Jodie Comer

Comer appeared in the episode "Bovril Pam", where she portrayed a secretary in 1960s Liverpool exploring her sexuality.

Jodie Comer (born 11 March 1993) is an English actress.

Jodie Comer was born on 11 March 1993 in Liverpool, the daughter of Merseyrail employee Donna Comer and Everton FC physical therapist James Comer.

She grew up in Liverpool's Childwall suburb.

She has a younger brother named Charlie (born in 1995).

She attended St Julie's Catholic High School in the Liverpool suburb of Woolton, where she became close friends with future Olympic athlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson.

She started acting at a local weekend drama school called CALS in the Belle Vale area of Liverpool when she was 11 years old, and it was through this school that 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 decided to perform 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 that would allow her to audition for a BBC Radio 4 play.

This would become her first acting job, with her co-stars in the play advising her to get an agent and telling her that she could have a successful acting career.

Born and raised in Liverpool, Comer began her career in an episode of The Royal Today in 2008.

She gained recognition for appearing in the series My Mad Fat Diary and Doctor Foster, and earned acclaim for starring in the drama miniseries Thirteen.

Comer's career began in 2008 with a guest role on an episode of The Royal Today, a spin-off series of the medical drama series The Royal.

She then made appearances in series such as Waterloo Road, Holby City, Doctors, Silent Witness, Casualty, Law & Order: UK, Vera, and Inspector George Gently.

She was cast in leading roles in the five-episode drama series Justice, the supernatural miniseries Remember Me, and as Chloe Gemell in the E4 comedy-drama series My Mad Fat Diary.

Comer appeared in the 2015 adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover, a television film broadcast on BBC One.

In the same year, Comer appeared as Kate Parks in the BBC One drama series Doctor Foster.

Comer was cast in her first starring role as Ivy Moxam in the BBC Three miniseries Thirteen, which premiered in February 2016 and earned her a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress.

In December 2016, she appeared in the BBC 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 miniseries The White Queen.

In 2017, she also made her feature film debut, as Christine in the Morrissey biopic England Is Mine.

From 2018 to 2022, Comer starred as sociopathic assassin Villanelle in the BBC America spy thriller series Killing Eve, winning a British Academy Television Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.

For starring as a healthcare assistant in the television film Help, she won another British Academy Television Award.

Comer expanded to films with starring roles in the action film Free Guy and period drama The Last Duel.

Comer made her West End theatre debut in Suzie Miller's one-woman play Prima Facie in 2022, which earned her an Evening Standard Theatre Award and a Laurence Olivier Award.

Following its transfer to Broadway theatre in 2023, she won a Tony Award.

In April 2018, Comer began starring in the BBC spy thriller series Killing Eve as Villanelle, a sociopathic Russian assassin who develops a mutual obsession with Eve Polastri (played by Sandra Oh), the MI6 agent tasked with pursuing her.

Comer garnered universal critical acclaim for her performance on the series, with Jia Tolentino of The New Yorker stating that, in the context of the show'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".

Due to her character swapping between multiple accents from around the world as part of her various disguises, much attention has been given to Comer's native Scouse accent and the surprise of viewers who hear it for the first time.

In June 2018, Comer was one of the actresses in a series of BBC Four monologues called 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.

For her portrayal of Villanelle, Comer has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and three British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress, with her winning both in 2019.

In April 2019, Comer was asked about upcoming work during her Happy Sad Confused podcast interview and revealed that she had been forced to drop out of Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile due to scheduling conflicts.

Comer performed a cameo in the 2019 film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, appearing as Rey's mother Miramir in flashbacks.

In June 2020, Comer played the lead role of Lesley in a BBC iPlayer reboot of the Talking Heads episode "Her Big Chance".

The episode, directed by Josie Rourke, was 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.