Jodie Comer

Jodie Comer (born 11 March 1993) is an English actress. She began her career in an episode of The Royal Today in 2008. Comer gained recognition for appearing in the series My Mad Fat Diary (2013–2015) and Doctor Foster (2015–2017), and starred in the drama miniseries Thirteen (2016).

From 2018 to 2022, Comer played sociopathic assassin Villanelle in the BBC America spy thriller television series Killing Eve, winning a BAFTA Television Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. For playing Sarah, a healthcare assistant, in the television film Help (2021), she won another BAFTA Television Award. Comer expanded to films in 2021 with main roles in the action comedy film Free Guy and historical drama The Last Duel. In 2022, she made her West End theatre debut in Suzie Miller's one-woman play Prima Facie, which earned her an Evening Standard Theatre Award and a Laurence Olivier Award. Following its transfer to Broadway in 2023, she won a Tony Award.

Early life
Jodie Comer was born on 11 March 1993 in Liverpool, the daughter of Merseyrail employee Donna Comer and Everton FC physiotherapist James Comer, and grew up in Childwall. She has a younger brother, Charlie, born 1995. Comer attended St Julie's Catholic High School, Woolton, where she became close friends with future Olympic athlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson.

She started acting at the Belle Vale weekend drama school (CALS) at 11 years old. Through this school, she entered the Liverpool Performing Arts Festival in 2006 at St George's Hall and came first in her category after performing a monologue about the Hillsborough disaster.

Comer's friends kicked her out of their high school dance group because a holiday with her family clashed with rehearsals for the school's talent show and she instead performed the monologue for the show. Although she did not win, her performance prompted the school's drama teacher to call in a favour from friends in the entertainment industry, to allow her to audition for a BBC Radio 4 play. This became her first acting job. Her co-stars advised her to get an agent and told her that she could have a successful acting career.

Career beginnings (2008–2017)
Comer's career began in 2008 with a guest role on an episode of The Royal Today. In 2010, she made her theatre debut in the play The Price of Everything, directed by Noreen Kershaw, at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Comer then made minor appearances in several television series (see table below). She was cast in leading roles in the drama series Justice (2011), the supernatural miniseries Remember Me (2014), and as Chloe Gemell in the E4 comedy-drama series My Mad Fat Diary (2013–2015). Comer appeared in the 2015 adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), a television film broadcast on BBC One. That same year, she played Kate Parks in the BBC One drama series Doctor Foster (2015–2017).

Her first starring role was in 2016 as Ivy Moxam in the BBC Three miniseries Thirteen, which earned her a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress. In November 2016, she appeared in the BBC One miniseries Rillington Place as Beryl Evans, one of serial killer John Christie's victims. In 2016, Comer was listed as one of Screen International's "Stars of Tomorrow" in association with the BFI London Film Festival. In 2017, she starred as a young Elizabeth of York in The White Princess on Starz, a sequel to the BBC One miniseries The White Queen (2013). Also in 2017, Comer made her feature film debut, as Christine in the Morrissey biographical drama England Is Mine, directed by Mark Gill.

Killing Eve and worldwide recognition (2018–2021)


In April 2018, Comer began starring in the BBC spy thriller series Killing Eve as Villanelle / Oksana Astankova, a sociopathic Russian assassin who develops a mutual obsession with Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), the MI6 agent pursuing her. Comer garnered praise for her performance; Jia Tolentino of The New Yorker stated that, in the context of the series's "constant reversals in tone and rhythm", the "ambiguity—and impossibility—of Villanelle's character has worked (through the first season) thanks to Comer's mercurial, unassailable charisma". For the role, Comer was thrice nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, winning both in 2019. Given her character's ability to adopt numerous accents as part of her disguises, fans are often astonished to hear Comer's native Scouse accent.

In June 2018, Comer played Linda, a 1960s Liverpool secretary exploring her sexuality, in the BBC Four series Snatches: Moments From Women's Lives, inspired by events that took place in the century since women first won the vote. Comer was ranked No. 94 on the Radio Times "TV 100" list for 2018. In November 2018, The Hollywood Reporter included her in their "Next Gen Talent 2018: Hollywood's Rising Young Stars" list. In April 2019, Comer revealed she had been forced to drop out of Kenneth Branagh's 2022 adaptation of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile due to scheduling conflicts.

Also in 2019, Comer made a cameo appearance in the film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, appearing as Rey's mother (Miramir) in a flashback. In June 2020, Comer played the lead role of Lesley in a BBC iPlayer reboot of the Talking Heads episode "Her Big Chance" (filmed in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Comer next appeared in the action comedy film Free Guy, alongside Ryan Reynolds, in which she played two roles: Millie, a games developer, and Molotov Girl, Millie's in-game avatar. The film was released on 13 August 2021 and later debuted on Disney+ for home viewers on 23 February 2022. A cover version of Mariah Carey song "Fantasy" (1995) sung by Comer was used in the film. For the role, she was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Later in 2021, Comer teamed with writer Jack Thorne and actor Stephen Graham to star in the Channel 4 drama Help, as a young care home worker struggling during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom; she also served as an executive producer. The role earned her a fifth British Academy Television Award for Best Actress nomination which she ultimately won the following year. Also in 2021, Comer portrayed Marguerite de Carrouges in Ridley Scott's The Last Duel, alongside Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Adam Driver.

Prima Facie and further accolades (2022–present)


Comer made her West End debut in Suzie Miller's one-woman play Prima Facie at the Harold Pinter Theatre which started in April 2022 and concluded in June 2022. She was praised for her role as criminal defense barrister Tessa Ensler. Comer made her Broadway debut with Prima Facie when the production transferred from the West End, in spring 2023. Starting 21 July 2022, a filmed performance of the play at the Harold Pinter Theatre was shown at cinemas around the world by NT Live. For her performance, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress and Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

In 2023, Comer starred, alongside Austin Butler and Tom Hardy, in Jeff Nichols' The Bikeriders, a drama inspired by the photography of Danny Lyon and his 1967 book of the same name. She then starred in and produced the environmental thriller The End We Start From, an adaptation of Megan Hunter's debut novel, directed by Mahalia Belo. Both films received generally positive reviews, with Comer's performance receiving praise for both, though she received a polarized reaction towards her American accent in The Bikeriders. Multiple sources:
 * Comer stated that it was tough as the only woman on the set of The Bikeriders, saying: "I went onto that set and it was all men, and I could feel myself shrinking, but not because of anything that was being done. It was fascinating to witness myself doing it. I had to have a word with myself." In 2024, she voiced character Emily Hartwood in the survival horror video game Alone in the Dark, a reimagining of the 1992 original video game and the seventh installment in the Alone in the Dark video game series.
 * Comer stated that it was tough as the only woman on the set of The Bikeriders, saying: "I went onto that set and it was all men, and I could feel myself shrinking, but not because of anything that was being done. It was fascinating to witness myself doing it. I had to have a word with myself." In 2024, she voiced character Emily Hartwood in the survival horror video game Alone in the Dark, a reimagining of the 1992 original video game and the seventh installment in the Alone in the Dark video game series.
 * Comer stated that it was tough as the only woman on the set of The Bikeriders, saying: "I went onto that set and it was all men, and I could feel myself shrinking, but not because of anything that was being done. It was fascinating to witness myself doing it. I had to have a word with myself." In 2024, she voiced character Emily Hartwood in the survival horror video game Alone in the Dark, a reimagining of the 1992 original video game and the seventh installment in the Alone in the Dark video game series.
 * Comer stated that it was tough as the only woman on the set of The Bikeriders, saying: "I went onto that set and it was all men, and I could feel myself shrinking, but not because of anything that was being done. It was fascinating to witness myself doing it. I had to have a word with myself." In 2024, she voiced character Emily Hartwood in the survival horror video game Alone in the Dark, a reimagining of the 1992 original video game and the seventh installment in the Alone in the Dark video game series.
 * Comer stated that it was tough as the only woman on the set of The Bikeriders, saying: "I went onto that set and it was all men, and I could feel myself shrinking, but not because of anything that was being done. It was fascinating to witness myself doing it. I had to have a word with myself." In 2024, she voiced character Emily Hartwood in the survival horror video game Alone in the Dark, a reimagining of the 1992 original video game and the seventh installment in the Alone in the Dark video game series.
 * Comer stated that it was tough as the only woman on the set of The Bikeriders, saying: "I went onto that set and it was all men, and I could feel myself shrinking, but not because of anything that was being done. It was fascinating to witness myself doing it. I had to have a word with myself." In 2024, she voiced character Emily Hartwood in the survival horror video game Alone in the Dark, a reimagining of the 1992 original video game and the seventh installment in the Alone in the Dark video game series.
 * Comer stated that it was tough as the only woman on the set of The Bikeriders, saying: "I went onto that set and it was all men, and I could feel myself shrinking, but not because of anything that was being done. It was fascinating to witness myself doing it. I had to have a word with myself." In 2024, she voiced character Emily Hartwood in the survival horror video game Alone in the Dark, a reimagining of the 1992 original video game and the seventh installment in the Alone in the Dark video game series.
 * Comer stated that it was tough as the only woman on the set of The Bikeriders, saying: "I went onto that set and it was all men, and I could feel myself shrinking, but not because of anything that was being done. It was fascinating to witness myself doing it. I had to have a word with myself." In 2024, she voiced character Emily Hartwood in the survival horror video game Alone in the Dark, a reimagining of the 1992 original video game and the seventh installment in the Alone in the Dark video game series.
 * Comer stated that it was tough as the only woman on the set of The Bikeriders, saying: "I went onto that set and it was all men, and I could feel myself shrinking, but not because of anything that was being done. It was fascinating to witness myself doing it. I had to have a word with myself." In 2024, she voiced character Emily Hartwood in the survival horror video game Alone in the Dark, a reimagining of the 1992 original video game and the seventh installment in the Alone in the Dark video game series.
 * Comer stated that it was tough as the only woman on the set of The Bikeriders, saying: "I went onto that set and it was all men, and I could feel myself shrinking, but not because of anything that was being done. It was fascinating to witness myself doing it. I had to have a word with myself." In 2024, she voiced character Emily Hartwood in the survival horror video game Alone in the Dark, a reimagining of the 1992 original video game and the seventh installment in the Alone in the Dark video game series.
 * Comer stated that it was tough as the only woman on the set of The Bikeriders, saying: "I went onto that set and it was all men, and I could feel myself shrinking, but not because of anything that was being done. It was fascinating to witness myself doing it. I had to have a word with myself." In 2024, she voiced character Emily Hartwood in the survival horror video game Alone in the Dark, a reimagining of the 1992 original video game and the seventh installment in the Alone in the Dark video game series.

Comer will next star in Danny Boyle's horror film 28 Years Later, a sequel to the 2002 film 28 Days Later.

Reception and acting style
Comer has been called one of the finest actors of her generation. She has stated that the performances she takes on have affected her mental state, claiming: "I guess I was naive to think that something wouldn't filter through from work to life eventually, even if you're not conscious of it." Comer has been commended for her ability to perform multiple accents. She revealed that she took up smoking to deliver a more authentic performance for her role in The Bikeriders (2023), only to accidentally singe her eyelashes.

On her roles, Comer said: "[If I know] why I'm stepping into it and know what I gain from the experience, then if it goes out into the world and people hate it or it completely goes unnoticed or it's a huge success, it doesn't matter ... That doesn't change my experience and how I felt."

Public image
In December 2018, British Vogue included Comer in its list of "The Most Influential Girls of 2018", and, in February 2019, Forbes included her in their annual "30 Under 30" list for being in the top 30 most influential people in the entertainment industry in Europe under the age of 30.

In September 2019, a few days after her Primetime Emmy Award win, it was announced that Comer would be the face of the Loewe spring/summer 2020 fashion campaign, which saw her star in a short film for the brand that consisted of her repeating the brand's name with different emotions.

In March 2020, Comer was announced as the brand ambassador for skin care brand Noble Panacea. In January 2024, she revealed that fellow actress Jodie Foster came to see her performance in Prima Facie on Broadway and handed a signed note to her afterwards, praising Comer's performance. Arranged by Interview Magazine, the two later interviewed each other in April 2024.

Personal life
Comer is known for guarding her personal life and relationships. In 2020, she discussed experiencing class discrimination in her career as an actress with a working-class accent. In 2024, Comer said: "It's important not to go through life constantly self-deprecating. You can feel lucky to be there, but also fucking show up. Own your space, honour yourself in that way. Don't run away from it."

Discussing the subject that she remains private, Comer said: "I've had moments in my life where I don't think you can underestimate the lengths people will go to invade that space. I think it's important as an actor that people connect with the work and not, 'Oh, did you know yesterday she had eggs for breakfast?'" Mostly, though, her family and friends would tell her if she became too affected by any of it. "The majority of my friends are from school. My roots are the people in my life. I don't have a lot of yes men around me, which I appreciate. That's what I realised when I finished on Broadway. I was like, 'I need to go home, to be a better sister, a better friend. I needed to be a more present daughter'."

Awards and nominations
Known for her performances on stage and screen, Comer has received two BAFTA Television Awards, one Laurence Olivier Award, one Primetime Emmy Award, and one Tony Award. She has also received nominations for a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Critics' Choice Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards.