Jennifer Robertson plays the warm, perky supporting woman in ensemble comedies, the neighbour or the mother who keeps the scene grounded. Years of sketch writing taught her to go big; Schitt's Creek taught her to stop, and the work has been better for it since.
Fi1m perspective
In Schitt's Creek (2015) Jennifer Robertson is Jocelyn Schitt, the mayor's wife and the town's schoolteacher, married into a place a rich family once bought as a joke, and she greets every insult the Roses can manage with the same bright, level face. Robertson has said that what she loved about the part was everything going on underneath Jocelyn's smile, and that is the performance. We found ourselves watching her in scenes that were not about her, because the smile never dropped and the eyes kept saying something the mouth had not been told.
That control was learned the hard way. Robertson came up through Canadian sketch, writing and performing on This Hour Has 22 Minutes (2003) and Comedy Inc. (2003), where the instruction was louder and larger every take. She has said of the move to the Levys' show that "it was a great lesson on how to reel it in," and that is exactly what is on screen: a comic who knows where the big version of the line is and chooses the small one. Our review gave the series 82 and saved its praise for Catherine O'Hara, which was right, and Robertson's part is the kind that is only noticed when it is done badly.
Since then she has been the mother or the neighbour in somebody else's story. Ginny & Georgia (2021) gives her Ellen Baker, a neighbour and parent in a drama that wants its comedy grounded rather than broad, and she went so far as to learn sign language for it. Single All the Way (2021) puts her in another family ensemble as Lisa. The move from sketch into this sort of work is the whole shape of her career, and she has made it without the strain that usually shows when a sketch player tries to act quietly.
The limit is the casting rather than the actor. Reminders of Him (2026) hands her a supporting part as Ruth in a Colleen Hoover adaptation we scored 49, a film carried by Maika Monroe and let down by a romance that runs on coincidence, and there is little in it for anyone at the edges to do. Robertson is good at warmth, and warmth is what she is offered, over and over. Somebody should give her a woman who is not kind and see what the face does then.
Biography
Jennifer Robertson is a Canadian actress, writer and comedian. She is known for playing Jocelyn Schitt in the CBC sitcom Schitt's Creek (2015–2020).
Robertson began her career in Canadian sketch comedy series including This Hour Has 22 Minutes (2003–2004) and Comedy Inc. (2003–2010). She has appeared in films and series such as Twitches (2005), Wingin' It (2010–2012) and Ginny & Georgia (2021–present) as Ellen Baker. For her work in Schitt's Creek, she received a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the ensemble cast and four Canadian Screen Award nominations.
