Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Waller-Bridge in 2023
Born
Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge

(1985-07-14) 14 July 1985 (age 38)
Hammersmith, London, England
Alma materRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art
Occupations
  • Actress
  • screenwriter
  • producer
Years active2007–present
Spouse
(m. 2014; sep. 2017)
PartnerMartin McDonagh (2017–present)
RelativesIsobel Waller-Bridge (sister) Michelle Dockery (sister-in-law)
AwardsFull list

Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge (born 14 July 1985) is an English actress, screenwriter and producer. As the creator, head writer, and star of the comedy series Fleabag (2016–2019), she won three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes and a British Academy Television Award. She received further Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for writing and producing the spy thriller series Killing Eve (2018–2022).

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).

Early life

Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge was born in Hammersmith, London, on 14 July 1985, the daughter of Michael Cyprian Waller-Bridge, founder of the electronic trading platform Tradepoint, and Theresa Mary, daughter of Sir John Edward Longueville Clerke, 12th Baronet, employed by the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers. The Bridge, later Waller-Bridge, family were soldiers and clergymen, who came to rank among the landed gentry of Cuckfield in Sussex. Her grandfather, Cyprian Waller-Bridge (1918-1960), "a Wodehousian sort of character... 'the eccentric son of an eccentric vicar'", was an actor and BBC announcer. 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.

Waller-Bridge grew up in Ealing in London and has two siblings: an older sister, Isobel Waller-Bridge, a composer, with whom she has collaborated; and a younger brother, Jasper. 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 the Marylebone area of London. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Career

Waller-Bridge (centre) at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2013

Waller-Bridge's performing credits begin in theatre in 2007. At that time, she co-founded the DryWrite Theatre Company with Vicky Jones. They are co-artistic directors of the company. The two women met and became friends while working on theatre productions. Among her acting theatre credits are the 2009 productions Roaring Trade at Soho Theatre 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. 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. It began streaming on Netflix after airing in the UK, with W Magazine calling it Waller-Bridge's "twisted take on Friends." 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."

Waller-Bridge at a performance of her one-woman show at the Wyndham's Theatre in 2019

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. 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. She also topped the Radio Times's TV 100 power list that year.

She 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. She was also the showrunner for series 1. The BBC America series stars Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer and premiered in April 2018 to critical acclaim. 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. In the series, she also portrayed the recurring character Laurel. It was cancelled after one series. 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." In 2020, Waller-Bridge voiced Sayan Kötör in series 2 of the television show His Dark Materials. She also directed the music video for "Saviour 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.

Waller-Bridge and Donald Glover in 2018

She was set to co-star with Donald Glover in a television adaptation of the 2005 film Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but in September 2021, it was revealed that Waller-Bridge had exited the series over creative differences. Waller-Bridge is developing a Tomb Raider TV series for Amazon Prime. She appears in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, as Helena Shaw, which was released in June 2023.

Personal life

Waller-Bridge lives in the Shoreditch area of London. She married Irish presenter and documentary filmmaker Conor Woodman in 2014. By 2017, they had separated and filed for divorce. Since early 2018, she has been in a relationship with playwright Martin McDonagh.

Waller-Bridge describes herself as an atheist, although she says she "hopped around a bit from religion to religion" while growing up. 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.[citation needed]

Filmography

Film

Key
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
2021 No Time to Die None Co-screenwriter
2023 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Helena Shaw
2024 IF Blossom (voice) Post-production

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
Crazy Love Billie Paines Plough
2008 Twelfth Night Viola Sprite Productions
2009 Roaring Trade Jess Soho Theatre, London
2 May 1997 Sarah The Bush Theatre, London
Rope Leila Arden Almeida Theatre, London
2010 Like a Fishbone Intern The Bush Theatre, London
Tribes Ruth Royal Court Theatre, London
2011 Hay Fever Sorel Bliss Noël Coward Theatre, London
2012 Mydidae Marian Soho Theatre, London
Trafalgar Studios, West End
2013 Fleabag Fleabag Underbelly, Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Soho Theatre Studio, London
2014 The One Jo Soho Theatre, London
Fleabag Fleabag Soho Theatre Main House
Daehangno Small Theatre Festival, Seoul
2015 Salberg Studio
2016 Soho Theatre Main House
2018 Australia
2019 SoHo Playhouse
Wyndham's Theatre

Music videos

Year Title Artist Notes
2020 "Savior Complex" Phoebe Bridgers Director only
2021 "Treat People With Kindness" Harry Styles 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
2011 Money Georgina Vesey BBC Radio 3
2012 Burns and the Bankers Gemma Goodman BBC Radio 4
Gulliver's Travels Lady Munodi Episode: "The Voyage to Laputa"
2013 ElvenQuest Nigressa Episode: "The Fat Hog"
2014 Ordeal by Innocence Hester 3 episodes

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.

Awards and honours

See also


This page was last updated at 2024-01-15 02:06 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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