Who Is Simon Tikhman, Erin Foster’s Husband?

THE RUNDOWN

• Nobody Wants This creator Erin Foster married Simon Tikhman in 2019.
• The popular Netflix series, which stars Kristen Bell and Adam Brody, was inspired by Foster and Tikhman’s relationship.
• Foster converted to Judaism ahead of her wedding to music executive Tikhman.

For the uninitiated, Netflix’s Nobody Wants This is a series about the unlikely romance between sex podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell) and “hot” rabbi Noah (Adam Brody). Based on the real-life experiences of writer and creator Erin Foster, the popular rom-com returns for its sophomore season on October 23. But who exactly is Foster’s husband, Simon Tikhman, and how did he inspire the plot of Nobody Wants This? Here’s everything we know.

Simon Tikhman is a music executive from San Francisco

One of the reasons Tikhman fit so well into Foster’s family is the fact that he works as an executive in the music industry. (He is not, in fact, a rabbi, as the show would suggest.) Erin, of course, is the daughter of 16-time Grammy winner David Foster, the Canadian record producer and musician who is married to Katharine McPhee.

Alongside his business partner, Kevin “Chief” Zaruk, Tikhman founded The Core Entertainment, a music and artist management company, which has already partnered with Live Nation and Universal Music Group.

Tikhman grew up in San Francisco, where he was raised by Russian-Jewish parents Anatoly and Marina Tikhman, who “fled the former Soviet Union in 1979 after being persecuted for being Jewish,” The Los Angeles Times reported.

Tikhman met Foster at the gym in 2018

Foster met Tikhman at Studeo, a gym in Beverly Hills, in 2018. Recalling their meet-cute during an episode of her podcast, Foster explained (according to People), “We would see each other every other day at 9 A.M. I just started to notice him and being like, ‘Who is that cute guy doing pull-ups and smiling at me?’”

It was Foster who requested to follow Tikhman’s private Instagram account, and he reportedly hesitated for a few days before connecting with her on the platform, according to The Los Angeles Times. A casual meet-up at a juice shop in Beverly Hills was all it took to convince the pair to start dating, People reported. As Foster joked on her podcast, “I was scared because I had a really good time slot at the gym. We had to end this thing in marriage.”

Simon Tikhman and Erin Foster in September 2024.

Speaking to The Los Angeles Times, Foster revealed she was drawn to Tikhman for a number of reasons, calling him “funny and cool and modern,” with “a bit of an old-fashioned feel about him.” Most importantly, Tikhman’s spontaneity regarding checking on relatives and supporting friends felt totally new and attractive to Foster, who told the outlet, “I didn’t grow up with etiquette around those things.”

The couple’s romance faced some minor roadblocks early on, especially as Tikhman “wasn’t thrilled to learn that [Foster] was a public figure,” The Los Angeles Times reported. Speaking to the outlet, Tikhman said, “It wasn’t an ideal situation...I’m just more of a private person.”

Tikhman and Foster’s romance inspired Netflix’s Nobody Wants This

Tikhman and Foster’s romance moved relatively fast. The pair started dating in 2018, and Tikhman proposed to Foster in Napa Valley in August 2019. On New Year’s Eve in 2019, the couple tied the knot in Nashville, Tennessee.

“This show really represents how I view love now, which is so different than how I viewed it before,” Foster told Tudum after the release of Nobody Wants This season 1. “Being in a really beautiful, healthy, fun relationship, it made me soften some of my cynicism.”

In the funny series, agnostic podcaster Joanne unexpectedly falls in love with rabbi Noah, and the pair wrestle with their differing backgrounds and expectations. For Foster, the creation of Nobody Wants This came from an honest place, and allowed her to explore some of the most challenging aspects of being in a relationship.

Adam Brody and Kristen Bell in Nobody Wants This.

“This show is based on the only good decision I ever made: falling for a nice Jewish boy,” Foster told the outlet. “But I realized that being happy is way harder than being miserable—there’s nothing to complain about. So, I created this show based on all the ways that finding the right person can be so hard.”

Revealing what made her relationship with Tikhman different from her previous romances, Foster explained to Tudum, “You don’t have to be with the bad boy that makes you feel like shit but really revs your engine, or the good guy who’s really boring...you can find both.”

Tikhman’s religion is central to his life

After meeting Tikhman, Foster literally lived out the plot of Nobody Wants This. In the series, religion becomes a crucial aspect of the couple’s romance; while rabbi Noah makes it clear he hopes to marry a Jewish woman, Joanne sees herself as agnostic. In real life, Tikhman told Foster, “Whoever I marry, she has to be Jewish,” as reported by The Los Angeles Times. The course of Foster’s life was changed forever.

According to the outlet, the music executive “doesn’t even consider himself particularly religious,” but the persecution his parents faced “instilled in Tikhman the notion that he had an obligation to continue the Jewish lineage.” As he told The Los Angeles Times, “I really respect my parents and know the adversity they went through because they were Jewish...I wouldn’t want to disappoint them.”

Simon Tikhman and Erin Foster in September 2023.

Ultimately, “the idea of converting...didn’t scare” Foster, who “found herself craving the type of tradition she never grew up with,” the outlet explained. As she told the publication, her own “complicated family structure”—including the fact that her father had been married five times—only confirmed Foster’s decision to convert for her future husband.

“I didn’t grow up Jewish, I converted as an adult,” the writer-creator told Tudum. As for how the experience of converting influenced Nobody Wants This, Foster explained, “I wanted to tell a Jewish story, but from an outsider’s perspective for someone who chose Judaism.”

Foster and Tikhman welcomed a daughter, Noa, in 2024

For anyone wondering why Brody’s charismatic rabbi in Nobody Wants This is named Noah, it appears as though the name holds a special meaning for the show’s writer and creator. On May 19, 2024, Tikhman and Foster welcomed their daughter, Noa Mimi, who arrived two weeks early via a home birth. As reported by The Los Angeles Times, Noa was conceived after “20 grueling rounds of IVF over six years.”

Sharing photos of her labor and delivery on Instagram, Foster called Noa’s arrival “the most insane experience of my life, with the best ending.” She continued, “Gave birth to her au naturale in our bed like a beast...Simon would like everyone to know he’s a warrior too.”

Foster’s husband was initially unhappy about Nobody Wants This

Netflix’s Nobody Wants This has been a massive critical success, receiving three Emmy nominations in its first season alone. But Tikhman apparently “freaked out” when his wife revealed “she’d sold a TV show idea based on their love story,” according to The Los Angeles Times. Tikhman was resolute in not wanting to be involved in the series and “asked her not to move forward with writing the show,” the publication explained.

Scared of harming her relationship, Foster procrastinated on writing the pilot episode, and feared she’d struggle to work on the project at all. But executive producer and Modern Family creator Steve Levitan encouraged Foster to pivot, as “the stakes between a Jew and gentile who fall in love” didn’t seem “high enough for a TV audience,” The Los Angeles Times explained. “A rabbi and a gentile who fall in love? Now there was some real conflict.”

Adam Brody and Kristen Bell in Nobody Wants This.

For Foster, her healthy romance with Tikhman began to provide a fount of inspiration. “We couldn’t have been from more different worlds, and those different worldviews really put us in a unique position to have ...not conflict, but challenges moving forward and starting a life together,” she told Harper’s Bazaar.

Fortunately, Tikhman changed his mind about Nobody Wants This, and has since recognized that his wife is “a writer and she’s incredible at it,” as reported by The Los Angeles Times. As for Foster, basing a TV show around her romance with Tikhman was a no-brainer. “I’m obsessed with Simon; he’s my muse,” she told the outlet. “And this show is like a love letter to him.”