I doubt I’m alone in this, but I get so much joy from watching Ayo Edebiri’s ascent. She’s not a nepo baby, she worked hard, she’s extremely talented and she’s remained true to who she is at a fundamental level (a very eccentric person). She’s not someone burdened with angst about her fame, although she acknowledges that fame has drawbacks. But she’s enjoying so much of this – the work, the fashion, the awards shows, the friendships. It’s cool to see a positive personal story come out of an “overnight success.” Ayo has already picked up tons of awards for The Bear, and she covers the latest issue of Vanity Fair to talk about her life these days. Some highlights:

Always working: “I was 17 when I went to college [and] I was really poor. I was always working.” Working at a call center asking NYU alums for money; as a babysitter for NYC families; at a student café in the math building. “I barista’d at this random coffee shop for three weeks, and then our boss was skimming money so I left, and then I did some baristing at ABC Kitchen. I loved being a barista because I like order. There’s something kind of satisfying about getting it right.” It wasn’t long before Boston started to feel like small-town USA. “When I went back I was like, ‘What is this? Am I in the sticks? We’re closing businesses at 10 p.m.? I’m embarrassed.’ ”

She grew up Pentecostal: While she enjoyed singing with the youth choir and bonding with other kids, “it was horrible for my anxiety. I was petrified of death. I was petrified of the rapture.” At NYU, she struggled to reconcile the Church’s idea that her gay and Muslim friends wouldn’t make it to heaven. “It was genuinely breaking my brain and giving me so much stress and sadness,” she says. “I was just like, ‘I need a break.’ ” Save for the occasional trip to church with her parents, she’s still on one.

Jeremy Allen White on Ayo: “We really enjoy each other in life, on camera and off camera. I have a tremendous amount of respect for her as a person, but also as an artist. And so I hope that sort of that kind of thing shines through on camera between Carm and Syd. Syd is always able to…I don’t know, to deliver something different to Carmy, and she’s usually right. And I guess I think Ayo is also usually right.”

Ayo on JAW: “Work can be a very intimate thing and a very personal thing and a very emotional thing, and I think when you’re also in industries that are creative or creative adjacent, I think there’s something that also invokes feelings of passion. Also, boy’s got some beautiful blue eyes. You know what I mean? Those are eyes you want to project onto.”

Dealing with the fickleness of audiences: “People could like me today and hate me tomorrow, and then like me two weeks after.”

The beef with J.Lo years after Ayo referred to her as scammer: “That would be like Mr. Bean and Mick Jagger beefing and I’m obviously Mr. Bean. She’s J.Lo!” On SNL, Edebiri poked fun at the ordeal in a sketch, and days later, Lopez told a reporter that the actor had apologized before the show. “She was very chill and nice about it,” Edebiri says.

Politics: Outside of voting, she doesn’t consider herself to be all that politically engaged, “but I think my standard is pretty high. I grew up in a family where my parents were always volunteering at polling places and always making calls and stuff. I have memories of doing my homework at call centers for Elizabeth Warren and Obama.”

[From Vanity Fair]

There’s a cool story about Ayo hanging out with Will Poulter in London on the day the Emmy nominations came out, and it feels like she was trying to say something about their friendship. Of course, there’s mounting evidence that Ayo and Jeremy Allen White are dating – they were recently spotted looking coupled-up at a baseball game, and JAW clearly adores her (and he’s divorced now). Anyway, she seems cool and like she’s enjoying the ride. I hope she keeps this energy!

jeremy allen white with ayo edebiri and the cast of the bear at wrigley stadium via reddit pic.twitter.com/Yh6kYCyyas

— Jeremy Allen White Updates (@UpdatesJeremy) May 20, 2024

Cover courtesy of Vanity Fair, additional photos courtesy of Avalon Red.