Kirby Howell-Baptiste

Actress and comedian Kirby Howell-Baptiste vaulted from the theater circuit in her native England to television and feature roles in America, including a stint as series regular on the sitcom "Downward Dog" (ABC, 2017- ). Born and raised in North London, Howell-Baptiste began acting at the age of 12 on the advice of her mother, who enrolled her in the Young Actors Theatre. She began performing on London stages during her teenaged years, most notably with the esteemed Talawa Theatre Company, before heading to Los Angeles to hone her craft at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.

She soon fell in with the city's improvisational scene, performing with the Upright Citizens Brigade and appearing in numerous comedy shorts for Comedy Bang! Bang!, College Humor and Funny Or Die, among others. Howell-Baptiste made her episodic television debut in a 2015 episode of the Showtime series "House of Lies" (2012-16); by the following year, she had been cast in a new sitcom, "Downward Dog," about a dog's observance of human social interaction. She soon added a recurring role on "Love" (2016- ), a Netflix comedy produced by Judd Apatow, and turns in Lasse Hallstrom's "A Dog's Purpose" (2017) and "Find Me" (2018).