Jodie Comer

Jodie Comer was born on 11 March 1993 in Liverpool, England. She attended St Julie’s Catholic High School, where a teacher encouraged her to audition for a local radio play after another student withdrew. That opportunity helped begin a television career that included early appearances in The Royal Today, Holby City, Doctors, Silent Witness, Casualty, Law & Order: UK, Vera, and Inspector George Gently.

Comer gained wider attention playing Chloe Gemell in the E4 comedy-drama My Mad Fat Diary between 2013 and 2015. She later portrayed Kate Parks, an undercover agent in the BBC miniseries Doctor Foster, and appeared as Ivy Moxam in Thirteen, a BBC drama about a young woman returning home after being abducted for thirteen years. Her performance in Thirteen earned her a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress.

Her defining television role arrived in 2018, when she was cast as Villanelle in Killing Eve. Created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge from Luke Jennings’s Villanelle novel series, the thriller follows the obsession between Villanelle, a highly skilled assassin, and MI5 officer Eve Polastri, played by Sandra Oh. Comer’s character moved through numerous identities, accents, countries, and elaborate disguises. Comer won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2019, becoming the first British woman to win that category. She also received BAFTA Television Awards for Leading Actress for Killing Eve in 2019 and 2020.

In film, Comer played Elizabeth of York in the 2017 historical miniseries The White Princess. She appeared in Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker as Rey’s mother, Miramir, and starred opposite Ryan Reynolds in Free Guy, released in 2021. In that science-fiction comedy, she played both Millie Rusk, a programmer pursuing evidence against a video-game company, and Molotov Girl, her digital avatar inside the game.

Comer starred with Matt Damon, Adam Driver, and Ben Affleck in Ridley Scott’s 2021 historical drama The Last Duel. She played Marguerite de Carrouges, whose accusation of rape against Jacques Le Gris drives the film’s three conflicting narrative perspectives. Her performance was widely praised for giving Marguerite’s account emotional and moral force.

In 2022, Comer made her West End debut in Suzie Miller’s one-woman play Prima Facie at the Harold Pinter Theatre. She played Tessa Ensler, a criminal defence barrister whose confidence in the legal system changes after she is sexually assaulted. The production transferred to Broadway in 2023, and Comer won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.