(L to R) Lisa Edelstein and ‘Long Story Short’ creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg.
Currently streaming on Netflix is the first season of the animated series ‘Long Story Short‘, which was created by showrunner and executive producer Raphael Bob-Waksberg (‘BoJack Horseman’).
Air Date: August 22nd, 2025
The series features the voices of Ben Feldman (‘Cloverfield’), Angelique Cabral (‘Wish’), Abbi Jacobson (‘The Lego Ninjago Movie’), Nicole Byer (‘Thelma’), Max Greenfield (‘Promising Young Woman’), Lisa Edelstein (‘House’), and Paul Reiser (‘Beverly Hills Cop’).
Moviefone recently had the opportunity to sit down in person with Lisa Edelstein and Raphael Bob-Waksberg to talk about their work on the first season of ‘Long Story Short’, developing the series, drawing inspiration from their own families, the show’s time jumps, Edelstein’s approach to her character, and what she loves about working on the show.
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(L to R) Lisa Edelstein as Naomi Schwartz, Ben Feldman as Avi Schwooper, Max Greenfield as Yoshi Schwooper, Abbi Jacobson as Shira Schwooper and Paul Reiser as Elliot Cooper in ‘Long Story Short’. Photo: Courtesy Of Netflix © 2025.
Moviefone: To begin with, Raphael, can you talk about developing the idea for the series and did you draw inspiration from your own family?
Raphael Bob-Waksberg: Oh, what makes you think that? Sure, in some ways. I think I wanted to tell a story about family. I wanted to tell a story about family over time and the way time changes or does not change certain relationships, and the way they deepen. I’m certainly drawing from my own experience. I think about my families inside jokes, and the way we kind of rat-a-tat-tat with each other. Our family language is interesting. Every family does kind of have their own slang and reference points.
(L to R) Lisa Edelstein as Naomi Schwartz, Max Greenfield as Yoshi Schwooper and Paul Reiser as Elliot Cooper in ‘Long Story Short’. Photo: Courtesy Of Netflix © 2025.
MF: Lisa, what do you love most about being part of this series and working with Raphael?
Lisa Edelstein: I will tell you one of the things that I love, is it’s about family. I love that my character did not want to say the name Jen. She calls her Jennifer all the time. Then finally when she says the name, I kept saying it like Jen. Like it would require too much mouth movement.
(L to R) Lisa Edelstein as Naomi Schwartz, Angelique Cabral as Jen and Abbi Jacobson as Shira Schwooper in ‘Long Story Short’. Photo: Courtesy Of Netflix © 2025.
What did that tell you about the character when you read it in the script?
LE: It’s just that she’s doing her best. She wants to get it right. She really does, but also, she’s filled with some resentment. She wants to know that you don’t want to be called Jennifer, even though obviously your name is Jennifer because nobody’s named Jen, it’s not a name to her. It was just such a great character. The way Raphael writes characters, the way he puts nuances into the storytelling is so specific.
(L to R) Abbi Jacobson as Shira Schwooper, Lisa Edelstein as Naomi Schwartz, Paul Reiser as Elliot Cooper and Max Greenfield as Yoshi Schwooper in ‘Long Story Short’. Photo: Courtesy Of Netflix © 2025.
MF: Raphael, can you talk about the challenges and benefits of telling the story in a non-linear fashion and why you made that choice?
RBW: Well, I wanted the show to feel like memory. I feel like when you’re remembering something, sometimes you’ll think of something and that’ll make you think of something else, and you go all over the place. So, I wanted the story to be told non-chronologically because I felt like that’s how memory works. It kind of gives you this POV of almost looking at things backwards a little bit. I also thought it’d be a great way to get to know the characters because you’re seeing them grow up, right? It’s like, sometimes you see online, someone will do a montage of Daniel Radcliffe growing up over the course of the ‘Harry Potter’ films. It’s like, what if you did that in the first season? Why wait to get to the end to do that montage? I want to feel that feeling now. It’s nice with the format of animation that you can have actors play these characters from childhood to adulthood. You’re not recasting and you’re also not doing prosthetics. Also, because it’s animation you have a built-in suspension of disbelief. I remember in production, we were talking about, “What does an eight-year-old sound like?” One of our producers brought in some recordings of actual eight-year-olds. I was like, “That’s going to be weird. Let’s just have Max and Ben do their regular voices in eight-year-old bodies and you’re just going to go with it.” Again, because it feels like memory, it feels like a different performance. We’re not speeding it up or slowing it down or shifting it or worrying about that. If it doesn’t sound exactly like what a three-year-old sounds like, it’s a cartoon. It’d be more jarring if it was wildly different.
(L to R) Lisa Edelstein as Naomi Schwartz and Paul Reiser as Elliot Cooper in ‘Long Story Short’. Photo: Courtesy Of Netflix © 2025.
MF: Finally, Lisa, what was it like for you playing this character at different points of her life?
LE: It’s so much fun. I mean, it just adds and adds to your understanding of this person that you’re playing. Very rarely have I been like, “Wait a minute.” I don’t think I’ve ever had that experience on this. Even though we’re jumping back and forth, I think because Raphael’s specific about the voice of each character, it’s just expansive to jump around time. It’s also, he’s writing the same person, just from a slightly younger vantage point. So, because you know that person so well, it’s not difficult to jump back and forth.
(L to R) Max Greenfield as Yoshi Schwooper, Paul Reiser as Elliot Cooper and Lisa Edelstein as Naomi Schwartz in ‘Long Story Short’. Photo: Courtesy Of Netflix © 2025.
What is the plot of ‘Long Story Short’?
‘Long Story Short’ is about a middle-class, Jewish family whose narrative is told in a non-linear fashion. The main characters are three siblings—Avi (Ben Feldman), Shira (Abbi Jacobson), and Yoshi (Max Greenfield)—who experience ordinary, adult events while looking back on their childhood.
Who is in the cast of ‘Long Story Short’?
- Ben Feldman as Avi Schwooper
- Angelique Cabral as Jen Schwooper
- Abbi Jacobson as Shira Schwooper
- Nicole Byer as Kendra Hooper
- Max Greenfield as Yoshi Schwooper
- Lisa Edelstein as Naomi Schwartz
- Paul Reiser as Elliot Cooper
(L to R) Lisa Edelstein and ‘Long Story Short’ creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg.
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