Laurel Coppock, the face behind Jan, is a comedian and actress who began her career in the world of improv comedy. From humble beginnings in comedy, she has become a staple on television screens, captivating audiences with her engaging presence. Coppock’s journey has taken her across the globe, from New York to the Netherlands, spreading joy and laughter. Her cheerful disposition is a hallmark of her charm. From her early days to her current status as a prominent brand spokesperson, here’s a closer look at the life of Laurel Coppock, or Jan from Toyota.

Like many in the acting world, Laurel Coppock’s career began away from the spotlight, rooted in a supportive and accomplished family. Hailing from New England, Coppock’s family includes her mother, Susan, an author of a memoir; her sister, Selena, a stand-up comedian and writer; and her other sister, Emily, a seasoned fine art dealer and appraiser. Laurel’s passion for acting ignited in sixth grade during a school play. “I played a lawyer and made bold character choices,” she shared with Colby News. “I was the most character-driven lawyer you’ve ever seen, even walking in right angles.”

During her time at Colby, Coppock refined her diverse talents. “As a performing arts major, I took dance classes, built sets, crafted costume designs, and considered what characters should wear,” she explained, praising Colby’s “excellent training.” She then moved to New York City for further training at the Circle in the Square Acting Conservatory. With her skillset expanding, Coppock realized her passion lay in a specific niche of acting and set her sights on pursuing it.

Laurel graduated from Weston High School in Massachusetts then attended Colby College. There, she performed as a member of the Maine institution’s Colbyettes, a singing group that belts out acapella tunes and puts on public performances, both at the college and in venues off campus. She would later use her singing skills in a holiday-themed Toyota ad, belting out a reworked rendition of “Carol of the Bells” that let viewers know about the brand’s latest financing and lease offers.

Coppock honed many of her foundational talents while attending Colby. “To be a performing arts major, I had to take dance, I had to spend time building sets, I had to create costume proposals and really think about what people are wearing and how to design,” she said, adding that Colby offered “such fabulous training.” Coppock then moved to New York City, where she received further training at the Circle in the Square Acting Conservatory. From there, the sky was the limit, but she soon realized that she wanted to pursue a specific type of acting.

Laurel Coppock left New York for Chicago when she realized that she wanted to be a comic instead of a dramatic actress. “It took all that dramatic training to realize I only cared about comedy,” she told Colby News. Once in Illinois, she set about trying to get her foot in the door at the Windy City’s renowned improv institutions. She participated in ImprovOlympic shows, and she also became a member of Second City, where the likes of Bill Murray and Tina Fey got their starts. “I moved to Chicago and started doing improv every night, which really developed those comic instincts,” Coppock said. “It was a great learning experience, taking a lot of creative risks and getting on stage constantly.”

Coppock subsequently went on a tour in Europe, where she worked with Boom Chicago’s Amsterdam Theater improv program in The Netherlands and did comedy there from 2005 to 2006. She quickly found out that audiences in Europe were a lot harder to please than those back home in the States. “It’s a great way to cut your teeth comedically, because the audiences there were brutal,” she said. “They would come up after the show and tell you that you weren’t funny.” Nonetheless, Coppock admits she enjoyed experiencing a different culture from her own and taking long hikes in the Dutch countryside.

The next stop for Coppock was Los Angeles, where she hooked up with yet another respected improv comedy troupe: The Groundlings. The Los Angeles Times named her among a batch of “fresh talent” at the troupe in 2010, and she would make her movie debut the following year, playing a minor role in the 2011 romantic comedy “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” That same year, Coppock appeared in one-off roles in “Workaholics” and “Modern Family,” and in 2012 she popped up in “The Office” and “2 Broke Girls,” establishing herself as a reliable guest actor. It was in 2012 that she made her debut as Jan, which would become her best-known character.

Like many stand-up and improvisational comics of her generation, Laurel Coppock became an online comedian while working in Los Angeles. Coppock popped up in a variety of Funny or Die shorts, including a comedy-based talk show called “The Laurel and Meg Show” with Megan Grano. The pair even welcomed Jane Lynch as a guest at one stage, such was the pull of Funny or Die. The comedy video website and production company (which was co-founded by Will Ferrell) has featured a bevy of famous actors over the years, including Steve Carell, Jim Carrey, Ryan Gosling, Patrick Stewart, Daniel Radcliffe, Mila Kunis, Hilary Duff, James Van Der Beek, and Selena Gomez.

In 2015, Coppock would team up with Grano (who would soon land the role of Donna in “Veep,” appearing in some of the best episodes) and fellow comedian Molly Erdman (who would go on to land guest spots in shows like “Forever” and “S.W.A.T.”) to create The BreakWomb, a YouTube channel based on mom humor. Coppock had given birth to her first child with her partner, comedian and writer Bobby Mort, the previous year. and she drew on her experiences as a new mother to shape the web series’ routines and conversations. Many of their comedy bits involved sitting around with coffee reflecting on their kids’ growth spurts and tantrums, things that all new mothers can relate to but don’t often get to laugh about. The channel, which gained over 20,000 subscribers, lasted from 2015 to 2017.

Laurel Coppock is said to have beaten out around 500 other actresses for the role of Jan in the Toyota ads. And, it turns out, one of her rivals for the spot was already a comrade in commercial arms: Stephanie Courtney, aka Flo from Progressive. There are a number of parallels in the lives of Coppock and Courtney. They’re both Groundlings alumni, they both went on to become famous for commercials, and they both managed to carve out acting careers outside of their famous brand characters. The ironic thing about Courtney interviewing for the Jan from Toyota role and not getting it is that Jan is something of a combination of Flo and Lily from AT&T.

Coppock and Courtney have since appeared in joint events such as the Groundling’s Commercial Spokesperson panel. On top of that, it looks like they have a personal relationship; while linking a New York Post article about their mutual success as pitchwomen on Instagram, Coppock said, “This is an article (link in bio) in the NY Post about my dear friend Steph Courtney and me and I couldn’t feel more honored to be mentioned in her company bc obviously she’s the best, and not to mention the funniest and the kindest.” The article in question hails the pair as “billion-dollar pitchwomen” and “advertising’s MVPs,” underling their importance to their respective brands and how important it is to hire the right spokesperson.

Laurel Coppock has admitted that she was ready to stop auditioning for commercials entirely when she was offered the part of Jan. After being rejected multiple times for a variety of campaigns in spite of testing well, she took a brief pause from trying out for them for her own mental health — the wave of constant knock-backs was depressing her. Interestingly, Coppock was not initially asked to try out for the part of Jan. Instead, she auditioned for and then appeared in a regional promo for the car brand. Reaction to those commercial bits encouraged the company to invite her to audition as Jan, and the rest is advertising history.

“They picked four women to do demo spots,” Coppock explained on the web series Commercial Break. Toyota then took these unaired commercials and presented them to focus groups. Luckily for her, the groups were held in Boston, which she believes went in her favor. Coppock has since admitted that she didn’t expect the part to last for as long as it has. “I originally booked this campaign that was supposed to be a year long, and 13 years later, it’s still going,” she told Colby News. “We shoot commercials four or five times a year, and I often do personal appearances as Jan for the Toyota team.”

Laurel Coppock became pregnant with her second child in 2018. Just like they did the first time she was pregnant in 2014, the writers of her Toyota ads wrote the fact that Jan was carrying a child into the ads and she appeared pregnant as Jan for the second time. This means that, in Jan’s fictional world, she’s got at least two kids. No one has been cast as “Mr. Jan” yet, though fans of the ads would no doubt love to meet the father of her two little ones.

At the time of Coppock’s first pregnancy, Saatchi & Saatchi — the ad firm which handles Toyota’s campaigns — said the plan was to use the pregnancy to enrich Jan’s storyline and world, which seemed to imply that we would be getting more of a window into her personal life in future Toyota ads. It seemed like a great idea, but, over a decade later, we’re still waiting for these Jan-centric ads to come into fruition. It could be that the decision makers behind the ads decided that it wasn’t a wise route to go down, seeing as Jan’s world relies on simple jokes and gags instead of full-born storylines.

The first time that Coppock was pregnant, Toyota took advantage with a blitz of Mother’s Day ads. In these commercials (and the ones that would follow for the duration of her pregnancy), Coppock would wear looser-fitting tops and smocks, and some of Jan’s clients even make direct mention of her baby bump. Toyota continued to embrace the change and publicity, photographing Coppock with a tiny sweater and hinting that Jan might decide to name her child after one of their vehicles. “We think Jan might be leaning towards Camry or Sienna, but would be open to hearing name suggestions from our extended Toyota family,” a Toyota rep told MediaPost.

While she will probably always be best known for playing Jan from Toyota, Laurel Coppock is so much more than just the face of the Japanese car brand in the United States. We’ve already mentioned her guest spots in “Modern Family,” in which she played Lily Tucker-Pritchett’s preschool teacher; “The Office,” in which she played a Dwight-sympathizing secretary named Stephanie; and “2 Broke Girls,” where she appeared as a high-society type at a party hosted by Martha Stewart. But she’s appeared in several other big shows over the years, from “Arrested Development” to “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” She made her second appearance in the latter show as recently as 2024, appearing as a vigil-goer in the episode “Ken/Kendra.”

Adult Swim viewers will also recognize her voice from the animated show “Mike Tyson Mysteries,” in which she voiced the characters Cathy Walker and Amy Morgan. Despite being less known than the likes of “Rick and Morty” and “Aqua Teen Hunger Forces,” “Mike Tyson Mysteries” is considered to be one of the best Adult Swim series of all time. 2011’s “Crazy, Stupid, Love” remains Coppock’s only feature appearance, though she’s auditioned for other films, including “Bridesmaids,” as she revealed during her chat with Commercial Break. “I was sort of always the bridesmaid, which I auditioned for incidentally and also didn’t get,” she said, adding, “If you have good agents they’ll really encourage you.”

According to Laurel Coppock herself, she doesn’t really get recognized very much when she’s out and about living her life in Los Angeles. It’s such an unusual occurrence that when she was approached by a reporter from The Fresno Bee while at an event in support of the TV show “John Loudermilk” — on which her husband is a producer — she was shocked to learn that it was her and not Bobby Mort that they wanted to interview. “I don’t get recognized a lot except for a few people like you,” Coppock said. “Most times people think I am someone they went to school with.”

It’s a miracle that she doesn’t get noticed more while out and about in public, as Jan is one of the most recognizable and beloved ad mascots in history. Campaigns featuring Jan have even won awards, with Toyota scooping the Nielsen Automotive Award for Best Sales Event Campaign for the Toyotathon Jackpot ads. Jan has become such a vital part of the branding that Toyota turned to her in a time of crisis: When COVID-19 hit, Coppock found herself shooting commercials for Toyota in her living room with the help of her husband, hoping to offer consumers a sense of safety and continuity in a time of great uncertainty.

While she doesn’t pop up in YouTube comedy sketches anymore, Laurel Coppock is still using social media to quench her thirst for comedy. She has Instagram and TikTok, though she’s more active on the former, with her most recent post as of this writing coming in July 2025. Coppock’s content combines personal posts with updates on her career, industry news, short improvisational sketches (usually co-produced with her husband, Bobby Mort, who sometimes appears himself), and links to interviews that she’s given.

One thing’s for sure: Coppock definitely isn’t afraid to make fun of herself. Her social media is a hodgepodge of information that even sometimes includes nods toward her life as Jan. Mort and Coppock have also popped up on Vimeo thanks to their work as members of the Titled Sketch Project, a group of comics who create parodies and sketches. While she’s not a slave to social media, she’s one of the most active commercial spokespersons on the internet and isn’t afraid to give fans a glimpse at the ins and outs of her life.

Interested in the lives of other famous commercial actors? Then why not check out the tragic true life story of the Allstate Mayhem guy or Looper’s breakdown of why the actor who plays Doug in the Liberty Mutual commercials looks so familiar. Like Coppock and Stephanie Courtney, these two guys are among the lucky ones — sometimes, famous commercial actors vanish once their campaigns have ended.