Emmy winning actor Ayo Edebiri returned to her alma mater Boston Latin School for the first time since graduating in 2013 Thursday afternoon, bringing advice to the current students and praise for Boston’s “public services that work.”
“I’m from a system that was well-funded, that works,” Edebiri said, sitting on a BLS stage with Mayor Michelle Wu in front of an auditorium packed with students. “Public services work when you put into them, you get good output. And I think I have accolades and this and that and the other, but also it’s like I have friends who are our teachers who are give back, there’s classmates who give back to this school, because it made us who we are. And I try to, I don’t know, shout that as much as possible.”
Edebiri and Wu sat for a “fireside chat” in the BLS auditorium at noon Thursday in front of students from sixth to twelfth grade, before Wu read off a proclamation making April 10 “Ayo Edebiri Day.”
The actor, comedian and Dorchester native, known for her work on The Bear, Big Mouth, Bottoms and more, reflected on her time at the school and took questions from four students during the event.
“My 6th year I had a rolling backpack,” Edebiri joked, to laughs from the auditorium. “So, right. Okay, so that’s — a lot’s changed. It gets better. This is very, very surreal. I sort of envy you guys getting out of class.”
Edebiri noted her teachers still working at the school, pointed to where she once sat in the same auditorium, and noted the clubs and activities she did, garnering big reactions from the crowd.
“It’s just all very inspirational, just to see someone who was right where you were do something that you can — right now, I can only imagine myself being in one of those improv troupes,” said senior BLS student Parker-Vincent Alva, a member of the Yellow Submarine Improv Troupe. “But to see her talk about her experiences doing that, it just makes it so much more real and achievable.”
Wu spoke of the importance of public education “in many ways on the chopping block at the federal level.”
“It’s important to stand up for the oldest school district in the country that has been educating and investing in our young people for centuries at this point, and what remarkable talent we’re able to benefit from that comes through these doors and goes out and shapes the world,” Wu said.
Edebiri spoke highly of the school, commenting on the classmates and friends she still has and the moments that helped her gain confidence in public speaking, stick with problems and more.
“It’s such a specific experience going to this school — the seniors are sort of nodding their heads,” she said, looking to the crowd. “And I feel like there’s a rigor that I have, and a level of care that I have, that would not be possible without having gone to this school.”