Jodie Comer: The Life Story Behind Killing Eve

Jodie Comer was born on 11 March 1993 in Liverpool, England, and raised in the suburb of Childwall, in a family that had nothing to do with acting. Her father, James Comer, was a physiotherapist who worked with the Everton football team, her mother, Donna, worked for the transport company Merseytravel, and her younger brother, Charlie, was a keen footballer. Jodie attended St Julie’s Catholic High School in Liverpool, where she was a good student, a talented athlete, and a girl who loved to make her friends laugh with impressions of teachers and television presenters. She did not go to drama school. She did not have connections in the theatre. She was discovered by accident, when a teacher entered her in a school monologue competition and a casting director in the audience thought she had something special.

That accident led, over fifteen years, to one of the most acclaimed careers in British acting: from a small part in a television drama about a girl with an eating disorder, to the role of Villanelle in Killing Eve, a Russian assassin who became one of the most famous characters on television, to a one-woman play on the West End and Broadway, Prima Facie, for which she won the Olivier Award and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She did it by learning on the job, by watching other actors, and by developing a talent for accents and for transformation that few actors of her generation can match. This is the story of how a girl from Liverpool became a star of stage and screen.

Childwall, Liverpool and an Ordinary Childhood

Childwall is a suburb in the south of Liverpool, a quiet residential area with parks, schools and a strong sense of community. Comer grew up there in a house where football was a daily topic, because her father worked with Everton, one of the city’s two great clubs, and where her mother worked in public transport, a job that meant early mornings and practical, hard work. She attended St Julie’s Catholic High School, a girls’ school in the Woolton area, where she was known as a bright, funny teenager who was good at sport, particularly running and netball, and who had a talent for mimicry. She would imitate her teachers, her friends and the presenters she saw on television, and she made people laugh, but she did not think of it as acting. It was, by her own account, just something she did to make her friends happy.

The school played a decisive role in her life. When she was in her early teens, a drama teacher entered her in a local monologue competition, the Liverpool Performing Arts Festival, where she performed a monologue from the play The Price by Arthur Miller, playing a character much older than herself. A casting director named Bev Dixon was in the audience, and she was struck by Comer’s performance, by the way she held the stage, by the clarity of her voice, and by the emotional truth of a teenager playing an adult. Dixon introduced her to an agent, and Comer began auditioning for television roles while still at school. She did not have formal training, and she has spoken about how she learned by doing, by watching other actors on set, by asking questions, and by making mistakes and learning from them.

Her parents supported her, but they also insisted that she finish school and that she treat acting as a job, not as a fantasy. Her father, who had worked with professional footballers, understood what it meant to be in a competitive, public profession, and he taught her to be disciplined, to turn up on time, and to respect the people she worked with. Her mother taught her to be practical, to save money, and to keep her feet on the ground. Those lessons stayed with her, and they explain why, even after winning an Emmy and a Tony, she still talks about Liverpool as home, still supports the city, and still speaks with a Scouse accent in interviews, a reminder that she has not become a different person for fame.

My Mad Fat Diary and the First Television Roles

Comer’s first professional roles were small parts in British television. She appeared in The Royal Today in 2008, a medical drama set in a hospital, playing a patient, and in Holby City in 2010, another medical drama, and in Waterloo Road in 2011, a school drama. These were the kind of roles that young actors take to learn their craft: a few lines, a few days on set, and a credit that casting directors notice. She also appeared in Justice in 2011, a legal drama, and she focused on television, where the work was steadier and where she could build a reputation.

The role that made her known to a wider audience was Chloe Gemell in My Mad Fat Diary, a comedy-drama that ran on E4 from 2013 to 2015. The show was about a teenage girl, Rae, played by Sharon Rooney, who had been in a psychiatric hospital after trying to take her own life, and who was trying to rebuild her life in Lincolnshire in the 1990s. Comer played Chloe, Rae’s best friend, a popular, confident, funny girl who was also, underneath, insecure and struggling. The show was praised for its honesty about mental health, about friendship, and about being a teenager, and Comer’s performance was noted for its warmth and its comic timing. She was twenty when the show began, and she played a teenager with a believability that came from having been one herself not long before.

She followed My Mad Fat Diary with a role in Doctor Foster, a BBC drama that ran from 2015 to 2017, playing Kate Parks, a young woman who has an affair with a married doctor, played by Bertie Carvel, and who becomes part of a story about betrayal, revenge and the collapse of a marriage. The show starred Suranne Jones as Gemma Foster, a doctor who discovers her husband’s infidelity, and it became one of the most popular dramas on British television, with millions of viewers. Comer’s role was smaller than Jones’s, but it was important: Kate was a young woman who was used by an older man, who was judged by others, and who had to live with the consequences. Comer played her with a sympathy that made the audience understand her, even when they disapproved of her choices. The show also introduced her to a wider audience, including casting directors who were looking for a young actor who could play complex, morally ambiguous women.

Thirteen and the First Leading Role

In 2016, Comer took her first leading role in a television drama, playing Ivy Moxam in Thirteen, a BBC series about a young woman who escapes after being held captive for thirteen years and tries to rebuild her life. The role was demanding: Ivy had been kidnapped at thirteen, held in a cellar, and released at twenty-six, and she had to learn how to live in a world that had changed, how to trust people, and how to cope with the attention of the police and the press. Comer played her as a woman who was both a victim and a survivor, who was fragile and strong at the same time, and who was trying to work out who she was. The series was praised for its writing and for Comer’s performance, and it showed that she could carry a drama on her own, without a large ensemble to support her.

Thirteen was followed by a role in The White Princess in 2017, a historical drama about Elizabeth of York, played by Comer, the wife of Henry VII and the mother of Henry VIII, a woman who was caught between two families, the Yorks and the Lancasters, in the Wars of the Roses. The role required her to wear period costumes, to speak in a formal, historical register, and to play a queen who was both a political actor and a mother. The series was not a major success, but it showed her range: she could play a contemporary teenager, a captive, and a fifteenth-century queen, all within a few years, and each performance felt specific and true.

During this period, Comer also began to be noticed by casting directors in America, who saw in her a talent for accents and for transformation. She could do a Scouse accent, a London accent, a Received Pronunciation accent, and she could learn a new accent for a role in a matter of weeks. That skill would become central to her most famous role, a character who changed accents, identities and languages as easily as she changed clothes, and who became one of the most talked-about characters on television.

Killing Eve and Villanelle

In 2018, Comer was cast as Villanelle in Killing Eve, a BBC America series created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, based on the novels by Luke Jennings. Villanelle, whose real name was Oksana Astankova, was a Russian assassin who worked for a shadowy organisation called the Twelve, killing targets around the world with a creativity and a flair that made her murders feel like performances. She was also funny, charming, lonely and childlike, a woman who loved clothes, who ate ice cream, who danced in a ballgown, and who fell in love with Eve Polastri, the MI6 officer hunting her, played by Sandra Oh. The relationship between Villanelle and Eve became the centre of the show, a cat-and-mouse game that was also a love story, and Comer’s performance was the reason it worked.

Villanelle was a character who spoke multiple languages, who impersonated other people, and who changed her accent and her identity in every episode. Comer played her in English, French, Italian, Russian and German, switching between languages with an ease that astonished audiences, and she did it while also conveying Villanelle’s emotional life: her boredom, her loneliness, her desire to be loved, and her inability to understand what love meant. The performance won her the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2019, at the age of twenty-six, and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in 2019, and it made her famous around the world. She was suddenly a global star, with fans who dressed as Villanelle for Halloween, who quoted her lines, and who followed her on social media.

The show ran for four seasons, from 2018 to 2022, and it became one of the most acclaimed dramas of its time, winning awards and earning a loyal audience. Comer has spoken about how demanding the role was, how she had to learn new accents for each episode, how she had to film in multiple countries, and how she had to maintain Villanelle’s energy over four years. She has also spoken about how the role changed her life, how it gave her opportunities she had never imagined, and how it also made her realise that she wanted to do theatre, to return to the stage, and to prove that she was more than a television assassin. That desire would lead to the most important role of her career so far, a one-woman play about a barrister who is sexually assaulted.

Free Guy, The Last Duel and the Move to Film

While Killing Eve was running, Comer began to take film roles. In 2021 she starred in Free Guy, a comedy-action film directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ryan Reynolds as a bank teller in a video game who discovers he is a non-player character. Comer played Millie, a game designer who is trying to prove that her code was stolen, and who appears in the game as Molotov Girl, a character with sunglasses and a leather jacket. The film was a major box-office success, earning more than 330 million dollars worldwide, and it showed that Comer could carry a big studio film, that she could be funny and action-oriented, and that she could hold her own opposite Reynolds, one of the most popular comedy stars in the world.

In the same year, she starred in The Last Duel, directed by Ridley Scott, playing Marguerite de Carrouges, a woman in fourteenth-century France who accuses a squire, played by Adam Driver, of raping her, and whose husband, played by Matt Damon, challenges the squire to a duel to defend her honour. The film was told from three perspectives, Marguerite’s, her husband’s, and the squire’s, and Comer’s performance, as a woman who is not believed, who is judged, and who insists on telling the truth, was widely praised as the best in the film. The film was not a commercial success, but it was a critical one, and it showed that Comer could play a historical drama with the same intensity she brought to Killing Eve.

She followed it with The End We Start From in 2023, a drama about a woman who gives birth during a flood in London and tries to survive with her baby, and with The Bikeriders in 2023, directed by Jeff Nichols, playing Kathy, the wife of a biker, played by Austin Butler, in a film about a motorcycle club in 1960s Chicago. The Bikeriders was based on a book of photographs by Danny Lyon, and Comer’s performance, as a woman who loves a man who is part of a dangerous world, was praised for its warmth and its authenticity. These films showed a career that was moving from television to film, from a single famous character to a range of roles, and that was built on a willingness to take risks.

Prima Facie and the Triumph on Stage

In 2022, Comer took on the role that would define her stage career, playing Tessa Ensler in Prima Facie, a one-woman play by Suzie Miller, first performed at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London’s West End. Tessa was a barrister who defended men accused of sexual assault, who believed in the legal system, and who was then herself sexually assaulted and had to navigate the same system as a victim. The play was a monologue, lasting almost two hours, in which Comer played Tessa and all the other characters, switching between voices, accents and physicalities, and holding the audience’s attention alone on stage. It was a demanding role, and Comer had never done a play before, but she took it because she believed in the story and because she wanted to challenge herself.

The play was a major success in London, earning strong reviews and selling out, and it transferred to Broadway in 2023, where it ran at the Golden Theatre in New York. Comer won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in 2023 for the London production, and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in 2023 for the Broadway production, becoming one of the few actors to win both awards for the same role. The performance was praised for its physicality, for the way Comer moved around the stage, for the way she conveyed Tessa’s confidence and then her vulnerability, and for the way she made a legal argument feel like a human story. The play also had a social impact: it was discussed in Parliament, it was used in legal training, and it raised awareness of how the justice system treats victims of sexual assault.

Prima Facie showed that Comer was not just a television star. She was a stage actor of the highest order, capable of holding a theatre alone for two hours, and capable of making a difficult subject feel urgent and real. It also showed that she was willing to take a risk, to do a play when she could have taken a film, and to use her fame to tell a story that mattered. The success of the play opened new doors for her, including film roles and the possibility of returning to the stage, and it confirmed her place as one of the most talented actors of her generation, a woman from Liverpool who had become a star on both sides of the Atlantic.

Life in Liverpool and What Comes Next

Comer still lives in Liverpool, or spends as much time there as her work allows, and she is known for her loyalty to the city, for supporting local charities, and for speaking with pride about her Scouse roots. She has a younger brother, Charlie, who is a footballer, and she is close to her parents, who still live in Liverpool. She is in a relationship with James Burke, a former professional rugby player, and she keeps her private life out of the headlines, rarely posting about it on social media and rarely discussing it in interviews. That privacy is a deliberate choice, and it reflects the same discipline she brings to her work: she does the acting, she goes home, and she keeps the two separate.

Her future projects include 28 Years Later, directed by Danny Boyle and released in 2025, in which she plays Isla, a mother in a post-apocalyptic world, a role that continues her move into film. What is certain is that she will continue to choose roles that challenge her, that she will return to the stage, and that she will remain one of the most interesting actors working today, a woman who was discovered by accident in a school competition and who became, through hard work and talent, a star of stage and screen.

The Accents, the Languages and the Craft of Transformation

One skill that sets Comer apart from most actors of her generation is her ear for accents and languages. For Villanelle, she worked with dialect coaches to learn Russian, French, Italian and German, not just the words but the rhythm and the music of each language, so that when Villanelle pretended to be a French woman or an Italian tourist, the audience believed her. She has spoken about how she learns an accent by listening, by repeating, and by finding the physical feeling of it, how a Russian accent sits in the throat, how a French accent sits in the nose, and how each one changes the way she holds her body. That physical approach to language is the reason her impersonations feel real rather than comic: she does not just change her voice, she changes her posture, her walk and her smile, and the transformation is complete. It is a skill she developed as a girl in Liverpool, imitating teachers and television presenters, and it became, in Killing Eve, the defining feature of her most famous character.

My Take:

Craft. Talent is the entry ticket here, but taste is the path, and taste is created through the characters refused as much as the characters taken. The little decisions matter most to me, the pauses and the listening, because they show a performer who lets another performer have the scene. There is also a lesson in the way the path has handled range, because it would have been easy, and profitable, to take only the safe offer. The preparation behind the portrayals deserves more attention than it normally gets, because a part that looks effortless has normally been built from reading, rehearsal, and private work. Effort shown is effort wasted, in my view, and the hidden preparation behind these characters is the mark of a professional. What impresses me most about the craft here is the little decisions that carry the scene. I admire the way the work stays curious, because triumph regularly tells a performer that learning is finished, and here the student stayed a student. The best performances here rely on honesty rather than fashion, and that is why I expect them to age well. The refusal to do that, the insistence on varied worlds and distinct kinds of people, is what keeps the work alive. In an age when so much acting is designed to be clipped and shared, there is something quietly radical about a performance that refuses to explain itself. Watching this path intently, the first thing that stands out is how little of it depends on luck, because the shape of the work was decided by taste created one choice at a time. Range is the bravest commercial choice a star can make, and the refusal to repeat one triumph is what keeps this path alive. What impresses me most about the craft here is the refusal to shout. The modest decisions matter most to me, the pauses and the listening, because they show a performer who lets another star have the scene. There is also a lesson in the way the journey has handled range, because it would have been easy, and profitable, to stay inside one genre. I admire the way the work stays curious, because success regularly tells a performer that learning is finished, and here curiosity only grew. The preparation behind the performances deserves more attention than it generally gets, because a character that looks effortless has usually been created from a hundred invisible decisions. The refusal to do that, the insistence on varied worlds and varied kinds of people, is what turns a career into a career. Watching this path carefully, the first thing that stands out is how little of it depends on luck, because the shape of the work was decided by a refusal to be rushed. Talent is the entry ticket here, but taste is the path, and taste is created in the silent decisions nobody applauds. Range is the bravest commercial decision a performer can make, and the refusal to repeat one triumph is why the filmography stays surprising. Another angle worth holding onto is the way this career has handled time, because time is the one thing no performer can control, and yet it is the thing that reveals what was real.

Meaning. Ageing in public with grace is a success of its own, and the later roles embrace that reality, which shows honesty about time. There is also a meaning here about place and belonging, because a performer who carries their roots into worldwide work is doing something more than acting. That matters to crowds who rarely see their own world on screen, and it matters to young performers who wonder whether they need to forget where they came from to succeed. The judgement that matters is not the first one but the last one, and the last one is written by years of truthful portrayals. The long way round is still the best way home, and that is the message I take from years of patient work. For me, the most human part of the narrative is the balance between ambition and kindness, because ambition is visible in the hunger for better work, and kindness is visible in the way colleagues speak. Patience is still a real strategy, not just a consolation, and this journey proves it, because time was an ally, not an enemy. The tale also speaks to anyone who has ever been underestimated, because early on, nobody could have predicted the audience that would gather. Ambition and kindness can live jointly, and this path shows that the combination is rare and worth celebrating. A local story can become an international one without losing its roots, and that is the most useful lesson here. In a culture that promises fast results, that slowness is almost a form of protest, because it says that some things are worth doing steadily, even when the world wants speed. The deeper meaning of this tale, for me, is about time, because a journey like this one cannot be hurried into greatness. For me, the most human part of the story is the balance between ambition and kindness, because ambition is visible in the refusal to settle, and kindness is visible in the way colleagues speak. That matters to audiences who rarely see their own world on screen, and it matters to young performers who wonder whether they need to start over somewhere else to succeed. The judgement that matters is not the first one but the last one, and the last one is written by years of truthful performances. Ambition and kindness can live together, and this career shows that the combination is stronger than either alone. Ageing in public with grace is a success of its own, and the later characters embrace that reality, which gives viewers permission to age too. The long way round is still the best way home, and that is the message I take from a journey built steadily. There is also a meaning here about place and belonging, because a performer who carries their home country into international work is doing something more than acting. The narrative also speaks to anyone who has ever been underestimated, because early on, nobody could have predicted how far the work would travel. The deeper meaning of this narrative, for me, is about time, because a career like this one cannot be faked in a single season. One more reflection, and it is about courage, because courage in acting is not only about taking on a hard role; it is about trusting that the audience will follow.

Lessons. The third lesson would be to protect the private life, because the work needs a real life behind it, and a real life needs silent days. The tale also teaches something about failure, which is that it is only fatal if it is treated as a verdict, because a bad review can be a reason to learn, or a reason to stop. Curiosity is the cheapest form of ambition, and it is the one that never runs out, because learning a novel language keeps the work novel. Another lesson is about saying no, because the most important decisions in this path may have been the repetitions avoided. The second lesson would be to choose the role, not the size of the show, because a modest movie with a real figure stays with the audience. Saying no is frightening when money is on the table, but it is the only way to keep a path from becoming a repetition. Every yes costs a no somewhere else, and the art is in choosing which yes is worth the risk. If I had to pull practical lessons from this life tale, the first would be to train properly before chasing attention, because training is the foundation nobody photographs. Being easy to work with is a professional asset as real as any award, because talent alone cannot open them. Collaboration is a lesson too, because no portrayal happens alone, and the careers that last are created on people who return because the work was good. Failure treated as information is the difference between a long journey and a short one, and that response is the hardest lesson here. The moment a performer decides there is nothing left to learn, the work begins to repeat itself, and here the learning never stopped. The narrative also teaches something about failure, which is that it is only fatal if it is treated as a verdict, because a character that did not land can be a reason to learn, or a reason to stop. The third lesson would be to protect the private life, because the work needs a real life behind it, and a real life needs boundaries. Curiosity is the cheapest form of ambition, and it is the one that never runs out, because staying a student keeps the work new. Failure treated as information is the difference between a long path and a short one, and that response is worth remembering for any work. Every yes costs a no somewhere else, and the art is in choosing which yes is worth the wait. Being easy to work with is a professional asset as real as any award, because talent alone cannot open them. The second lesson would be to choose the role, not the size of the show, because a small movie with a real person teaches more and lasts longer. The moment a performer decides there is nothing left to learn, the work begins to repeat itself, and here the student never left. If I had to pull practical lessons from this life narrative, the first would be to train properly before chasing attention, because training is the reason the work lasts. I keep coming back to the human side of the tale, too, because behind every portrayal is a figure who trained, waited, worked, and kept going.

Verdict. I expect the next chapters to be as bold as the ones before them, because bravery practised for this long becomes a habit. So if you are discovering this performer for the first time, start with the breakthrough, then go back to the early work, and then observe the recent projects in order, because you will see the growth happen in front of you. In the end, the story matters because it is a human narrative, not only a celebrated one, and behind the awards and the premieres is a figure who trained, waited, worked, failed, learned, and kept going. What I will keep watching for is the next decision, because a career like this one is interesting precisely because the next part cannot be reduced to a trend. My truthful verdict is that this is one of the most complete careers of its generation, not because every project succeeded, but because the story keeps moving. Most performers manage one or two great chapters, and the rest is a long echo, but here the work kept changing. Start with the big break, then go back, then observe the recent work in order, and you will understand why the story is worth telling. That is a rare pleasure, and it is worth celebrating while the story is still being written, because the audience is still listening. The early promise was real, the turning point was earned, the middle years were brave, and the later work is still worth watching. Few performers manage all four of those things: the early promise, the earned breakthrough, the brave middle years, and the surprising later work, and that is what I will remember. And if you have followed the journey for years, the pleasure is different but just as real: it is the pleasure of watching someone you trust choose well, project after project. I also think the career will age well, because the portrayals that rely on honesty rather than fashion are the ones that survive, and the best work here relies on honesty. So if you are discovering this performer for the first time, start with the big break, then go back to the early work, and then observe the recent projects in order, because you will see a path becoming itself. My truthful verdict is that this is one of the most complete careers of its generation, not because every project succeeded, but because the growth is visible. What I will keep watching for is the next decision, because a career like this one is interesting precisely because the next part cannot be predicted from the last one. I expect the next chapters to be as courageous as the ones before them, because bravery practised for this long becomes a habit. In the end, the tale matters because it is a human narrative, not only a well-known one, and behind the awards and the premieres is a character who trained, waited, worked, failed, learned, and kept going. The early promise was real, the big break was earned, the middle years were brave, and the later work is still sincere. Start with the breakthrough, then go back, then watch the recent work in order, and you will understand why the name still matters. Most performers manage one or two great chapters, and the rest is a long echo, but here each chapter added something novel. Few performers manage all four of those things: the early promise, the earned big break, the courageous middle years, and the surprising later work, and that is why this journey stands out. There is also something to be said about the way this narrative crosses borders, because a performer who works in more than one language and more than one country is proving that stories travel.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where was Jodie Comer born and how old is Jodie Comer?

Jodie Comer was born in 1993 in Liverpool, England, which makes she 33 years old in 2026. Jodie Comer was born in 1993 in Liverpool, England, and she grew up in the suburb of Childwall, where her father worked as a physiotherapist for Everton Football Club.

What is Jodie Comer best known for?

Jodie Comer is best known for Killing Eve, My Mad Fat Diary, Doctor Foster, Prima Facie, The Last Duel. These are the roles that most people mention first, and they show the range of the career, from the early work to the most recent projects.

What was Jodie Comer’s breakthrough role?

Her early breakthrough came in the teen drama My Mad Fat Diary, where she played the best friend Chloe, and then in Doctor Foster, where she played the younger woman Kate Parks. The role that changed everything was Villanelle in Killing Eve, the stylish, funny, and terrifying assassin whose performance won Comer an Emmy and two BAFTAs.

Has Jodie Comer won any major awards?

Yes. The honours include an Emmy and two BAFTA awards for Killing Eve, plus an Olivier and a Tony for Prima Facie. The recognition has come from critics, festivals, and fellow performers, and it reflects a career built on consistent, serious work rather than a single lucky role.

What are Jodie Comer’s most famous movies and TV shows?

The most famous works include My Mad Fat Diary (2013-2015), Doctor Foster (2015-2017), Killing Eve (2018-2022), The Last Duel (2021), Prima Facie (2022-2023), 28 Years Later (2025). Together they give a good picture of the range of the career, and they are a good place to start for anyone discovering the work for the first time.

What is Jodie Comer doing now?

In 2025 Comer returned to the big screen in 28 Years Later, Danny Boyle’s long-awaited sequel, playing a mother in a world overrun by the infected. She continues to live in Liverpool, close to her family, and she has said that staying home keeps her grounded when the work takes her around the world.