Jodie Comer

Jodie Comer (born March 11, 1993, Liverpool, Merseyside, England) is an English actress best known for playing the psychopathic assassin Villanelle on the award-winning BBC America spy thriller Killing Eve (2018–22).

Early life

Comer is the eldest of two children born to Donna Comer, a Merseyrail employee, and James Comer, a physiotherapist for Everton Football Club. The family lived in Childwall, a suburb and ward of Liverpool, England, and Jodie Comer attended nearby St. Julie’s Catholic High School. At age 11 she told her parents that she was interested in becoming an actress, and she subsequently started taking classes at a local drama school.

In 2006 Comer entered the Liverpool Performing Arts Festival and performed a monologue about the Hillsborough disaster, in which a crush of football (soccer) fans resulted in nearly 100 deaths. She took first place, and her drama teacher suggested that she audition for the BBC radio play Tin Man, which became her first professional acting job. While working on the play—which aired in 2007—Comer was encouraged by her costars to pursue an acting career, and Tin Man playwright Laurence Wilson sent Comer to photographer Stephanie de Leng for headshots. De Leng later called agent David Daly, who immediately signed the 13-year-old actress. Comer subsequently worked on building her career, and in 2010 she left high school.

Television

Comer’s start in television began in 2008, with an appearance on an episode of the medical drama The Royal Today. Over the next few years, she acted in guest roles on other series, including Holby City, Silent Witness, Coming Up, Law & Order: UK, and Vera. Comer also had prominent parts in the miniseries Justice (2011) and Remember Me (2014). Her first long-term role came when she was cast as series regular Chloe in the comedy drama My Mad Fat Diary (2013–15). Comer’s character is a popular teenager whose best friend was recently released from a psychiatric facility. Other notable credits include the drama miniseries Thirteen (2016), in which she played Ivy Moxam, a young woman who had been held captive for 13 years. Comer then portrayed Elizabeth of York in the historical miniseries The White Princess (2017).

Comer found global fame when she was cast as Russian assassin Villanelle in Killing Eve (2018–22). In the series, created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Villanelle is hunted by British intelligence agent Eve Polastri (played by Sandra Oh). Each woman becomes fascinated, and eventually obsessed, with the other. Comer’s performance was notable for her numerous accents and multilingual dialogue as well as her ability to manipulate her facial expressions to quickly switch from appearing inviting to terrifying. In 2019 she won Emmy and BAFTA awards for the role. Two years later Comer played a worker in a Liverpool care home in the TV movie Help, for which she won another BAFTA Award (2022).

Movies

Comer’s big-screen career began in 2017, when she appeared in England Is Mine, a biopic about British singer Morrissey. She next had a small role in J.J. Abrams’s blockbuster Star Wars: Episode IX—The Rise of Skywalker (2019); she portrayed the mysterious mother of the main character, Rey, a rising Jedi. In 2021 Comer starred with Matt Damon and Adam Driver in Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, a 14th-century drama in which a medieval knight’s wife (Comer) claims that a squire raped her. That year Comer also played two roles in the sci-fi comedy Free Guy. Her costar, Ryan Reynolds, portrayed a bank teller who discovers he is a character in an online multiplayer video game, and Comer was cast as the video game developer and an avatar in the game.

In 2023 Comer starred with Austin Butler and Tom Hardy in The Bikeriders. The 1960s crime drama centres on a motorcycle club in the Chicago area.

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Theatre

Comer’s first theatrical stage appearance was in 2010, when she appeared in a production of The Price of Everything by Fiona Evans. In the play, which was staged at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, England, Comer played the daughter of a millionaire businessman.

In 2022 Comer made her West End debut, starring in Prima Facie by Suzie Miller. The one-woman legal thriller centres on a defense barrister who represents men accused of sexual assault. Comer received a best actress Olivier Award for her performance. In 2023 the production transferred to Broadway, with Comer reprising the role. She earned accolades—as well as a Tony Award—for her Broadway debut.