Ayo Edebiri's running gag about her “home country” Ireland has taken a life the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actress surely did not see coming.

The day before The Bear and Bottoms actress won her first Emmy, she gave a shout to Ireland when she accepted her Critics Choice Award for Best Actress in a Comedy.

“I want to thank my real family, I don’t know if they have CW abroad. To everybody in Boston, Barbados, Nigeria, Ireland in many ways. Thank you so much,” she said to the crowd at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica.

Edebiri was born in Boston. Her parents are from Barbados (mother) and Nigeria (father). She's thanked both of them in her speeches and have been seen in photographs alongside her during this awards seasons.

Boston has a strong Irish-American community and Ireland also has historical ties to Barbados, anyone who has not followed the actress and writer's Letterboxd reviews is bound to be confused. I'll attempt to explain later.

She also gave specific shoutouts when she walked the Emmy red carpet.

“Shout out to my people! Shout out to Derry, shout out to Cork! Shout out to Killarney, shout out to Dublin!” she said the Entertainment Weekly tonight interviewers last week.

It's part of a running gag that started when she walked the red carpet in March 2023 for her movie Bottoms. During an interview with Letterboxd, Edebiri jokingly went on a tangent about having starred in The Banshees of Inisherin as the donkey, Jenny.

“I lived in Ireland for about four months and I got really in character,” she said, in a somewhat passable Irish accent.

“I was on all fours for four months and it was really painful, but beautiful as well,” the actress continued.

@letterboxd No thoughts… just Ayo Edebiri as Jenny the Donkey #fyp #foryou #letterboxd #sxsw #ayoedebiri #movie #film #filmtok #bansheesofinisherin #irish ♬ original sound – Letterboxd

The joke then went viral, as her fans on social media had taken to calling her an Irish princess. The Irish Independent eventually gave her the honorary title as the “honorary people's princess of Ireland”.

Social media users on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and TikTok have embraced the joke as Edebiri navigated the busy awards season alongside Irish actors such as All of Us Strangers' Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal, Oppenheimer's Cillian Murphy and Saltburn's Barry Keoghan.

Bridgerton's own Lady Whistledown and Irish actress (and star of Derry Girls) Nicola Coughlan took a screenshot of The Bear star's interview with ET when she mentioned Derry. The actress wrote, “We're so proud of you our girl,” and even tagging Edibiri in her Instagram story.

The Irish Times even published an article that said “Ayo Edebiri, we're proud to call you Irish. It makes a nice change from Britwashing.” The site Film in Dublin joined in on the wholesome fun when it also published a list with the title, “The best Irish films starring Ireland’s Ayo Edebiri, who is Irish,” with a Photoshopped picture of the actress.

The site also posted on X congratulating the actress for her nomination for the BAFTA Rising Star Award. The first comment after the post was their own to say, “For the record, yes we do know where Edebiri is actually from (ireland).”