He’s a podcaster, comedian, actor, “therapist”, recording artist – and he really wants to be famous. Thankfully, despite what his self-deprecation tells you, his dreams have never been more in grasp.
Facts are facts for Jake Shane. There are some matters on which the 26-year-old TikToker, comedian, and prince of podcasting will not be swayed. His new soft toy, Portland – a stuffed gingerbread woman – is bisexual. “It’s just her thing,” he says. “I just looked at her, and I was like, ‘She’s bisexual.’” Additionally, grass is nature’s pubic hair – something he addressed with his 1.5m Instagram followers days before he sits down with Wonderland. “That just came to me, and I just think it is. It gets trimmed. It grows from the ground.”
Another irrefutable truth is that – despite the car culture and scattered geography of his city of residence, Los Angeles – he will never learn to drive. Why? “Because I can’t drive.” Surely he could with the right teacher? “I can’t. It’s just never going to happen.” Any other twenty-something similarly averse to getting behind the wheel will be familiar with the tired narratives of persuasion – ‘What about if you have kids?’ etc, etc. “I’ll Uber the kids,” Jake says. “I seriously can’t.” Thankfully, he’s already at one with LA’s Uber community. He currently flits between his commitments in three to four rides per day. His favourite driver is a man named Q. “He has a great dog.”
You’re inclined to take Jake’s word for it on Portland, grass, and the fact he’ll never hit up the California DMV. He is, after all, quickly becoming one the most magnetic voices of his generation. An oracle turned to first for witty food criticism – he made his name on Instagram in 2021, by dedicating his account (@passthatpuss) to reviewing octopus. By 2023, he was delivering alternative history lessons via TikTok reenactments of events spanning President Clinton denying his affair with Monica Lewinsky (“I literally wouldn’t do that”) to paying the bill at the Last Supper. And, now, he has Hollywood’s A-listers queuing up for therapy – of sorts – in his barnstorming hit video podcast Therapuss, acquired by Netflix before its season three premiere in February. “When I first started the show, I never imagined it would grow to this scale or lead to a collaboration with one of the world’s leading streaming platforms,” he shares. “I’m deeply grateful to the team at Netflix for championing creator-led projects and the future of podcasting.”
From Selena Gomez to Charli xcx, Ed Sheeran and Glenn Powell – asking who of the celebrity crème de la crème hasn’t had a session with Jake feels more telling than who has. And, today, another guest will sit before him as he heads to film his season three comeback after our call. Aside from eating well and working out on recording days, his preparation routine, or lack thereof, could make other interviewers quiver. “A lot of my best interviews are the ones that I don’t over-prepare for,” he explains. “I think that’s what makes me stand out. The show is as if two people who have never met before are sitting down for a meal and getting to know each other.” Although he does nod when I suggest that such an approach is only achievable thanks to the encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture that runs through his veins.
As for his therapeutic capabilities – “I feel like the show’s not really total therapy,” he smiles. “But sometimes we get there.” Living with obsessive-compulsive disorder and severe anxiety means he knows what professional offerings look like. “I’ve done a lot of different therapies throughout my life,” he tells me. He had therapy scheduled for 11am this morning, but cancelled because he didn’t feel his headspace today was primed for a session. It’s now 10am on the Tuesday of the first long-slog week of the new year, and Jake is wading through his fair share of post-Holidays melancholy. “I’m just waiting for this week to be over, because I feel like this is the adjustment period. I had horrible dreams last night, and I was in a horrible mood when I woke up, so the internal dialogue was not good.” A workout has helped him transition into a better headspace. Amidst it all, he’s also experiencing a post-vacation comedown, having just returned from a trip to Cabo with friends – including model and actor, Kaia Gerber. “It’s rare that I actually enjoy vacation, and I really, really enjoyed myself in Cabo, so I’m kind of just depressed to be home.”
But he has stories to tell. He took a longer break between Therapuss’ seasons so he could live life and load up on anecdotes. He changed his medication also since he last spoke into the mic, so “I’m in a different mental headspace.” He also enjoyed an indulgent festive diet of pop culture – consuming TV, films, and podcasts with the same zeal others were reaching for the box of Quality Streets. Heated Rivalry and The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City were top of his list. “I’m kind of just absorbing the cultural landscape around me, and I’m excited to mix it up and regurgitate it.”
In Therapuss season two’s final episode, he outlined a few pledges for the podcast’s third act. One was to have the set redesigned. “I just saw it for the first time last night, and it looks amazing.” He also wants to continue evolving as an interviewer. And today he adds another – “to speak normally. I think sometimes I put on a voice. I have a SpongeBob tone to my voice when I heighten it.”
Another revelation on that final episode was that Jake’s guest Hilary Duff – who spent the noughties veritably reprogramming pop culture via teen movie treasures (A Cinderella Story) and a definitive turn as Disney Channel’s finest Lizzie McGuire – never felt cool. Increasingly at the nerve centre of Hollywood, with enough A-list friends to fill multiple Met Gala bathrooms, and a profile of his own on an irrepressible rise – surely that’s not a predicament Jake can relate to? “I think every time I somewhat feel cool, I get humbled really quickly,” he says. “So I did feel cool, and then I got humbled last night.” He happened upon a picture of himself taken from a bad angle. “I was like, ‘Ew’. For every one good photo, there’s 20 bad ones, and it just humbles you.”
Fame hasn’t alleviated him of a lifelong disposition for insecurity and self-doubt, instead causing it to mutate. “I definitely worry about what people think about me,” he says. “When I worked a corporate job, it only really mattered what my boss thought of me. And my coworkers. But now it really matters what everybody thinks.” A fear that no one takes him seriously has followed him since childhood, but after his increased visibility, it hinders his dating life in particular. “Sometimes I get scared that [a date] would make fun of me because of my online presence.” However, having never had a boyfriend, finding one in 2026 is a top priority. “I’m allowing myself to exist romantically. I am definitely trying to put myself out there more.” Thankfully, having friends who can identify with the pitfalls of the spotlight has helped. The likes of Sofia Richie Grainge, born under Hollywood’s glare, tell him, “‘You just need to live and not care what other people think of you.’ So I try to do that,” he says.
Insecurity has been a double-edged sword in his ability to attain success and enjoy it, however. “I feel like the reason I’ve been able to get so far is because of my transparency and how insecure I am,” he says. He credits the development of his comedic abilities, in part, to a desire for validation as a child. “I felt that [humour] was the value I brought to the table as a friend. I wasn’t a pretty girl, and I was hanging out with girls. I couldn’t bring the guys around. I thought if I made people laugh, they would want to be around me.” It also made him quite so hellbent on fame. “Definitely, that stems from insecurity. I need this external force to tell me I’m desirable and cool as opposed to myself. And I still feel that way.”
Admitting a desire for fame, rather than a want to be renowned for a skill or art form, could have – at one time – drawn a sideways glance or two. The likes of Paris Hilton were maligned for appearing to want to be famous just for fame’s sake. Jake’s unburdened by any lingering stigma, however. “I do want to be famous,” he tells me emphatically. “I don’t know if there’s a stigma, and I don’t really care because I’ve said it so many times that I can’t even think that there is. So if there is, I don’t want to know, because there’s no going back now.” Many a star’s early cravings for celebrity are quashed after they experience it for themselves – the jaded actor who longs for anonymity within months of being jettisoned into public view is a tale as old as time. “Well, that’s a real artist,” Jake quips.
It’s a convincing point, but it falls apart when you consider that true artistic qualities aren’t something that elude him. He says himself that “podcasting is the new late night or daytime [TV].” So, at the very least, his career mileage so far has marked him out as a gifted broadcaster, entertainer, and comedian – just in digital native, Gen Z dimensions. He also has an immovable place in pop culture history, as the first-ever “Sally” – the viral segment on Role Model’s tour that sees guest stars dance on stage during “Sally, When The Wine Runs Out”. Kate Hudson, Reneé Rapp, and Natalie Portman succeeded Jake, but he was the original. “Thank you for bringing that up,” he says with an exaggerated air of vindication. “Everyone likes to forget.”
And Jake boasts his own album to boot – 2024’s Puss & Poems, made with popstar Alexander 23, featuring heavy-duty guest spots from the likes of Joe Jonas and Tate McRae. It is, albeit, a comedy album – one song is a lament on the failings of the airline JetBlue (“JetBlue shows a different hue of malicious intent / My baggage is probably in a fucking vent.”) There were rumours that a sophomore could be on the cards. “Oh… right. Yes,” Jake stumbles. “Yes. Erm. I haven’t… Eh… no,” he musters, before laughing. “I don’t know if I’m gonna do another. Like, it was a moment of mania.”
We can count on him continuing to make space for other crafts on his CV, however. In November, it was announced that he’s set to create and executive produce a semi-fictional Hulu series memorialising his disorientating rise to online fame. Last year, he ticked off a guest turn in HBO’s Hacks, and this year, he’ll make his silver screen acting debut in supernatural rom-com, Wishful Thinking – the filming of which was “one of the best experiences of my life,” he beams. His next thespian goal is simply, “to just book a role.”
In other areas, he dares, cautiously, to dream bigger. The pinnacle guest on Therapuss, for Jake, has always been Taylor Swift. Given his current interview portfolio, it doesn’t feel like such a pipe dream, despite her reluctance for completing press. He has a letter written in the event he ever gets the opportunity to pass it on. “But I know that it’s so unlikely,” he says, reliably self-deprecating. “And that’s not me fishing.” His online contemporary and previous podcast guest, Amelia Dimoldenberg, has famously said securing Drake for her series Chicken Shop Date would render the job complete. Would a Taylor booking signal the same for Therapuss? “It would definitely be the best moment of my life,” he says. “But I think I would carry on.” In that case, the dreams of Jake Shane are dreams for us all.
Photography by Robert Marrero
Styling by Sydney Lopez at The Wall Group
Words by Andrew Wright
Senior Editor Ella Bardsley
Features Editor Ben Tibbits
Assistant Editor Aswan Magumbe
Art Director Mike Morton
Assistant Art Director Beth Griffiths
Junior Art Director Natasha Lesiakowska
Fashion Director Abigail Hazard
Production Director Lola Randall
Production Director Clemmie Hyde
Grooming by Nathaniel Dezan atOpus Beauty
On-site Producer Krystal Collier
Photography Assistant Cole Magrini
Videography by Robert Marrero
Videography Assistant Cole Magrini