Early Life and Education

Jodie Marie Comer is and English Actress who was born on 11 March 1993 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK.   Jodie discovered her talent for acting during her secondary schooling at St Julie’s Catholic High School. She was expelled from a dance group by her friends since she could not attend rehearsals during a family holiday. She instead performed a monologue for the show; which brought her to the attention of her drama teacher, who then sent her to audition for a BBC Radio 4 play, which became her first acting job. Her co-stars in the play told her that she could make a career out of acting and advised her to get an agent. While pursuing an acting career, she took jobs such as collecting glasses in a bar and working at the checkout in a Tesco supermarket.

Public Image and Philanthropy

Jodie is well known for her role as Villanelle in the TV Series Killing Eve (2018-present) for which she has garnered critical acclaim and won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and a British Academy Television Award for Best Actress. Jodie’s other notable roles include Chloe Gemell in the E4 comedy-drama series My Mad Fat Diary (2013–2015), Ivy Moxam in the BBC Three drama miniseries Thirteen (2016), and Elizabeth of York/Queen Elizabeth in the Starz historical miniseries The White Princess (2017). In December 2018, British Vogue included her in their list of ‘The Most Influential Girls of 2018’, and in February 2019 Forbes included her in their annual ’30 under 30′ list for being in the top 30 most influential people in Europe under the age of 30. Jodie is a supporter of Tyred, a Liverpool-based road safety charity which campaigns to outlaw dangerous old tyres on coaches.

Professional Career

Jodie’s professional career commenced in 2008 with a guest role on an episode of The Royal Today (2008), a spin-off series of the medical drama series The Royal (2003). During 2010-2015 she went on to make appearances in several television series such as Waterloo Road (2010), Holby City (2010), Doctors (2012), Silent Witness (2012), Casualty (2012), Law & Order: UK (2013), Vera (2013), and Inspector George Gently (2014). Following these appearances she was then cast in leading roles in the five-episode drama series Justice (2011), the supernatural miniseries Remember Me (2014), and as Chloe Gemell in the E4 comedy-drama series My Mad Fat Diary (2013-2015). She went on to appear in the adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover (2015), a television film broadcast on BBC One. During the same year, she appeared as Kate Parks in the BBC One drama series Doctor Foster (2015-2017). Jodie went on to be cast in her first starring role as Ivy Moxam in the BBC Three miniseries Thirteen (2016) which earned her a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress and she then appeared in the BBC miniseries Rillington Place (2016). In 2016, Jodie was listed as one of Screen International’s ‘Stars of Tomorrow’ in association with the BFI London Film Festival. She was then cast in a starring role as a young Elizabeth of York in the Starz television series The White Princess (2017) a sequel to the BBC miniseries The White Queen (2013). Jodie made her first feature film debut during 2017, where she starred as Christine in the Morrissey biopic England is Mine (2017).

In April 2018, Jodie began starring in the BBC America spy thriller series Killing Eve (2018-present) as Oksana Astankova / Villanelle, a psychopathic Russian assassin who develops a mutual obsession with Eve Polastri (played by Sandra Oh), the MI6 agent tasked with pursuing her. Jodie has garnered 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.’

In June 2018, Jodie was one of the actresses in a series of BBC Four monologues called Snatches: Moments From Women’s Lives (2018), inspired by events that took place in the century since women first won the vote. She appeared in the episode “Bovril Pam”, where she portrayed a secretary in 1960s Liverpool exploring her sexuality. Jodie 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. In December 2018, it was announced she had been cast in the action comedy film Free Guy (2020). In April 2019, she 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 (2020) due to scheduling conflicts.

In September 2019, a few days after her Emmy win, it was announced that Jodie would be the face of the Loewe spring/summer 2020 fashion campaign, which saw her star in a short film for the brand that consisted of her repeating the brand’s name with different emotions. On 31 March 2020, she was announced as the brand ambassador for skin-care brand Noble Panacea. Jodie performed a brief cameo in the 2019 film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), appearing as Rey’s mother in flashbacks.

In June 2020, Jodie played the lead role of Lesley in a BBC iPlayer reboot of the Talking Heads (2018) episode “Her Big Chance” which was directed by Josie Rourke and was filmed in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In October Jodie finished up filming the lead role of Marguerite de Carrouges in The Last Duel (2021) a film directed by Ridley Scott and is set to release on 15 October 2021.  Jodie is set to to film another Ridley Scott film called Kitbag where she will play Napoleon Bonaparte’s wife opposite Joaquin Phoenix.

Last updated 4 July 2021.