Ayo Edebiri

2014–2021: Early work

In 2014, Edebiri acted in an episode of the series Defectives. She started her career as a stand-up comedian and performed a stand-up set on Comedy Central's Up Next.^[15][13] Her scripted digital series Ayo and Rachel Are Single began airing on Comedy Central in May 2020, which she co-wrote and co-starred in with her friend and fellow comedian Rachel Sennott.^[16] Edebiri made her film debut in the 2020 comedy-drama Shithouse in an uncredited role.^[17] She co-hosted a podcast called Iconography with Olivia Craighead in which guests were interviewed about their shared personal icons.^[13][16] The podcast was produced by Forever Dog and the second season was released in 2020.^[18]

A television writer, Edebiri wrote for the sole seasons of The Rundown with Robin Thede and NBC's Sunnyside.^[19][13] She joined the writing staff of Big Mouth for the show's fourth season.^[20] After Jenny Slate stepped down from voicing the character Missy so the role could be played by a Black actress, Edebiri auditioned and was selected as the replacement in August 2020.^[19][21] Her voice acting as the character began at the end of the show's fourth season.^[19] She was a writer and actress in Dickinson's second season on Apple TV+, where she first worked with Christopher Storer, who later created The Bear.^[11] She acted in a supporting role in the 2022 film adaptation of the Jennifer E. Smith young adult novel Hello.^[22]

2022–present: Breakthrough and The Bear

In 2022, Edebiri gained wider prominence as a main cast member on the FX on Hulu series The Bear.^[23] She received a Golden Globe Award, Primetime Emmy Award, and Independent Spirit Award in addition to nominations from the Gotham Awards and the Critics' Choice Awards for her role as Sydney Adamu, an ambitious young sous chef.^[24][25][26] Lucy Mangan of The Guardian praised her performance declaring her "magnificent" and "still lighting up and punching up every scene she is in".^[27]

Also in 2022, she became a writer and consulting producer on the FX series What We Do in the Shadows, earning a nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Episodic Comedy for the episode "Private School".^[28] Edebiri coproduced, appeared and served as a writer on Mulligan (2023), an animated series for Netflix.^[29] She provided voice acting as Ham in the Netflix interactive special We Lost Our Human.^[30] That February, Edebiri contributed original poetry to Eating Salad Drunk, a comedian haiku anthology (edited by author Gabe Henry) that benefited Comedy Gives Back, a nonprofit supporting comedians facing financial hardship from the Covid-19 pandemic.^[31][32] In the same year, she appeared in an episode of the Mel Brooks Hulu series History of the World, Part II and the Black Mirror episode "Joan Is Awful".^[33][34] She also voiced roles in the Disney Channel series Kiff and the Max series Clone High.^[35][36] Later in 2023, she voiced Glory Grant in the animated superhero sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse^[37] and April O'Neil in the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.^[38] Both films were financially successful.^[39][40]

In 2023, she starred in the mockumentary comedy film Theater Camp alongside Molly Gordon and Ben Platt. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to positive reviews, with many comparing it to the films of Christopher Guest. Later that year, she guest starred in the ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary and starred in the teen sex comedy Bottoms opposite Rachel Sennott. Bottoms premiered at South by Southwest.^[41] Katie Walsh of The Los Angeles Times wrote, "Sennott and Edebiri deliver two of the funniest performances of the year".^[42] She appeared in the film The Sweet East directed by Sean Price Williams, which premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival at the Directors' Fortnight.^[43][44] She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2024; as Quinta Brunson won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series that same year, that was the first year that two Black actresses won the two female comedy acting categories in the Primetime Emmys.^[45] Edebiri made her directorial debut in the season three episode "Napkins" (2024). To train for communicating with the crew she shadowed the director of the flashback episode "Fishes" in which her character did not appear.^[46]

In January 2025 she was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Comedy Series for the episode.^[47][48][49] Edebiri hosted Saturday Night Live with musical guest Jennifer Lopez in 2024.^[50] In a sketch, Edebiri indirectly acknowledged having criticized Lopez previously on the podcast Scam Goddess.^[51][52] She voiced Envy in the Pixar film Inside Out 2 (2024), a sequel to the first film.^[53]

Edebiri appeared as a crazed woman in the music video for Tyler, The Creator's 2024 single, "Noid". In February 2025, she directed the music video for Clairo's song, "Terrapin", which starred "Weird Al" Yankovic. Edebiri starred in the 2025 A24 horror film Opus, co-starring John Malkovich,^[54] and Luca Guadagnino's thriller film After the Hunt (2025), with Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield.^[55] She played a supporting role in James L. Brooks's comedy film Ella McCay.^[56] In February 2025, it was announced that Edebiri was in talks to star in and write a film based on the children's television show Barney & Friends for A24, Mattel Films, and producer Daniel Kaluuya.^[57]

For season three of The Bear, Edebiri received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and another for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series. This makes her the first Black woman ever to be nominated for acting and directing in the comedy categories in the same year. Additionally, she is the youngest Black woman in Emmy history to receive three acting nominations.^[58][59] She is also only the second Black woman to be nominated for comedy directing after Millicent Shelton for 30 Rock in 2009.^[60] Edebiri also co-wrote the acclaimed season four episode of The Bear, "Worms," which was named one of the top 10 TV episodes of the year by The Hollywood Reporter,^[61] while TheWrap named Edebiri to its list of the top 10 TV performers of 2025.^[62] Edebiri and Lionel Boyce were nominated for an WGA Award for Episodic Comedy for "Worms".^[63]

Nigerian filmmakers Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri cast Edebiri in Clarissa, their adaptation of the Virginia Woolf novel Mrs Dalloway, which was filmed 2025 in Lagos.^[64]

Film

Television

Theater

Music videos