The Holyoke Catholic High School grad has also had guest starring roles on "Entourage," NCIS" and "Law and Order: LA."
Holyoke native Lenny Jacobson in a scene from the Showtime TV series "Nurse Jackie."Lenny Jacobson has come a long way from class clown at Holyoke Catholic High School to a featured role on Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie.”
Along the way, there were the typical jobs many struggling actors undertake while waiting for their big break: Waiting on tables, selling furniture and working in a deli. But acting was always his dream.
“It’s the first thing I did in my life that felt like it was what I was supposed to be doing,” said the 37-year-old Holyoke native who plays Lenny, the shaggy emergency medical technician on “Nurse Jackie,” which airs on Sundays at 9 p.m.
Jacobson likes acting because “you become someone” else, he said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles where he lives with his dog, Beloosh, named after comedian John Belushi, one of his childhood idols.
“I enjoy entertaining and being on stage and camera because it’s basically playing make-believe like when you were a kid, but now you make money” at it.
The son of Louisa Guard of Holyoke and Lenny Jacobson of Pennsylvania, Jacobson attended Blessed Sacrament School in Holyoke and graduated from Holyoke Catholic in 1992 where he was involved in athletics, not acting. He spent a year at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I., where he was a member of the men’s basketball team.
After returning home to Holyoke, he attended Holyoke Community College, but “nothing grabbed my attention, and school just kind of stopped,” he said. “I was living in Holyoke, hanging out. I wasn’t really headed in any specific direction.”
A class clown who always had enjoyed entertaining family and friends, Jacobson was in his mid 20s when began talking about moving to New York and acting. Ritch Shydner, a comedian and writer in Los Angeles and college friend of his stepfather, William “Hoagy” Guard, invited him to California to check out possibilities there.
Visiting in 2000, Jacobson found Los Angeles much to his liking, and he moved there is 2001 without a job lined up. He got a job as a waiter: “If you’re going to be an actor, you’ve got to get a job waiting tables,” he quipped.
He took an improvisation class, then acting classes, and in 2002 he began sketch comedy, which made him a better actor and opened his mind to have fun with what he was doing.
He went to auditions and got an agent, continuing to wait on tables. After four years in Los Angeles and only a few non-union commercials and some sketch comedy, he was getting tired of waiting on tables.
But when he landed a Bud Lite beer commercial, he got his Screen Actors Guild card, and his career momentum picked up. He had been close to giving up on acting as a career, but he found himself with money in the bank and a measure of success.
Since then Jacobson has done nearly 20 national commercials, including spots for TruGreen and Wal-Mart. He has had guest-starring roles on several hit shows including “Entourage,” “October Road,” “Southland,” “NCIS” and “Law And Order: LA.”
His spot on “Nurse Jackie,” began with a few lines in the pilot.
Now in its fourth season, “Nurse Jackie” stars Emmy-winner Edie Falco as a nurse on the edge of self-destruction. Jacobson’s role as the love interest of Zoey, a nurse at the hospital, showcases his talent for both comedy and drama, and his presence on the show has increased each season.
That, he credited to “showing up every day,” being friendly and keeping in touch with people who work on the show.
“I’ve been really lucky for something like this to come along in my career,” he said, calling it a dream job with good actors.
Falco has been a role model for him in the way she enjoys her job and treats everyone on the set with respect. “I’ve never seen her not ready to work or not in a good mood and ready to go.”
The show is filmed in New York from September to December, so then he spends a lot of time at home in Holyoke, which, he said, is a bonus for him. “It’s hard living in California, 3,000 miles away” from friends and family.
As he looks to the future, Jacobson intends to continue working on projects “that are done well,” including “Nurse Jackie,” he said. “As long as it goes, I’m happy to be part of it.”
“I want to be part of shows I can be proud of and enjoy doing,” he said.
But getting started in show business can be difficult on self-esteem, he acknowledged. “You get told ‘no’ or you don’t get a job more often than you do,” he said. So he advises anyone thinking of an acting career to be patient and work hard.
Luck also helps, he added.
“You have to be resilient and have a lot of support,” he said, noting the “amazing” support his extended family has given him.
It’s also important to treat others with kindness, he added. “You’ve just got to be a good person and try and get along with people. They don’t want someone (in a cast) who’s a jerk.”
Asked about the entertainment environment, Jacobson said, “You run into more nice people than not.”