Ayo Edebiri: Everything to know about the Nigerian American set to host ‘Saturday Night Live’

Ayo Edebiri is a Nigerian-American actress and comedian born in Boston in 1995 to a Barbadian mother and a Nigerian father, who immigrated to the United States. Raised in a Pentecostal home, she took to comedy at an early age when she was in middle school.

This would later influence her study choice in the university. After graduating from Boston Latin School in 2013, she went to New York University to continue her education with a focus on teaching. However, her growing interest in comedy compelled her to transition to Dramatic Writing.

Subsequently, her passion for stand-up comedy was ignited after an internship at Upright Citizens Brigade in her junior year. Her breakthrough came in the year 2000 as a writer and voice actress for the animated comedy series “Big Mouth.” In 2014, she acted in an episode of the series Defectives.

However, the Dorchester native started her career as a stand-up comedian and performed a stand-up set on Comedy Central’s Up Next. Her digital series Ayo and Rachel Are Single, which she co-wrote and co-starred with fellow comedian Rachel Sennott, began airing on the network in May 2020, according to Premium Times Nigeria.

She made a debut movie appearance in the 2020 comedy-drama Shithouse in an uncredited role before landing a role in the movie “The Bear” as Sydney Adamu in 2022. The movie would win her an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

She became the third Black woman to win her category for her performance in The Bear. Past Black winners include Jackee Harry in 1987 and Sheryl Lee Ralph in 2022.

“This is a show about family and found family and real family. And my parents are here tonight. I’m making them sit kind of far away because I’m a bad kid,” she said last month while thanking her parents for encouraging her to follow her dreams.

“Probably not like a dream to immigrate to this country and have your child be like, I want to do improve,’” she concluded. Edebiri recently won her first Golden Globe for the same role. 

In addition to acting, Edebiri has written for shows like “Dickinson,” “What We Do in the Shadows,” and “Craig of the Creek. What is more, the co-host of the popular podcast “Iconography” has also provided voice work for the Netflix animated series “Big Mouth,” the Oscar-nominated “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.” The 28-year-old also appeared in the hit ABC sitcom “Abbott Elementary,” the lesbian fight club movie “Bottoms” and “Theater Camp”.

The “Bear” actress recently announced that she is going to host “Saturday Night Live” for the first time on February 3 and will be joined by Jennifer Lopez as her musical guest.

“One for the grid bc I still can’t believe it,” she wrote on Instagram.