Who is Britta Perry in Community?

Show

Community

Played by

Gillian Jacobs

First episode

“Pilot”Season 1, Episode 1, aired September 17, 2009

Role

Main cast

Network

NBC

Occupation

Student, bartender, and aspiring therapist

Show run

2009 to 2015Its sixth and final season streamed on Yahoo! Screen.

Also known as

Britta

Britta Perry is the anarchist, activist, and aspiring therapist of the Greendale study group, and the reason Jeff Winger started it in the first place. Played by Gillian Jacobs, she cares deeply about the world and about her friends, even when her good intentions go spectacularly wrong.

On Community, Britta Perry's story runs through Jeff Winger (Ex-boyfriend), Troy Barnes (Ex-boyfriend), Abed Nadir (Roommate), Annie Edison (Roommate), and Shirley Bennett (Friend).

Who is Britta Perry?

Britta dropped out of high school, traveled the world, and lands at Greendale to finally finish her education. She joins the Spanish study group to improve her grade, then quickly figures out that Jeff only created it to get closer to her. She turns him down but stays in the group, and the two become sparring partners and occasional flames.

She is politically engaged, outspoken, and suspicious of authority, and she cut off contact with her overbearing parents when she was seventeen. Over time she settles on psychology as her field, convinced she has a gift for therapy that her friends are not so sure about.

Personality and comedy

The show's long-running joke about Britta is that she is passionate about every cause and effective at almost none of them. Jeff calls her "pro-anti," she argues for the rights of fictional gnomes in a game of Dungeons and Dragons, and her friends tease her so often that being called "the worst" becomes part of her identity.

Underneath the bluster, Britta is one of the most caring people at Greendale. She is the first to worry when Abed starts seeing the world as stop-motion animation, she comforts him when Troy drifts toward the air conditioning repair school, and her willingness to embarrass herself for what she believes in is part of why the group loves her.

Key storylines

Late in season one, Britta and Jeff sleep together during the campus paintball war. A couple of episodes later, competing with Professor Slater for his attention at the transfer dance, she declares her love for him in front of everyone, a mortifying moment that oddly wins her fans among the women on campus. She and Jeff keep sleeping together in secret through the second year, until Abed exposes it in "Paradigms of Human Memory."

In season four Britta dates Troy, until he breaks up with her on their first anniversary. She graduates and works as a bartender, then re-enrolls once Jeff becomes a teacher and joins the Save Greendale Committee. When Troy leaves Greendale in season five, she moves in with Abed and Annie.

Behind the scenes and legacy

Gillian Jacobs plays Britta in all six seasons. Britta began as the skeptical straight woman and the object of Jeff's flirting, but the writers increasingly leaned into her earnestness and her ability to be confidently wrong, and the role became a showcase for Jacobs's comic range.

Britta's evolution, from Jeff's love interest to a lovable mess with strong convictions, is one of the clearest examples of how Community let its characters grow. Jacobs was among the cast members announced to return when Peacock revealed plans for a Community movie in 2022.

Britta Perry: frequently asked questions

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