Laurel Coppock

Laurel Coppock (born July 17, 1977) is an American comedic actress. Coppock has appeared in several TV series and TV movies, and as a member of the Main Company of The Groundlings in Los Angeles. She is best known for her lengthy appearance in the role as "Jan" in a series of Toyota commercials, beginning in 2012 and continuing into 2023. Early life and education Coppock was raised in Weston, Massachusetts, the daughter of a teacher and writer, Susan Coppock. Her father is a retired lawyer. She graduated from Weston High School, and attended Colby College in Maine, where she was a member of the Colbyettes, an a cappella singing group, and the Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York City. Career She performed comedy for five years in Chicago at Second City and IO Theater, and with Boom Chicago in Amsterdam. In 2007, Coppock was an assistant crew member on Curb Your Enthusiasm, also appearing in a minor role in the episode "The N Word". She was a member of The Groundlings, along with Charlotte Newhouse and Ryan Gaul. A 2011 Los Angeles Times review noted their performance as "a cappella singers who enthusiastically perform Toto's "Africa" even though they are missing six members of their group ("Throat Culture") and know only the background and percussion parts". In 2012, Coppock was selected to play the character "Jan" in a series of Toyota commercials. Toyota interviewed 500 actresses before selecting Coppock for the role. The advent of the character came in the wake of the success of Stephanie Courtney's Flo for Progressive Insurance, leading to the suggestion that Jan was intended as a copy of Flo, although the character of Jan was initially presented in a much more restricted way in the breadth of her activities. Coppock's Jan was also compared to Milana Vayntrub's character, Lily, who began playing a similar role in AT&T commercials around the same time, and has been described as "an amalgam of Flo and Jan". These characters were generally recognized as part of a trend in which "corporations have created their own celebrity endorsers". In 2014, when Coppock became pregnant, Toyota incorporated her pregnancy into her commercials. Toyota's ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi indicated that they would use Coppock's pregnancy "as a way to advance Jan's storyline", although it was observed that Jan, whose commercial appearances rarely develop beyond one-off jokes "doesn't really have a storyline".