--- name: "Kirby Howell-Baptiste" canonical: "https://film.one/person/kirby-howell-baptiste" fi1m_id: "kirby-howell-baptiste" imdb_id: "nm4624730" tmdb_id: 1532312 wikidata_id: "Q56876940" roles: ["Actor"] born: "7 February 1987" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 70 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-22T21:51:37.126962+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Kirby Howell-Baptiste ## Identity Kirby Howell-Baptiste - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/kirby-howell-baptiste - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** kirby-howell-baptiste - **IMDb ID:** nm4624730 - **TMDB ID:** 1532312 - **Wikidata ID:** Q56876940 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirby_Howell-Baptiste, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q56876940, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4624730/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1532312 Actor. Born 7 February 1987 in London, England, UK. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 7 February 1987, London, England, UK - **Active:** 2018–present - **Also known as:** 凡妮莎·珍·寇比, 柯爾比·豪威爾·巴普蒂斯特, カービー・ハウエル＝バプティスト, Кирби Хауэлл-Баптист, קירבי האוול-בפטיסט, 커비 하웰 밥티스트, Kirby - **Average Fi1m score:** 70, as actor, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 82 (1), 2020s 58 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirby_Howell-Baptiste, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q56876940, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4624730/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1532312 ## Coming up - *Club Kid* (2026-11-04), as Edison ## Streaming the US now - **Apple TV:** [*Sugar*](https://film.one/tv/sugar.md) (58) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Kirby Howell-Baptiste > Kirby Howell-Baptiste is the colleague who is cleverer than the hero and kinder than the script requires, and television keeps casting her as exactly that. She is good at it. She has rarely been given enough of it to do. In *Sugar* (2024) she sits in front of screens. Ruby is the handler, the colleague, the one who knows what Colin Farrell's detective is and would rather he did not find out, and for eight episodes Kirby Howell-Baptiste plays that knowledge with a slight frown and very few lines that let her enjoy herself. She has described the part herself: "Ruby is to Sugar what M is to James Bond." That is an accurate summary of the role, and of most of the roles she has had. She started at the Anna Scher Theatre in London, moved to Los Angeles around 2012 and learnt comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade, which shows. After *Downward Dog* (2017) came the year in which everything arrived at once: Elena in the first season of *Killing Eve* (2018), Sasha in *Barry* (2018), and Simone Garnett, the neuroscientist, in the last two seasons of *The Good Place* (2018). Since then the work has moved towards genre, with Anita Darling in *Cruella* (2021) and Death in *The Sandman* (2022). She has been credited simply as Kirby since 2023. What critics notice, consistently, is the same thing in different clothes. She is the friend who tells the truth, the competent one beside the eccentric or the closed-off one, warm without being soft and dry without being cold. In the ensemble comedies that made her name she was the person the joke bounced off, and she worked with Kristen Bell three times and with Bill Hader on *Barry*, which is good company for learning how to hold a straight face. In *The Sandman* the same warmth is turned to a different purpose, and it is the quality people mention first. The trouble is what happens when a writer decides that competence is the whole character. We scored *Sugar* 58, and she is part of why. She has to carry the series' secret in every scene and is asked to do it mostly by looking worried at a monitor, while Amy Ryan gets the car and the conversations. We felt for her, honestly, because we have seen her be quick and funny opposite Bell and Hader and here she is handed a screen and told to be anxious at it. The reviews of *We Strangers* (2024) raised the same complaint, that the part under-serves the player, and it is starting to look like a pattern rather than bad luck. So far the case for her rests on what she does in the corner of other people's shows, and it is a good case. Somebody should now write her the lead, or at least a second lead with a joke in it. Until they do, the thing to watch for is the moment in any ensemble when the hero says something foolish and she is the one who does not let it pass. ## Biography Kirby Howell-Baptiste, also credited mononymously as Kirby since 2023, is an English actress. She began acting at the Anna Scher Theatre in London and trained further at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in Los Angeles. She has appeared as a series regular in *Downward Dog* (2017), *Killing Eve* (2018), *Why Women Kill* (2019) and *Sugar* (2024), and played Death of the Endless in *The Sandman* (2022–2025) and *Dead Boy Detectives* (2024). Recurring roles include those in *Love* (2016–2018), *Barry* (2018–2023) and *The Good Place* (2018–2020). Film credits include *A Dog's Purpose* (2017) and *Cruella* (2021). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, nytimes.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *Sugar* (2024), Fi1m 58, as Ruby — [page](https://film.one/tv/sugar.md) - *Killing Eve* (2018), Fi1m 82, as Elena Felton — [page](https://film.one/tv/killing-eve.md) ## Complete filmography (45) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Club Kid* (2026), as Edison - *Splinter Cell: Deathwatch* (2025), series, as Zinnia McKenna (voice) - *We Strangers* (2025), as Ray Martin · Executive Producer - *Dead Boy Detectives* (2024), series, as Death - *Sugar* (2024), series, as Ruby — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/tv/sugar.md) - *Scott Pilgrim Takes Off* (2023), series, as Actress in a Movie Within the Show (voice), Lucas's Agent (voice) - *Culprits* (2023), series, as Officer - *Krapopolis* (2023), series, as Viscera (voice) - *Digman!* (2023), series, as Nigella (voice) - *The Magician's Elephant* (2023), as The Countess (voice) - *Mr. Harrigan's Phone* (2022), as Ms. Hart - *The Sandman* (2022), series, as Death - *Catwoman: Hunted* (2022), as Barbara Minerva / Cheetah (voice) - *Silent Night* (2021), as Alex - *Queenpins* (2021), as JoJo - *Cruella* (2021), as Anita Darling - *Hacks* (2021), series, as British TV Show Creator — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/tv/hacks.md) - *Happily* (2021), as Maude - *Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous* (2020), series, as Dr. Mae Turner (voice) - *Why Women Kill* (2019), series, as Taylor Harding - *Infinity Train* (2019), series, as Voice 3 / Mail Lady (voice), Grace (voice) - *Backpackdraft* (2019), as Luisa - *New Year, New You* (2018), as Kayla - *Find Me* (2018), as Jordan - *It's a Party* (2018), as Hannah - *Killing Eve* (2018), series, as Elena Felton — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/tv/killing-eve.md) - *Barry* (2018), series, as Sasha Smith — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/tv/barry.md) - *Alone Together* (2018), series, as Cassidy - *Big Hero 6 The Series* (2017), series, as Cobra (voice) - *Learning to Walk* (2017), Actor - *Downward Dog* (2017), series, as Jenn - *A Dog's Purpose* (2017), as Maya Williams - *The Good Place* (2016), series, as Simone Garnett — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-good-place.md) - *The Night Manager* (2016), series, as Dr. Kim Saunders — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-night-manager.md) - *Bajillion Dollar Propertie$* (2016), series, as Rezecca - *How to Lose Weight in 4 Easy Steps!* (2016), as Employee - *Hip Hip Hooray* (2015), as Kirby - *Carl's Lactation Station with Matthew Gray Gubler* (2015), Actor - *TripTank* (2014), series, as Wife (voice) - *Lady Time* (2012), series, as Kathy - *House of Lies* (2012), series, as Erin - *Veronica Mars* (2004), series, as Nicole Malloy — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/veronica-mars.md) - *Tree Secrets*, as Internet Search Tree (voice) - *Transcending*, Actor - *Ibelin*, Actor ## Gallery - ![Kirby Howell-Baptiste](https://film.one/media/person/905561/gallery-7f5cd826ed2b.jpg) Kirby Howell-Baptiste — Image via TMDB - ![Kirby Howell-Baptiste](https://film.one/media/person/905561/gallery-88417e07ee80.jpg) Kirby Howell-Baptiste — Image via TMDB - ![Kirby Howell-Baptiste](https://film.one/media/person/905561/gallery-3236f2d5f44b.jpg) Kirby Howell-Baptiste — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/kirby-howell-baptiste