Foster announced Noa Mimi’s arrival on Instagram.