Ayo Edebiri is many things: an award-winning actor, a television writer, and *checks notes* an Irish icon?!?!
Over the past year, the Bottoms star has garnered tons of attention—especially after her back-to-back Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards wins—and with her meteoric rise in fame has come tons of people questioning her connection to Ireland.
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Now, dear reader, we have to clarify off the bat that Ayo is actually from Boston, but (!!!) here’s the real reason fans think she’s Irish.
Why do people think Ayo Edeberi is Irish?
It all goes back to March 2023, when The Bear star had a convo with Letterboxd and dished all about her experience living in Ireland to prepare for her role of “Jenny the Donkey” in The Banshees of Inisherin—aka a movie she quite literally was never in if you actually check the actor’s IMDb...or, like, the internet, lol.
“I lived in Ireland for about four months and I got really in character and I was on all fours for four months and it was really painful, but beautiful, as well,” the actor began in her Letterboxd interview while slipping in and out of a low-key impressive Irish accent.
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She then carried the bit further, adding, “And it was probably the most fulfilling part of my career and I’m so happy for everybody going to the Oscars even though I deserved the nomination more than anybody else because I was obviously a donkey for four months.”
Obviously, the interview went viral because one simply couldn’t deny Ayo’s ability to commit to the bit. And since then, the celeb has continued to carry out the joke, with fans and literal social media accounts going along with it—so much so, that people actually believe she's Irish.
During her acceptance speech for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for The Bear at the Critics Choice Awards on January 14, the actor gave a hilarious nod to the bit when she thanked her “real family” and everyone in “Boston, Barbados, Nigeria, and Ireland, in many ways.”
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Additionally, after it was revealed that Ayo was nominated for the 2024 BAFTA Rising Star Award, a social media account called Film In Dublin congratulated the actor with the following hilarious statements:
Literally couldn’t be more obsessed with her if we tried!
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