“He’s the chillest, most laid back, most delightful person,” Tohn tells PEOPLE about Brody

The cast of Nobody Wants This is always there to support each other’s wins, one text at a time.

While discussing her role as Esther in the hit Netflix series with PEOPLE, Jackie Tohn explains that her castmates, including Adam Brody and Kristen Bell, are “over the moon” about the show’s success and the praise it’s receiving.

“A major mistake you can make in this business is counting your chickens, right? You’re like, ‘Oh my God, the show’s going to be a hit.’ We’d be foolish to get our expectations up like that,” Tohn, 44, tells PEOPLE about making the show. “We were super hopeful with the Adam and Kristen of it all, in the writing and the whole thing. And we are over the moon about the response.”

The cast of Nobody Wants This is not only celebrating the show’s positive response but also the individual successes of their costars. “We have a ‘Shiksa Shegetz’ group thread and when we’re all texting each other, one of us is more excited than the next,” Tohn says about the aptly named group chat.

While all the stars have received positive attention from the show, Brody, 44 — who plays the “Hot Rabbi” that falls in love with Joanne (Bell), a non-Jewish podcaster — has particularly caught fire on social media for his good looks.

“We bombarded Adam semi-regularly about how he doesn’t have Instagram,” Tohn says about their group chat. “Then something so cute happened. Tim [Simons] posted a bunch of memes about Adam and he asked, ‘Where did you see those?’ It’s like, ‘You are the cutest person that has ever lived. It’s on Instagram!’”

Adam Brody as Noah in ‘Nobody Wants This’.Stefania Rosini/Netflix

Discussing Brody’s reaction to the praise about his looks, Tohn adds, “Obviously you’d have to ask him, but he’s the chillest, most laid back, most delightful person. I think he probably is just smiling at it but he doesn’t really pay attention.”

Long before she and Brody were cast in their respective roles, Tohn knew that he would be a great fit for the show. “I knew the project existed because in early 2023 I was at Kristen’s house,” Tohn recalls about her long-time best friend Bell, 44. “She was like, ‘I’m doing a show with Erin Foster called Shiksa for Netflix. What’s a good list of hot Jewish men to play this rabbi?’”

She adds, “I was like, ‘Well, obviously first things first, it’s Adam Brody. Duh,’ and then I went on and was like, ‘There are the Max Greenfields of the world. Are we going younger? Is it Skylar Astin?’ I mean, my Jewish actor knowledge is sort of encyclopedic.”

(L to R) Jackie Tohn as Esther, Kristen Bell as Joanne in ‘Nobody Wants This’.Adam Rose/Netflix

A year later, Tohn herself auditioned for the show, but not for the character she initially planned to. “My agent was like, ‘Hey, we have an audition for you to play Rebecca on this new Netflix show, Shiksa.’ So I texted Kristen and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I have an audition for Rebecca on your show.’ And she was like, ‘You’re much more of an Esther if you want to read for that instead,'” Tohn recalls to PEOPLE. “I didn’t find out I got it until January 2024.”

While her career has been a “lengthy, wild, up-and-down journey,” Tohn is grateful to be where she is today. “I’m loving it all. I’m hearing it all and I’m having a nice time,” she says about the response to the show and her character. “All the pieces really aligned on this one.”