‘The Bear’ Made Ayo Edebiri a Star—and Now a Director

Ayo Edebiri’s career could have gone in a very different direction. Before The Bear, she was a stand-up comedian and was pursuing a TV writing career, working on several hit shows, including Big Mouth, Dickinson, and What We Do in The Shadows.

But along came the FX kitchen dramedy, and Edebiri’s acting career took off. She’s played sous chef Sydney “Syd” Adamu on the hit series for four seasons now, and is having her biggest year yet with three films out this year: the A24 thriller Opus that came out in March, Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt, which will premiere in Venice, and James L. Brooks’s Ella McCay out in December.

Edebiri earned her third acting Emmy nomination for The Bear this year (she won following the series’ first season). She’s also been nominated for directing “Napkins,” a flashback episode from its third season following Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) as she struggles to find a new job.

“As an actor and as a producer, I felt fairly confident about being able to manage speaking to actors and communicating with producers, but I realized that I just didn’t have that much knowledge in working with crew,” Edebiri tells Little Gold Men. So during the “Fishes” episode—a flashback episode in season two in which she didn’t have to act—she came to set so she could meet with every department to learn about the process of working with a director.

It paid off. “Napkins” solidified Edebiri’s conviction to direct more in the future. She spoke with Little Gold Men about what she learned from the experience, writing an episode in the fourth season, and what she thinks about fans shipping Syd and Carmy.

Vanityu Fair: What made you feel like “Napkins” was the right episode for you to direct?

Ayo Edebiri: The writing was just so beautiful. I remember reading it and seeing it in my mind, like really clearly. There was a real advantage because it was not only a standalone episode of a character that we hadn’t really gotten to see, but it got to be outside of the restaurant.

It got to be in the past, and then it also got to connect before the show had even started, but the feeling of the first season, I just felt like it was really gonna be fertile, visually. And that I was going to be able to do a little bit of my own thing.

What did you learn about yourself from that experience directing that episode?

I really enjoy directing. I mean, more than like it, I really love it and I can’t wait to do it more. And it’s nice to get to wake up like an hour later because you’re not in hair and makeup. I enjoy that as well.

Have you thought about directing a feature?

I think I will eventually direct a feature. I know that I will, but I feel no real rush. I’m writing right now as well and that’s its own process.

Speaking of writing, you co-wrote with Lionel Boyce the episode “Worms” in the fourth season. How did you and Lionel end up teaming up?

Lionel and I write together and we also write solo, and he’s one of my favorite people to get notes from. [The Bear] creator Chris [Storer] first basically gave me this assignment, and I just keep asking Lionel all his thoughts. I thought, I know that we collaborate really well together and it just doesn’t really seem right to me to do this without him.

What was the assignment that Chris gave you? Was it like “Sydney has a day off,” or was it much more specific?

There were things about it that were specific about what we knew needed to happen but then there were also things about it that were kind of vague. I think this idea of getting her hair done came to me because I was thinking about this character and who she is. I’ve been playing her now for four years and her hair’s always the same. And, and I was like, “that is something, that absolutely is something.” Then we just started working backwards from there, and then this idea of spending a day with a child really came to the forefront.

You started out writing for TV. Were your plans originally to take that path as a writer, and then acting was more a surprise?

Writing and standup. I love acting, but I chose to study writing because I never really envisioned myself as an actor. Especially when you go to drama school, there’s a certain type of person who is an actor and they have a certain level of gravitas, and that’s not me.

You’re currently writing a movie for A24 based on Barney, the famous purple dinosaur. What can you say about it?

I can tell you that I’m having a fun time writing it and I’m excited for people to see it when it comes out.

How did you view the way fans wanted Sydney and Carmy to get together?

I feel like we’ve been saying since [season] one, but I don’t know if people are starting to believe us now. I do think that like there’s something about seeing people where they’re really passionate or where they’re excelling at something, it can feel exciting and charged. It’s a hard thing to talk about because we never get it right. I don’t know, my job is to do the thing, and then how you interpret it is how you interpret it. But I do think it’s professional, and I do think if anything were to happen, it would not be the show that we’re making. And I also think it would be so crazy. That man is crazy and that girl is a bad communicator! The restaurant would blow up in like three seconds if anything ever happened.

And what about Syd and Luca (Will Poulter), who she seems to have some chemistry with?

I don’t know. Maybe they’re just two Libras having a conversation? Who’s to say, I don’t have the scripts.

What’s your feeling on the discourse about The Bear being categorized as a comedy at the Emmys?

My feeling is that that is a question that is honestly above my pay grade. That’s a question for the studios. We get asked a lot about it as actors and they don’t ask the producer, so that’s kind of my answer to that.

You gave an acceptance speech at the 2024 Globes in which you thanked your agent and manager’s assistants.

That makes sense because they do more work for me sometimes than the people who take my checks. Just kidding—I love you guys. Don’t blacklist me. But I used to assist. That’s a hard job.

What is your approach to those acceptance speeches?

I haven’t really won anything in a while, so now I just kind of drink at the shows. I just kind of chill out to be honest. I hope this doesn’t sound cheesy or disgusting, but it really has been making me appreciate being nominated, and in presence of people who are just beyond talented. I love TV. I watch TV. So having my name, even this conversation at all, it’s like really still nuts and something I’m very grateful for.

After the show was such a huge success in the first season, how did you navigate your career and what opportunities you’d take next?

I think I’m still probably navigating it. Before the show I just was pretty staunchly a comedian, and so it was a lot of comedic parts. And then after the show, I think it became like a big rush of like a lot of dramedy things. As somebody who wasn’t primarily an actor, I had to think in a way that I wasn’t used to thinking, a bit more strategically. Even if I loved this script, it doesn’t make sense for me to be doing a certain type of character a bunch of times in a row. And I started thinking about how people were perceiving me, which was very strange, which I’m still not used to and I don’t really necessarily enjoy or think is right.

How has being a part of The Bear has changed your outlook on acting and your career?

It’s made me also feel really hopeful in the making of things now – which is so funny how quick everything can happen. It’s become somehow part of the TV establishment, but when we first came out, everything was dumped all at once on Hulu and we did not think we were getting a second season. And then suddenly for whatever reason, people started watching it. But it was not promised that people were going to like it. It was not promised that it was going to return. I’m not even saying this in a shady way, but it was funny – people weren’t even really coming to set that much. They were like “y’all have fun doing your little food show in Chicago!” And then everything changed. I think when there’s a lot of conversations happening about the meaning of work, the meaning of art, the meaning of human connection to each other. When I think about our show, I remember we just wanted to mean something to each other and to whoever watched it, and I think it was able to have an impact. So I just hope that everybody just keeps resisting with whatever little pieces of light and specificity we have because if we don’t, everything is boring and all of us will have slop for brains and that’s not why we exist.