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Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge (born 14 July 1985) is a British actress, screenwriter and producer. As the creator, head writer, and lead star of the comedy series Fleabag (2016–2019), she won various accolades, including three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes and a British Academy Television Award.[1][2] She received further Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for writing and producing the spy thriller series Killing Eve (2018–2022).
Phoebe Waller-Bridge | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Waller-Bridge in 2023 | |
| Born | Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge 14 July 1985 Hammersmith, London, England, UK |
| Alma mater | Royal Academy of Dramatic Art |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 2007–present |
| Spouse | |
| Partner | Martin McDonagh (2017–present) |
| Relatives |
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| Awards | Full list |
Waller-Bridge has also created, written, and starred in the comedy series Crashing (2016). She has also acted in the comedy series The Café (2011–2013), in the second season of Broadchurch (2015), and in the films Albert Nobbs (2011), The Iron Lady (2011), Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017), and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). She contributed to the screenplay of the James Bond film No Time to Die (2021) and starred in the adventure film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).
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Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge was born in Hammersmith, London, on 14 July 1985,[3][4] the daughter of Michael Cyprian Waller-Bridge, founder of the electronic trading platform Tradepoint,[5] and Theresa Mary, daughter of Sir John Edward Longueville Clerke, 12th Baronet, employed by the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers.[6][7][8] The Bridge, later Waller-Bridge, family were soldiers and clergymen, who came to rank among the landed gentry of Cuckfield in Sussex.[9][10] Her grandfather, Cyprian Waller-Bridge (1918-1960), "a Wodehousian sort of character... 'the eccentric son of an eccentric vicar'",[11] was an actor and BBC announcer.[12][13][14] On her father's side, she is a descendant of the Revd Sir Egerton Leigh, 2nd Baronet, and a distant relative of politician and author Egerton Leigh, Conservative MP for Mid Cheshire from 1873 to his death in 1876.[15][16]
Waller-Bridge grew up in Ealing in London[17][18] and has two siblings: an older sister, Isobel Waller-Bridge, a composer, with whom she has collaborated; and a younger brother, Jasper.[19] Her parents are divorced.[20] She was educated at St Augustine's Priory, a Catholic independent school for girls,[21] followed by the independent sixth form college DLD College London in the Marylebone area of London.[22] She graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.[23]
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Waller-Bridge's performing credits begin in theatre in 2007. At that time, she co-founded the DryWrite Theatre Company with Vicky Jones.[7] They are co-artistic directors of the company.[24][25] The two women met and became friends while working on theatre productions.[26] Among her acting theatre credits are the 2009 productions Roaring Trade at Soho Theatre[27] and Rope at the Almeida Theatre. She performed in a production of Noël Coward's Hay Fever in 2011 and Mydidae in 2012. Waller-Bridge then wrote and starred in Fleabag, which she first performed as part of the London Storytelling Festival on 25 November 2012. The first full version of Fleabag premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2013. She later wrote the short plays production Good. Clean. Fun.[28] Waller-Bridge returned to the stage for further productions of Fleabag between 2013 and 2019.
Waller-Bridge began her screen career in 2009, playing roles in short films and in individual episodes of television sitcoms and dramas. Her early television appearances include the 2011 film The Night Watch, as well as Bad Education and Coming Up in 2013 and Blandings in 2014. She had supporting roles in The Café from 2011 to 2013 and in the second season of the crime drama series Broadchurch in 2015. Her first feature length theatrical film roles were in 2011 for Albert Nobbs and The Iron Lady. Her role in Albert Nobbs had her cast alongside Emerald Fennell, to whom she would later hand off showrunner duties for Killing Eve.
Waller-Bridge has voice acted for several BBC Radio plays, such as 2013's Vincent Price and the Horror of the English Blood Beast, in which she played actress Hillary Dwyer, and a 2014 adaptation of an Agatha Christie story. She has provided narration in short films, including a 2015 television documentary on dating apps and a 2016 Christmas themed animated short film. She has also voiced ads for companies such as The Cotswold Company, Warburtons, Gordon's Gin, Trainline, Travel Republic, Kuoni Travel, and Tropicana.
In 2016, she wrote and starred in her first television project, the Channel 4 comedy Crashing about a group of twenty-somethings living in an abandoned hospital under the property guardianship scheme.[29] It began streaming on Netflix after airing in the UK, with W Magazine calling it Waller-Bridge's "twisted take on Friends."[30] GQ Magazine described the show's six episodes as: "perfect little whirlwinds of comedy building to one big maelstrom where everyone falls to pieces—some are better off for it, and some are not. No matter where the chips fall, you'll have a good time."[31]
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After an initial release on BBC Three, Fleabag was broadcast on BBC Two from August 2016. It was picked up by the on-demand Amazon Video service and premiered in the United States in September 2016.[32][33][34] For her performance in the series she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance and was nominated for a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. Fleabag's second and final series aired in 2019. For the second series, Waller-Bridge received Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Comedy Series.[35][36] She also topped the Radio Times's TV 100 power list that year.[37]
She voiced and performed droid L3-37 in the Star Wars film Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018).[38][39] Waller-Bridge wrote and produced the thriller television series Killing Eve, based on novels by Luke Jennings.[40] She was also the showrunner for series 1.[41] The BBC America series stars Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer and premiered in April 2018 to critical acclaim.[42] For her work on the series, she received nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Drama Series, the latter as a producer.
In March 2019, HBO ordered the series Run, with Waller-Bridge as executive producer.[43] In the series, she also portrayed the recurring character Laurel.[44] It was cancelled after one season.[45] In 2019, Waller-Bridge co-wrote the screenplay for No Time to Die (2021), the 25th James Bond film, along with Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Cary Joji Fukunaga. It was stated she was brought on to introduce "more humour and the offbeat style of writing she is best known for."[46][47] In September 2019, Waller-Bridge signed a three-year overall deal with Amazon Studios, continuing from their relationship formed for Fleabag's second season.[48]
In January 2020, Wall-Bridge formed a U.K.-based production house named Wells Street Films with Fleabag stage and series alums Jenny Robins as head of television and film, and Charlotte McBrearty as a development executive.[49][50] Waller-Bridge voiced Sayan Kötör in series 2 of the television show His Dark Materials. She also directed the music video for "Savior Complex" by Phoebe Bridgers. Waller-Bridge then appeared in the music video for "Treat People with Kindness" by Harry Styles, which premiered on 1 January 2021.
In February 2021, she was set to create and star in a television adaptation of the 2005 film Mr. and Mrs. Smith with her Solo: A Star Wars Story co-star Donald Glover, but by September 2021, it was reported that Waller-Bridge had exited the series over creative differences.[51][52] She appears in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, as Helena Shaw, which was released in June 2023.[53][54][55][56] In January 2023, Waller-Bridge renewed her deal with Amazon Studios for a further three years, and would be adapting the Claudia Lux horror/thriller novel Sign Here as an Amazon series.[57] It was also reported that Waller-Bridge was developing a Tomb Raider TV series for Amazon Prime, which was formerly picked up for series order in May 2024.[58][59]
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Waller-Bridge lives in the Shoreditch area of London. She married Irish presenter and documentary filmmaker Conor Woodman in 2014.[18] By 2017, they had separated and filed for divorce.[60] Since 2017, she has been in a relationship with playwright Martin McDonagh.[7][61]
Waller-Bridge describes herself as an atheist, although she says she "hopped around a bit from religion to religion" while growing up.[62] She avoids social media, stating in a 2019 interview that she "would feel pressure to be funny the whole time" and that she did not feel confident enough to deal with the negative comments that come with social media use.[63]
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Film
| † | Denotes works that have not yet been released |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Intangible | Anna | Short film |
| 2009 | The Reward | Charlotte | |
| 2011 | Beautiful Enough | Composer (voice) | |
| Meconium | Lorna | ||
| Albert Nobbs | Viscountess Yarrell | ||
| The Iron Lady | Susie | ||
| 2015 | Man Up | Katie | |
| Incident on the Northern Line | Unnamed character | Short film | |
| 2016 | The 12 Days of Christmas: A Tale of Avian Misery | Narrator | Animated short film |
| 2017 | Goodbye Christopher Robin | Mary Brown | |
| 2018 | Careful How You Go | Unnamed character | Short film |
| Solo: A Star Wars Story | L3-37 (voice) | ||
| 2021 | No Time to Die | None | Co-screenwriter |
| 2023 | Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny | Helena Shaw[55] | |
| 2024 | IF | Blossom (voice) | |
| 2025 | A Big Bold Beautiful Journey† | Filming |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Doctors | Katie Burbridge | Episode: "Chef's Secret" |
| 2010 | How Not to Live Your Life | Felicity | Episode: "Don's Posh Weekend" |
| 2011 | The Night Watch | Lauren | Television film |
| 2011–2013 | The Café | Chloe Astill | 13 episodes |
| 2013 | Coming Up | Karen | Episode: "Henry" |
| London Irish | Steph | Episode: "#1.2" | |
| Bad Education | India | Episode: "Drugs" | |
| 2014 | Blandings | Felicity | Episode: "Custody of the Pumpkin" |
| Glue | Bee Warwick | 2 episodes | |
| Drifters | None | Writer in 3 episodes | |
| 2015 | Broadchurch | Abby Thompson | 8 episodes |
| Love at First Swipe | Narrator | Documentary; also called "The Secret World of Tinder" | |
| 2016 | Crashing | Lulu | 6 episodes; also creator, writer and executive producer |
| 2016–2019 | Fleabag | Fleabag | 12 episodes; also creator, writer and executive producer |
| 2018–2022 | Killing Eve | None | Writer in 4 episodes, executive producer in 24 episodes |
| 2019 | Saturday Night Live | Herself (host) | Episode: "Phoebe Waller-Bridge/Taylor Swift" |
| 2020 | Run | Laurel Halliday | Actress in 3 episodes; executive producer in 7 episodes |
| His Dark Materials | Sayan Kötör (voice) | 2 episodes | |
| 2021 | Staged | Herself | Episode: "The Loo Recluse" |
| Great British Theatre | Fleabag | Episode: "Fleabag" |
Theatre
| Year | Title | Role | Venue | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Is Everyone OK? | Performer | Latitude Festival, Suffolk | [64][65] |
| Crazy Love | Billie | Paines Plough | [66] | |
| 2008 | Twelfth Night | Viola | Sprite Productions | [67] |
| 2009 | Roaring Trade | Jess | Soho Theatre, London | [68] |
| 2 May 1997 | Sarah | The Bush Theatre, London | [68] | |
| Rope | Leila Arden | Almeida Theatre, London | [68] | |
| 2010 | Like a Fishbone | Intern | The Bush Theatre, London | [68] |
| Tribes | Ruth | Royal Court Theatre, London | [68] | |
| 2011 | Hay Fever | Sorel Bliss | Noël Coward Theatre, London | [68][69] |
| 2012 | Mydidae | Marian | Soho Theatre, London | [70] |
| Trafalgar Studios, West End | ||||
| 2013 | Fleabag | Fleabag | Underbelly, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Soho Theatre Studio, London |
[71] |
| 2014 | The One | Jo | Soho Theatre, London | [72][73] |
| Fleabag | Fleabag | Soho Theatre Main House Daehangno Small Theatre Festival, Seoul |
[74][75][76] | |
| 2015 | Salberg Studio | [77][78] | ||
| 2016 | Soho Theatre Main House | |||
| 2018 | Australia | [75] | ||
| 2019 | SoHo Playhouse | [79] | ||
| Wyndham's Theatre | [80] |
Music videos
| Year | Title | Artist | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | "Savior Complex" | Phoebe Bridgers | Director only |
| 2021 | "Treat People With Kindness" | Harry Styles | Performer only |
| 2024 | "Perfect Stranger" | FKA Twigs | Performer only |
Radio
| Year | Title | Role | Production | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Vincent Price and the Horror of the English Blood Beast | Hillary Dwyer | BBC Radio 4 | [81] | |
| 2011 | Money | Georgina Vesey | BBC Radio 3 | [82] | |
| 2012 | Burns and the Bankers | Gemma Goodman | BBC Radio 4 | [83] | |
| Gulliver's Travels | Lady Munodi | Episode: "The Voyage to Laputa" | [84] | ||
| 2013 | ElvenQuest | Nigressa | Episode: "The Fat Hog" | [85] | |
| 2014 | Ordeal by Innocence | Hester | 3 episodes | [86] |
Publications
- Waller-Bridge, Phoebe (1 January 2013). Fleabag. London: Nick Hern Books. OCLC 894546593.
- Waller-Bridge, Phoebe (6 October 2016). Fleabag, 2nd Edition. London: Nick Hern Books.
- Waller-Bridge, Phoebe (29 August 2019). Fleabag: The Special Edition (NHB Modern Plays). London: Nick Hern Books.
- Waller-Bridge, Phoebe (12 November 2019). Fleabag: The Scriptures (Hardcover & Paperback). Sceptre.
- Waller-Bridge, Phoebe (26 November 2019). Fleabag: The Scriptures (Hardcover & Kindle). Ballantine Books.
- Waller-Bridge, Phoebe (26 November 2019). Fleabag: The Special Edition (TCG). Theatre Communications Group.
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