There’s only one Aisling Bea in Living With Yourself, but the Irish actress and comedian is charismatic enough to contend with two Paul Rudds.
Living WIth Yourself, out on Netflix October 18, is like if Black Mirror had the intimateness of a three-person play. The twist? Paul Rudd plays two of the three main characters: Miles, a schlubby 30-something, and Miles’ clone. Kate (Aisling Bea), Miles’ wife, is dragged into the domestic mess when she suddenly has two husbands.
While Paul Rudd squared is the draw of Living With Yourself, Bea is equally memorable. Here’s what else you’ll want to know about the actor and stand-up star.
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She’s originally from Ireland.
Bea was born Aisling O’Sullivan in County Kildare, Ireland. She initially studied at Trinity College Dublin, and moved to London at 21 to pursue acting. Though she’s since traveled across the Atlantic, Bea still excels in Kildare regional humor. Her stand-up is a tour through the Irish sensibility.
Speaking of stand-up: She’s an award-winning stand-up comic.
Living With Herself isn’t Bea’s first Netflix show; she has a 15-minute stand-up set that is also available to stream on Netflix. Bea has starred in almost every major panel show in Britain, a popular comedy format in the U.K.
She is having a really big autumn.
Aisling Bea is the creator and star of This Way Up, a dark comedy that premiered on Hulu in September. The show starts with Bea’s character, Aine, leaving a mental health facility where she received treatment for a nervous breakdown. Now, she has to undergo the day-in, day-out of getting better – with more than a little help from her sister, played by Catastrophe’s Sharon Horgan, also an Irish comedian.
Bea has a personal connection to the show’s subject. In 2017, she wrote a personal essay for the Guardian about her father, who died by suicide when she was three. She was flooded with responses from readers.
“There’s something about this show…I think a little bit of it slowly came about as a slight response to the people and stories that came in after I wrote that article about my dad,” Bea told The Irish Times.
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Living With Yourself is Bea’s big break.
Bea has been a working actor for years, but Living With Yourself is “next level.” She told the Irish Times it’s “the first time the magic thing happened. I just put myself on tape; they had a phone call with me, then flew me to New York for a chemistry test. That magic thing had never happened to me.”
Her sister is in show business, too.
Sinead O’Sullivan is a successful costume designer. Thank her for Emma Watson’s yellow gown in Beauty and the Beast.
She’s a huge reality TV fan.
Bea was inspired by the Real Housewives and Love Island while writing the sisters’ relationship in This Way Up. “I just realized what I loved watching was sometimes reality TV, with really deep relationships between women, like The Real Housewives and Love Island,” Bea told Vulture.
Here’s where you can see her.
While Living With Yourself and This Way Up are definitely her biggest roles, Bea is all over streaming networks. She flaunts a dramatic side in Hard Sun on Hulu and the serial killer drama The Fall on Netflix.