10 Things You Don’t Know About ‘The Bear’ Star Ayo Edebiri

Ambitious Ayo Edebiri, 29, is cooking up her fourth season of the series The Bear alongside costars Jeremy Allen White and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. But the show is just one of the busy performer’s projects as she’s also appearing in the upcoming movies Ella McCay and After the Hunt, as well as TV’s Prodigies.

Here are 10 things you don’t know about the beauty from Boston.

1. She was born on the same day that O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murder in the slaying of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and waiter Ron Goldman.

2. Ayo’s childhood crush was One Tree Hill hunk Chad Michael Murray.

3. She attended New York University, where she first intended to study teaching but switched her major to dramatic writing — and began pursuing a comedy career during her junior year.

4. As a fledgling funnylady, she worked as an intern with the Upright Citizens Brigade, an improvisational and sketch comedy group in the Big Apple.

5. To prepare for her role in The Bear, she trained at the Institute of Culinary Education in Pasadena, Calif., and worked in the kitchens of restaurants in New York and Chicago.

6. Her favorite movies are The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Notting Hill, Phantom Thread and Babe.

7. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

8. Her bucket list goals include working with directors Charlie Kaufman and Paul Thomas Anderson.

9. For years, the wallpaper on her cell phone was a friend’s uncle’s goofy-looking pooch, but she told BuzzFeed in 2021 that, “I’ve never met my friend’s uncle — or this dog.”

10. She was starstruck upon meeting Saturday Night Live alum Tim Robinson. She recalled to BuzzFeed, “He said, ‘Oh, your Instagram is really funny!’ And I TRULY couldn’t talk. There were all these famous people at this party, but I was speechless at Tim Robinson. It was really embarrassing.”