Red carpet interviews and awards show speeches can get quite boring, let's be honest. So it's always refreshing when a new star with a dazzling personality comes along and chooses not to follow the script. This year, that's The Bear actress Ayo Edebiri.
Ayo plays Sydney Adamu in the hit Disney+ show, a talented and long-suffering sous chef working under Jeremy Allen White's Carmen Berzatto. However, Ayo has proven to be a star off-screen too. She's won over a legion of fans with her online wit, offbeat red carpet interviews and knack for being herself in an increasingly affected industry.
After posting a picture of her and Paul Mescal hugging on a staircase with the caption, 'Happy St Paddy's' on her Instagram story, fans think a fantasy league rom-com starring the two actors might be in the works. Is Ayo's story the rom-com soft launch we've been waiting for? It would, of course, be huge news for their legion of fans (and indeed the nation of Ireland) so we certainly hope so.
But who is she? Where did she get her start? And, as is a popular meme on Twitter, is Ayo Edebiri actually Irish? Here's everything you need to know about her.
Who is Ayo Edebiri?
Ayo Edebieri is an award-winning actress and television writer from Boston, US. Most recently, she won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for her role as a supporting actress in the comedy drama series, The Bear. She is also nominated for EE BAFTA's Rising Star Award, which will be announced on 18 February.
Winning best supporting actress in a comedy series at the Emmys, she said: 'I'm so incredibly grateful for this, for so many reasons, but the main one is that this is a show about family and found family and real family and my parents are here tonight. I'm making them sit kinda far away because I'm a bad kid.
'But I love you guys so much, thank you so much for loving me and letting me feel beautiful and Black and proud of all of that. I just love you so much. Probably not a dream to immigrate to this country and have your child be like "I wanna do improv," but you're real ones.'
How old is Ayo Edebiri?
Ayo Edebiri was born on 3 October 1995, making her 28 years old.
Ayo Edebiri TV shows and films:
Not only does she star in The Bear on Disney+ and Hulu, but Ayo has also been in films Theatre Camp and Bottoms and has been a voice actor in Big Mouth since 2020, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
Ayo has also written for the comedy series What We Do In The Shadows.
Is Ayo Edebiri in a relationship?
Yes, apparently Ayo has been dating actor and writer Colin Burgess for several years, but they prefer to keep their relationship out of the spotlight. To keep up to date with all things Ayo, you can follow her on Instagram here.
Are Ayo Edebiri and Paul Mescal starring in a rom-com together?
This is the question on everyone's lips. It's not only the aforementioned 'Happy St Paddy's' Instagram story, but Ayo and Paul have been dropping hints that they'd like to work together on a rom-com for several months now.
First, Ayo said, 'Paul and I have spoken about it... Something that's got like, a heart, so that he can flex his drama muscles, where it's like the covert rom-com. Where it's like still a rom-com but we've got to get something inventive.'
Then in November last year, Paul said, 'Comedy scares me deeply because I think I saw Bottoms recently and I was in awe of how they do that. That's one of those I leave the cinema and I'm incredibly jealous and brightened of everybody's talents involved with that film. But I think in the next five years I'm going to set myself a challenge to do maybe a rom-com with Ayo [Edebiri] or something like that would be cool.'
And that's not all. The plot continued to thicken after Ayo's recent St Patrick's Day picture when author Emily Henry – who has just confirmed that her novel Book Lovers is being adapted for film by the directors of Paul's Oscar-nominated performance in Aftersun – shared Ayo's story. If that's not designed to start rumours, we don't know what is.
Like clockwork, the internet has gone mad. One X (Twitter) user wrote, 'The Paul Mescal and Ayo Edebiri romcom is imminent' while another said, 'on my hands and knees BEGGING for a paul mescal/ayo edebiri romcom'. And a third shared a picture of a utopian world with the caption, 'society when we get Paul Mescal and Ayo Edebiri in a romcom.'
Is Ayo Edebiri Irish?
Working with Paul Mescal is one thing, but 'is Ayo Edebiri Irish?' has been a viral question long before the romcom rumours. Why? Because Irish people have claimed her as their very own - producing meme after meme professing love her 'Irish roots' every time she's seen on-screen. In short, Ayo Edebiri is not actually Irish. But it's not that simple. Ayo Edebiri is the daughter of a Barbadian mother and Nigerian father, but because she grew up in Boston (which has a large Irish expat community) she has strong ties to the country and culture.
Not only that, but in an interview with film review network Letterboxd, Ayo joked that she had lived on all fours for four months in Ireland to prepare for her imaginary role as a donkey in The Banshees of Inisherin. From that moment on, Ireland and Ayo have been in on a long-running joke that she's of Irish heritage.
If you don't believe us, note that the official Film in Dublin X account tweeted: 'Congratulations to Ireland's own Ayo Edebiri for her nomination for the 2024 BAFTA Rising Star Award'. And on the red carpet at the Emmys she said, 'Shout out to my people! Shout out to Derry! Shout out to Cork! Shout out to Killarney! Shout out to Dublin!'
And one user on X said, 'I hope Ayo Edebiri develops a career long relationship with the country of Ireland and what was once a joke becomes something lasting and tender. I just think it would be neat.'
Ayo Edebiri reviews on Letterboxd
Ayo Edebiri has also gained a lot of attention for her entertaining Letterboxd account, where she offers pithy reviews of the films she's watched. For example, writing about the 2018 film A Star is Born, she said: 'This movie makes 0 sense but I had so much fun and truly would die for Sam Elliott in a way that I can’t get into online.' After watching Saltburn, she said: 'My man's doing all of this but he can't eat runny eggs?' And about Bottoms, in which she stars, she wrote 'I'm in it with my friends so.'
At the Emmys she was asked if she feels awkward about some of her less positive reviews now that she's regularly bumping into people in the industry. She said, 'I’m a comedian. Anything I say online, I think I would say to somebody’s face. I have a Letterboxd because I love movies, I love TV, I love this industry. I know how hard it is to make something.'