Ayo Edebiri is going from The Bear to the purple dinosaur.
The Emmy winner will write the screenplay for the new live-action Barney movie, A24 confirmed on social media. And in addition to writing the film—a project from the indie distributor as well as Mattel Films, and Daniel Kaluuya’s 59% Productions—she is also in talks to star.
While best known for her role as chef Sydney Adamu on The Bear, Ayo—who graduated from NYU with a Dramatic Writing degree in 2017—will return to her writing roots. In fact, the Barney film will only add to her long list of writing credits, which include Sunnyside, Dickinson, Big Mouth and What We Do in the Shadows.
While the plot of the movie is being kept under wraps, viewers can expect to see a live-action version of the title character in a movie made for adults—although not rated R—similar to the box-office hit Barbie. As Mattel exec Kevin McKeon emphasized to The New Yorker in 2023, “We want to stay within the parameters of what Mattel is.”
When giving more insight into what the film, first announced in 2019, will entail, McKeon teased, “It’ll focus on some of the trials and tribulations of being thirtysomething, growing up with Barney—just the level of disenchantment within the generation.”
The Barney film is one of many planned projects from Mattel Films, with American Girl, Polly Pocket, and Magic 8 Ball movies in the works. And amid her rise to fame in front of the camera and in the writers room, the Bottoms star has stressed how much her work has meant to her.
“Work can be a very intimate thing and a very personal thing and a very emotional thing,” Ayo told Vanity Fair in 2024. “And I think when you’re also in industries that are creative or creative adjacent, I think there’s something that also invokes feelings of passion.”
And so far, her success has been greater than she could have imagined.
“She didn’t dream of nights like this,” Ayo gushed to E! News at the 2023 Emmys. “She sort of dreamed of dental insurance. We got dental, we eyes, we got ears. We can go to the dermatologist.”
