All About 'The Bear' Star Ayo Edebiri (2024)

Hulu’s The Bear is back for season 2.

The hit show, which follows classically trained chef Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto (played by Jeremy Allen White) as he attempts to take over his late brother’s Chicago sandwich shop, first premiered in June 2022. Fans and critics alike instantly took to White and he earned high praise for his performance. But there’s another actor who stole the screen: Ayo Edebiri, who plays Carmy’s sous chef, Sydney Adamu.

Edebiri’s Sydney is an ambitious young chef who comes to The Original Beef to work specifically under Carmy and is tasked with creating order in the chaotic kitchen.

Though The Bear put Edebiri on the map, the actress has been working in the entertainment industry for several years as a comedian. She began her career as a stand-up comic and a writer for shows like Big Mouth, Dickinson and What We Do in the Shadows, later appearing on-screen in a few episodes.

Since her breakout role, Edebiri has gone on to appear in Abbott Elementary and Netflix’s Black Mirror season 6. She also stars in the teen comedy Bottoms and Marvel's Thunderbolts.

In July 2023, Edebiri was nominated for her first Emmy — outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series, The Bear.

So, what else is there to know about Ayo Edebiri? Keep reading for more on the rising star.

She is from Boston

Born and raised in Boston, Edebiri is the only child of immigrant parents — her mother is from Barbados and her father is from Nigeria.

She grew up in a religious household and her family attended a Pentecostal church twice a week, according to The New Yorker.

Edebiri has said she struggled to fit in in her hometown and had a difficult high school experience. “Just feeling not very pretty, not having a boyfriend, not understanding that stuff. I just didn't feel like there was anybody who was Black that was really like that,” she told Bustle in July 2022, adding, “Also, I'm anxious and all weird.”

She attended New York University

After graduating high school, Edebiri attended New York University, where she originally studied education. However, a few years in, she started to have second thoughts.

“Did you know that teenagers are really scary and they will tell you when you’re not a good English teacher?” she said of a student teaching experience during an appearance on The Daily Show. “So I was like, 'Hmm, maybe change careers?' ”

She then switched her focus to comedy and began performing stand-up around New York City. She also interned for the improv comedy group Upright Citizens Brigade.

“[I was] watching things, going to shows, meeting people, absorbing things, finding out my opinions outside of the things that I like. Consuming [while] figuring out my taste,” she told Bustle.

She got her start in comedy

The restaurant workplace dramedy was a big swing for Edebiri, who comes from a comedy background.

She had already begun performing stand-up comedy during her time at NYU, and upon graduating, she began working as a production assistant on Broad City, per The New Yorker.

Her behind-the-scenes work continued as a writer for several comedy shows, including Netflix’s Big Mouth, What We Do in the Shadows and Apple TV’s Dickinson, the latter of which she also had a small role in as Hattie. In 2020, Edebiri took over as the voice of Missy on the Nick Kroll-created animated series following Jenny Slate’s departure, according to Entertainment Weekly.

The comedian has continued to do voice work throughout her career, and most recently, she lent her voice to 2023’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

She has worked in restaurants

Edebiri is no stranger to the restaurant industry. In the early days of her comedy career, she worked in several different N.Y.C. restaurants to support herself. This came in handy when working on The Bear, as she was able to draw on her real-life experiences.

“I worked in restaurants for five or six years in New York,” Edebiri told Today. “I've worked in restaurants a lot in my life. Never in the kitchen, but waitstaff or hosting, reservations, and my first job was being a dishwasher. I understood, I think, the rhythm of how people spoke and the feeling of being in a kitchen, but never from the chef’s vantage point.”

In preparation for her role on the show, Edebiri also trained with her costar White at the Institute of Culinary Education in Pasadena, California, and worked in the kitchen of several Michelin-starred restaurants.

Her hard work clearly paid off, as Edebiri received an Independent Spirit Award and a Critics' Choice Award nomination for her role as Sydney.

She is friends with Rachel Sennott

After meeting at NYU, Edebiri and Bodies Bodies Bodies star Rachel Sennott formed a close friendship. In fact, Sennott was the one to encourage Edebiri to pursue stand-up and helped her book her first show, according to The New Yorker.

The duo went on to co-write and star in the Comedy Central web series Ayo and Rachel Are Single in 2020. They also appear in the film Bottoms, which is about two unpopular teenagers who start a high school fight club as a way to lose their virginity to cheerleaders.

Sennott discussed working with Edebiri again in a June 2023 profile of Edebiri for Rolling Stone.

“Ayo and I started performing together and have done comedy shows in some of the wettest, stinkiest basem*nts of all time,” The Idol actress said. “DuringBottoms,we became a whole new level of close where we were, like, sharing a comedy brain."

She's joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe

In January 2023, Marvel Studios announced that Edebiri had joined the cast of Thunderbolts, an upcoming superhero film that will follow a team of anti-heroes and reformed villains (per Variety).

While her role in the movie has not yet been disclosed, her entrance into the Marvel Cinematic Universe marks a huge milestone for her rising stardom.

Despite a slew of high-profile projects coming to the screen soon, Edebiri remains self-effacing.

"It’s all stuff that’s been made over the course of two years at different points,” Edebiri told Rolling Stone. “For everything to be coming out now, it’s like, ‘What? What’s going on?!’ ”

She continued: "I would be a complete narcissist and insane if I was like, ‘Yeah, the next few months, probably going to be my big move.’ Like, that’s not real. That’s not a real human being.”

She earned her first Emmy nomination in 2023

Edebiri was nominated for her first Emmy — outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series, The Bear — in July 2023.

"the greatest honor alongside the greatest crew. no words — just innumerable thanks 🥺 lots of love. woooohoooooo," she wrote on Instagram.

She has a dog

The actress is a pet parent to a chihuahua mix named Gromit.

"He considers himself a part of my team," Edebiri told PEOPLE jokingly. "I love bringing Gromit [everywhere] because I know that even if I'm in a different place, there's one thing that will be the same every day: I have a dog, and he must be walked, and he must be fed."

She added: "[He's] just the best. Getting a dog is simultaneously one of the best and worst things that's ever happened to me."

She learned fight skills for her role in Bottoms

Edebiri told PEOPLE that she had to learn fight skills for her role in Bottoms, which is about high schoolers who form an impromptu fight club.

"I don't think any of us could take anyone in a real fight,” she told PEOPLE. “I don't think we should! But, I definitely know how to throw a punch an inch away from your face and make it look good."

“We learned the basics,” she recalled, noting that the cast went on to learn "how to do it not as convincingly, and then we learned how to do it more convincingly, in order to give us this spectrum of skill in the fighting.”