If supporting Black women is on your daily to-do list, then Bajan-Nigerian-American and Boston native Ayo Edebiri should definitely be on your radar. Winning “Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy” for her role in the award-winning series The Bear, the world is itching to dig deeper into this blooming artist’s catalog. Here are 12 Ayo Edebiri movies and TV shows for your watch list.
Edebiri got her start as a student at NYU, studying to be a teacher at NYU while interning with improv group Upright Citizens Brigade. She then established herself as a comedic writer on series What We Do in the Shadows, Dickinson and Big Mouth before gaining minor acting roles. This major list below reflects Edebiri’s skyrocket from student-improv-participant to Golden Globe-winning comedic actress.
1. Theater Camp
Rating: 7.0/10 (IMDb), 86% (Rotten Tomatoes)
Box Office: $4.6 million
In her role as Janet, Edebiri joins Theater Camp as a counselor despite having no experience working with children or participating in theater. She embodies a kookiness that she said reminded her of her improv days, diving into a character who shows true signs of not only being disconnected from reality, but being in constant crisis.
2. Bottoms
Rating: 6.8/10 (IMDb), 90% (Rotten Tomatoes)
Box Office: $12.9 million
A proven star on-the-rise, Edebiri plays the opposite of that as Josie in this teen drama. Embodying the role of an unpopular lesbian student, she is accompanied by her best friend who shares in her low, high school totem pole status. The duo also share in having crushes on popular students, cheerleaders to be exact who could care less about them even existing.
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Rating: 7.2/10 (IMDb), 96% (Rotten Tomatoes)
Box Office: N/A
Voicing her most recent animated role as April O’Neil, Edebiri plays a journalist who develops a friendship with the turtles, placing her value of their relationship over uncovering their existence. Edebiri speaks, in interviews, to enjoying the agency that she adds to O’Neil’s character, one of the many characteristics that fans appreciate.
4. Hello, Goodbye, and Everything In Between
Rating: 5.1/10 (IMDb), 29% (Rotten Tomatoes)
Box Office: N/A
Aidan and Clare make a pact to break up before they leave for college and decide to seal the deal with a final date. Edebiri plays the role of Stella, Clare’s friend who she invited on the date to act as a distraction.
5. We Lost Our Human
Rating: 6.5/20 (IMDb), 86% (Rotten Tomatoes)
Box Office: N/A
An interactive animated film, We Lost Our Human features an indoor cat and dog Ham (Edebiri) who arise from their slumber only to find that all humans have disappeared including their owners.
6. The Sweet East
Rating: 7/10 (IMDb), 79% (Rotten Tomatoes)
Box Office: N/A
This four-part journey moves through the cities (and cultures) of the Eastern seaboard where Lillian is a high school senior from South Carolina who is on a class trip to Washington, D.C. There, she is exposed to a range of cliques mirroring that of society and each having their own little quirks. Along the way, Lillian runs into Molly, a film director played by Edebiri.
7. How It Ends
Rating: 5.1/10 (IMDb), 68% (Rotten Tomatoes)
Box Office: N/A
Similar to that of her start, Edibiri plays a character named Stand Up in this end-of-the-world film where Liza and her younger self are awaiting an apocalypse. The duo begin reflecting on adult Liza’s regrets, are then invited to a last party and decide to attend with plans to tie up loose ends which is semi-derailed by their car getting stolen.
8. The Premise
Rating: 6.7/10 (IMDb), 42% (Rotten Tomatoes)
Box Office: N/A
There’s a premise here and it’s character-driven stories that speak to the world that we live in today. Edebiri’s episode, where she plays a lawyer named Eve Stone, is called “Social Justice Sex Tape” and journeys through the story of a social justice ally needing Edebiri’s help to save an innocent man while trying not to completely expose himself.
9. As of Yet
(Image from IMDb)
Rating: 5.6/10 (IMDb), 100% Rotten Tomatoes)
Box Office: N/A
Edebiri joins this star-studded, Black woman cast as Khadijah, best friend to Naomi. This Brooklyn-based tale happens almost entirely through video calls as Naomi moves through the qualms of having a prickly roommate and a romance amidst a pandemic.
10. Clone High
Rating: 6.4/10 (IMDb), 100% (Rotten Tomatoes)
Box Office: N/A
In this series centered around a military experiment of newly-thawed historical figures in a high school setting, Edebiri voices the clone of Harriet Tubman. Historically and creatively speaking, this series takes a turn that feels icy at first, but causes fans to warm up to the show’s characters.
11. Mulligan
Rating: 4.9/10 (IMDb), 50% (Rotten Tomatoes)
Box Office: N/A
Another after-earth blast except this time, it’s animated. Mulligan shows the process of survivors starting over with Edebiri voicing Jayson Moody who becomes General Scarpaccio after finding a marine general’s garb among the deceased.
12. The Bear
Rating: 8.6/10 (IMDb), 99% (Rotten Tomatoes)
Box Office: N/A
While accepting her award, Edebiri highlighted the hard work of her team’s assistants (in answering her emails and helping to manage her career.) The awarded actress knows what it’s like to play a role on the team that often goes under the radar when compared to main characters like the chef. Over six years of experience working in restaurants as a waitress and greeter, prepared her for her role as sous chef, Sydney, where bringing order to the plans of Chef Carmy placed her on the radar of the Golden Globes.
We love to see Black women win.
