Aisling Bea

Aisling Clíodhnadh O'Sullivan (born 16 March 1984) , known professionally as Aisling Bea , is an Irish comedian, actress and screenwriter. She created, wrote and starred in the comedy series This Way Up on Channel 4. As a stand-up comedian, she won the So You Think You're Funny award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2012, being only the second woman to win the award in its then-25-year history. She also appears regularly on light entertainment comedy panel shows such as QI and 8 Out of 10 Cats and was a contestant on series 5 of Taskmaster.

Early life and education Bea was born Aisling Cliodhnadh O'Sullivan in Kildare, Ireland. Her father, Brian, was a horse veterinarian who died by suicide when Bea was three years old; she was not told how he had died until she was 13. She adopted the stage surname "Bea" as a tribute to her father, taking it from a short form of his first name. Bea and her younger sister, Sinéad (who is now a Hollywood costume designer), She was also a professional flat-race jockey, and later ran a jockey school.

Her great-aunt was playwright Siobhán Ní Shúilleabháin, and musician Liam O'Flynn was a family friend. Bea's grandfather was school inspector and Irish Language writer, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, author of Créamaraí, An Fear Aduaidh and Peacaí na nAthaireacha.

In her youth, Bea worked as a tour guide at the Irish National Stud. While there, she was an active member of the drama society, She then studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). Instead, she was cast mainly in comedic television series including Cardinal Burns and Sharon Horgan's Dead Boss (both 2012). In 2012, she was the first woman in 20 years (and only the second in its history) In 2013, she was nominated for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards for her show C'est La Bea.

The exposure brought by these awards and festival appearances marked a "turning point" in Bea's career and she began to appear as a regular guest on panel shows including QI and Insert Name Here. Bea and Yasmine Akram co-wrote and co-hosted the BBC Radio 4 comedy folklore series Micks and Legends (2012, 2015); it was nominated for a Chortle Award in 2013. Bea won the 2014 British Comedy Award for Best Female TV Comic, and returned to Edinburgh in 2015 with the live show Plan Bea. In 2015, she presented Channel 4's alternative election coverage with David Mitchell and Jeremy Paxman. In 2016, she became a team captain on 8 Out of 10 Cats and was a contestant on series 5 of Taskmaster in 2017.

Bea has continued to act in television sitcoms including Trollied (2014–2015), She acted in the crime dramas The Fall (2016) and Hard Sun (2018), She starred in the ITV drama series Quiz (2020) based on the true story of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire coughing scandal.

In 2018, she and Sara Pascoe began to co-host the BBC Radio 2 comedy chat show What's Normal? She recorded a 15-minute stand-up special that was released on Netflix in late 2018.

Bea wrote and starred in the Channel 4 comedy series This Way Up (2019–2021). In 2022, she also received a nomination for British Academy Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for the series.

In January 2024, Bea was one of 10 comedians in Amazon Prime Video's LOL: Last One Laughing Ireland.

Personal life Bea previously dated Michael Sheen and Andrew Garfield. Their daughter was born in late August 2024.

Bea is close to fellow comedians Roisin Conaty, Katherine Ryan, and Sharon Horgan, calling them her "comedy sisters".

In May 2025, Bea appeared on Who Do You Think You Are and found out that her great-great-grandmother, Áine O’Donoghue, was the first teacher on the Blasket Islands.

Activism Bea was a vocal supporter of the Repeal the 8th campaign in the successful 2018 Irish referendum to introduce legal abortion in the Republic of Ireland; she contributed an essay to Una Mullally's Repeal the 8th a month before the vote. She previously campaigned for same-sex marriage legislation in the successful 2015 Irish referendum. In 2024, Bea participated in the Cinema for Gaza auction, and was a signatory calling for the end of arms sales to Israel. In September 2025, she signed an open pledge with Film Workers for Palestine pledging not to work with Israeli film institutions "that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people."

Filmography Acting

Television

Radio columns-list|colwidth=21em| Have You Been Paying Attention? (2024) Sunday Brunch (2021) 2020 Royal Television Society Programme Awards Breakthrough Award 2021 Writers' Guild of Great Britain Best TV Situation Comedy This Way Up - "Episode #2.4" 2024 National Film Awards UK Best Supporting Actress Swede Caroline 2026Spirit of Kildare AwardsContribution to the Arts