Hannah Einbinder is an Emmy-nominated comedian, actor, and writer best known for playing Ava Daniels, a bi comedy writer, in the acclaimed HBO series Hacks.
Born in Los Angeles, Einbinder is the daughter of original Saturday Night Live cast member Laraine Newman and actor Chad Einbinder. Before becoming an actor, she established herself as a stand-up comedian, appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2020. Hacks, where she stars alongside Jean Smart’s Deborah Vance, was her first TV role — and has earned her Emmy, Golden Globe, and Critics’ Choice Award nominations.
Beyond her work in entertainment, Einbinder — who is Jewish and anti-Zionist — has used her platform to advocate for the liberation of Palestinian, as well as speaking openly about living with ADHD.
She has openly discussed her bisexuality, the importance of visibility, and the challenges that can come with it, incorporating it into her stand-up comedy from the beginning of her career. In 2022, she told Variety in 2022 that she had also experienced biphobic reactions for this, mostly from men, which she says “created a thicker skin for me”.
Throughout the five series of Hacks, she helped shape the nuances of Ava’s bisexual representation, alongside other queer writers, in ways that have resonated with many bi viewers. As she explained to GLAAD in 2022, “Her sexuality is just a part of who she is, not the entire focus; she’s allowed to be a fully fleshed-out person, which is the goal.”
Then, in The Hollywood Reporter, she added,
It warms my heart when I get messages from people who feel like this is an in-depth and non-fetishized representation of bisexuality.
@hollywoodreporter #hannaheinbinder talks about queer representation in #hacks during the comedy actress #thrroundtable: "it feels lived in and real" | #offscript debuts friday on ifc and @amcplus and sunday on thr.com and youtube 📍: the luckman club at soho house weho @sohohouse ♬ original sound – The Hollywood Reporter
She knows the power of this representation firsthand, too, as she explained to Out magazine in 2022:
When people see characters and they get to know them, then they feel like they have someone in their life who is queer who they love…and I think that makes change.
As someone who exists in a [kind of] middle in terms of sexuality and gender, I have at times, especially in my early days of attempting to accept myself, felt really out of place. I was never fully one thing, so I never fully belonged anywhere,
She also told The Advocate in 2021:
I think if I had seen more images of bisexual characters, it would have been easier. It would have been more clear. My journey wouldn’t have taken me so long to accept that I had been kind of brainwashed by the binary in a lot of ways.
In The Guardian in 2022, she shared,
I think there are only a handful of shows that have even attempted to portray bisexuals as being humans worthy of love, and humans whose identities are seen as valid and accepted… It is a dream as a queer person to be able to be a part of that representation that I’d loved to have seen growing up.
Then in The Wrap, she added,
I think it probably would have helped me to come out sooner if I saw things like this, so it’s really cool. I’m so happy that Ava exists, even if she is chaotic, which like, you know, is certainly real. I think chaotic bisexual representation is also very valid.
In 2025, Einbinder received a Visibility Award from the Human Rights Campaign for her contributions to LGBT and bi representation.
Through her comedy, acting, and advocacy, Hannah Einbinder has become an important voice for bi visibility. Her success demonstrates the growing demand for complex, more nuanced bi characters that can empower future generations to see themselves reflected more fully on screen.