AYO EDEBIRI ON ‘BIG MOUTH,’ AND SURVIVING THE INTERNET

Ayo Edebiri is trying to find a link. The comedian and I are on a Zoom call — de rigueur for a 2020 interview, but somehow even more online than usual, as we’re using the chat function to share memes. “And we have the video folks,” Edebiri says upon finding the particular video she was looking for. “Folks is you and me,” she clarifies. “‘Never seen a big boy get on the roof.’ Here we go.” The ensuing video, in which two friends create a dance-worthy rap about simply being on their roof, is as absurdly funny as Edebiri promised it would be, which makes sense — at only 25 years old, Edebiri has become one of the new faces of comedy, a group unofficially made up of comedians known less for their traditional stand-up sets (though that’s part of it, too), as they are for the extremely online way in which they use their unique brands of humor to connect with audiences. Additionally, Edebiri was recently recast as the biracial character Missy Foreman-Greenwald, previously voiced by Jenny Slate, on Nick Kroll’s Big Mouth — on which Edebiri was a writer — during the civil and cultural movements that peaked this summer… read more >