Ayo Edebiri is an American actress, comedian, and writer born Funmilayo Edebiri in Boston, Massachusetts, in October 1995. Raised in a religious Pentecostal household by a mother who emigrated from Barbados and a father with Nigerian roots, she studied at New York University before building an early career as a writer and voice actor, including work on Netflix’s Big Mouth.

Edebiri’s screen presence grew through roles in Apple TV+’s period drama Dickinson and the ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary, before her breakout came as chef Sydney Adamu in FX’s acclaimed kitchen drama The Bear, a performance that earned her widespread critical recognition and major award attention.

Beyond The Bear, Edebiri has continued expanding into film with roles in the comedy Bottoms and the animated feature Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, while also stepping into directing as her career has grown, reflecting the same multi-hyphenate path taken by several other Nigerian-heritage performers now working across writing, performing, and directing.

With a rapid rise from behind-the-scenes writing work to one of television’s most talked-about performances, Edebiri has quickly become one of the most prominent young Nigerian-heritage voices in American comedy and drama.