PRIMA FACIE'S Jodie Comer Wins Tony for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Tessa takes home a Tony! Jodie Comer has won the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for her outstanding performance as Tessa in Prima Facie. She was crowned at the 2023 Tony Awards on the stage of the United Palace. Comer beat out fellow nominees Jessica Chastain, A Doll's House, Jessica Hecht, Summer, 1976, and Audra McDonald, Ohio State Murders.
In 2022, Comer made her stage debut in Prima Facie on the West End. She has been nominated for a 2022 Evening Standard Award for Best Actress and won The Stage's 2022 Best West End Debut Award. She then made her Broadway debut in Prima Facie when it moved to the Broadway stage. Comer was recognized with a Primetime Emmy Award in 2019 for her outstanding work as the Villanelle in the BBC spy drama Killing Eve. Additionally, she has won two British Academy Television Awards for her roles in Killing Eve and Help. Her list of accomplishments also includes the TV shows Thirteen, The White Princess, and Doctor Foster: A Woman Scorned.
Tessa, a criminal defense lawyer in the U.K., experiences sexual assault that changes her perception of the legal system. She had made a career out of defending men charged with sex crimes before the assault. Prima Facie translates to "at first glance," which alludes to Tessa's potential for shifting viewpoints about the legal system.
