Aisling Bea Gets Her Big Break On Netflix’s Living With Yourself

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 on 18th November, 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.

Bea was born Aisling O’Sullivan in County Kildare, Ireland. She initially studied at Trinity College Dublin, and moved to London aged 21 to pursue acting. Though she’s since travelled across the Atlantic, Bea still excels in Kildare regional humour. Her stand-up is a tour through the Irish sensibility. 

Living With Yourself isn’t Bea’s first Netflix show either. You'll recognise her from her 15-minute stand-up set that is also available to stream on Netflix and her appearances on Channel 4's Comedy Gala and Live At The Apollo.

Not only is her new show on Netflix, but she's also the creator and star of Channel 4's brilliant comedy-drama This Way Up. 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. 

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,” she told The Irish Times. 

Bea has been a working actor for years, having secured parts in Holby City, The Fall and Lewis, 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.”

Sinead O’Sullivan is a successful costume designer. Thank her for Emma Watson’s yellow gown in Beauty and the Beast. 

Bea was inspired by the Real Housewives and Love Island while writing the sisters’ relationship in This Way Up.  “I just realised what I loved watching was sometimes reality TV, with really deep relationships between women, like The Real Housewives and Love Island,” Bea told Vulture.  

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.