Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge (born 14 July 1985) is an English actress, writer, and producer. She created, wrote, and starred in the Channel 4 comedy-drama series Crashing (2016) and the BBC tragicomedy series Fleabag (2016–2019). She was also the showrunner and executive producer for the first series of the BBC thriller series Killing Eve (2018–present). Both Fleabag and Killing Eve have been highly acclaimed and named among the 100 greatest television series of the 21st century by The Guardian.

For Fleabag, she received the British Academy Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance, three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Comedy Series, and two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy and Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy.

Waller-Bridge also starred in the comedy series The Café (2011–2013) and the crime drama series Broadchurch (2015). She has appeared in films, including Albert Nobbs (2011), The Iron Lady (2011), and Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017), and played the droid L3-37 in the Star Wars anthology prequel Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). She contributed to the screenplay of the 25th James Bond film, titled No Time to Die (2020).

Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge was born on 14 July 1985, in West London, the daughter of Theresa Mary (née Clerke) and Michael Cyprian Waller-Bridge. Her father founded the electronic trading platform Tradepoint, while her mother works for the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers. The Waller-Bridge family were landed gentry of Cuckfield, Sussex. On her father's side, she is also a descendant of The Rev. Sir Egerton Leigh, 2nd Baronet, Conservative MP for Mid Cheshire from 1873 to his death in 1876. Her maternal grandfather was Sir John Edward Longueville Clerke, 12th baronet, of Hitcham, Buckinghamshire. Waller-Bridge grew up in Ealing, London, and has a younger brother named Jasper, a music manager, and an older sister named Isobel Waller-Bridge, a composer who wrote the music for Fleabag. Her parents are divorced. She was educated at St Augustine's Priory, a Catholic independent school for girls, followed by the independent sixth form college DLD College London in Marylebone, London. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

In 2009, Waller-Bridge made her acting debut in the play Roaring Trade at Soho Theatre. In 2013, Waller-Bridge appeared in one episode of Bad Education as "India". She appeared in the second series of drama Broadchurch in 2015.

In addition to acting, Waller-Bridge is a playwright. Her work includes the series of plays Good. Clean. Fun. In 2016, Waller-Bridge wrote and starred in the Channel 4 sitcom Crashing and BBC Three's adaptation of Fleabag.

After its 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. 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.

Waller-Bridge is the co-artistic director, with Vicky Jones, of DryWrite Theatre Company. The two met and became friends while working on theatre productions.

Waller-Bridge voiced and performed droid L3-37 in the Star Wars film Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018).

Waller-Bridge wrote and produced the thriller television series Killing Eve based on novels by Luke Jennings. The BBC America series stars Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer and premiered in April 2018. For her work on the script, she received a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.

In March 2019, HBO ordered the series Run, which is executive-produced by Waller-Bridge and stars Domhnall Gleeson and Merritt Wever in lead roles. Waller-Bridge also features in the series with a recurring role as the character Flick.

In 2019, Waller-Bridge co-wrote the screenplay for No Time to Die (2020), the 25th James Bond film, along with Neal Purvis and Robert Wade.

Waller-Bridge lives in Kensal Rise, London. She married Irish presenter and documentary filmmaker Conor Woodman in 2014. By 2017, the couple had separated and filed for divorce, which was finalised in 2018. Since early 2018, Waller-Bridge has been in a relationship with English-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. She describes herself as an atheist, although she "hopped around a bit from religion to religion" while growing up in London.

• Waller-Bridge, Phoebe (1 January 2013). Fleabag. London: Nick Hern Books. ISBN 978-1-84-842364-0. OCLC 894546593.