Ayo Edebiri

Ayo Edebiri (born October 3, 1995) is an American comedian, writer, producer, actress, and voice actress. She appeared on Comedy Central's Up Next and co-hosts the podcast Iconography with Olivia Craighead. Edebiri is best known for voicing Missy on Big Mouth (2020–present), and for her roles in The Bear (2022–present) and Abbott Elementary (2023–present).
In 2023, Edebiri starred in the films Theater Camp and Bottoms, and also voiced roles in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
Early life and education
Edebiri was born in Boston and raised in a religious Pentecostal household, the only child of immigrant parents. Her mother emigrated from Barbados and her father emigrated from Nigeria. She first became interested in comedy through eighth grade drama class, after which she joined the improv club at Boston Latin School.
Edebiri attended New York University, where she initially intended to study teaching before switching her major to Dramatic Writing. As a junior in college, she began preparing to pursue a career in comedy and interned at Upright Citizens Brigade. She met future collaborators Rachel Sennott and Emma Seligman while a student.
Career
2014–2021: Early work
In 2014 Edebiri acted in an episode of the series Defectives. Edebiri started her career as a stand-up comedian, and performed a stand-up set on Comedy Central's Up Next. Her scripted digital series Ayo and Rachel Are Single began airing on the network in May 2020, which she co-wrote and co-starred in with her friend and fellow comedian Rachel Sennott. She made her film debut in 2020 comedy-drama Shithouse, in an uncredited role. Edebiri co-hosts a podcast called Iconography with Olivia Craighead that features interviews with guests in conversation about their shared personal icons. The podcast is produced by Forever Dog and the second season was released in 2020.
A television writer, she has written for the sole seasons of The Rundown with Robin Thede and NBC's Sunnyside. Edebiri joined the writing staff of Big Mouth for the show's fourth season. 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. Edebiri's voice acting as the character began at the end of the show's fourth season. Edebiri was a writer and actress in Dickinson's second season on Apple TV+, where she first worked with Christopher Storer, who went on to create The Bear. She acted in a supporting role in the 2022 film adaptation of the Jennifer E. Smith YA novel Hello, Goodbye and Everything in Between.
2022–present: Breakthrough
In 2022 Edebiri gained wider prominence as a main cast member on the FX on Hulu comedy series The Bear. She received an Independent Spirit Award and nominations from the Gotham Awards and the Critics' Choice Awards for her role as Sydney Adamu, an ambitious young sous chef. She also received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Lucy Mangan of The Guardian praised her performance declaring her as "magnificent" and "still lighting up and punching up every scene she is in".
During this time she became a writer and consulting producer on the Hulu 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". Edebiri co-produced and appeared on Mulligan (2023), an animated series for Netflix. She also had voice roles in the Netflix interactive special We Lost Our Human. Also in 2023 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". She also voiced roles in the Disney Channel series Kiff and the Max series Clone High. Later that year she voiced Glory Grant in the animated superhero sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and April O'Neil in the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Both of the films received critical acclaim and were financially successful.
Also in 2023, she starred in the live 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 starred in the teen sex comedy Bottoms opposite Rachel Sennott. The film premiered at South by Southwest. Katie Walsh of The Los Angeles Times wrote, "Sennott and Edebiri deliver two of the funniest performances of the year".
Upcoming projects
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. On January 26, 2023, she joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the 2024 film Thunderbolts in an undisclosed role.
Personal life
Edebiri has canvassed for the Democratic Socialists of America. She identifies as queer.
Filmography
Film
Television
Awards and nominations
References
External links
1995 births
Living people
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American women writers
Actresses from Boston
African-American actresses
African-American comedians
African-American writers
American film actresses
American people of Barbadian descent
American people of Nigerian descent
American podcasters
American queer actresses
American stand-up comedians
American television actresses
American television writers
American voice actresses
American women television producers
American women comedians
American women podcasters
Comedians from Massachusetts
Entertainers from Massachusetts
African-American LGBT people
LGBT people from Massachusetts
Members of the Democratic Socialists of America
New York University alumni
Queer actresses
American LGBT comedians