Ayo Edebiri had all sorts of delightfully surprising encounters during her big Emmy Awards night on Monday — during which she found herself on the list of the 75th Emmy winners as she took home the gold for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. The evening included hilarious interactions with her childhood crush Matthew Macfadyen and, apparently, iconic TRL host Carson Daly.
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The TV and radio personality, who currently is the host of The Voice as well as a feature anchor on TODAY, was sat next to The Bear cast's leading lady during the awards ceremony Monday evening, so he had a front-row view of the actress' Emmy win. Not only that, but Edebiri ended up giving her famous seatmate a bunch of her stuff to watch as she took to the stage to collect her award. The funny moment surprised the TV host by going viral on social media, as Daly recounted to his TODAY cohorts on Wednesday:
On Monday night, The Bear star made history taking home her very first Emmy and then turning me into some sort of accidental Internet GIF. They called her name to win, she stood up, she was stunned, I was sitting next to her, we had never met. And then she turned to me and said, 'Do you mind holding my stuff?' I said, 'Yes, of course, I got you.' And uh then I guess she went backstage and happened to mention it as well.
During a backstage interview with Entertainment Tonight following her Emmy win, Edebiri affirmed that she did hand Carson her purse and that she jokingly hoped he still "has all [her] stuff":
Carson Daly, I hope, still has all my stuff. And if my stuff is gone when I get back to my seat, I know that Carson Daly took it, so.
The Bottoms' cast co-lead also poked fun at the fact that Daly — who she hilariously admitted she called by his first and last name upon meeting him — had closer seats to her than her own parents, who were sitting behind her:
@entertainmenttonight ♬ original sound - Entertainment Tonight
Carson did confirm that he eventually got Edebiri's belongings, which included her iPhone and a digital camera, back to the actress when she eventually returned to her seat inside Los Angeles' Peacock Theater:
When you win an Emmy, what you don't know is that you get whisked away to the back for quite some time so I held her purse, her iPhone and a small little actual camera for about an hour...she finally came back about an hour into the show and I was just sitting there politely and I gave her her stuff and her parents were there. It was awesome.
However, Daly also noted that he left a little surprise for the actress who is about to start work on Season 3 of The Bear on said camera: a selfie of him and his wife, Siri, at the ceremony.
On Ayo's phone, it was locked of course but I was able to get into the camera. I may have left her a little Easter egg, if she checks her camera.
The actress-comedian was nothing but good-natured about the camera photo-bomb, leaving a sweet message of thanks to Daly, as Carson's TODAY co-anchor Samantha Guthrie revealed on January 19. Edebiri wrote:
Carson!! (And Siri!) My voice is gone right now or I’d make a video but thank you so much for guarding my stuff with your life but more importantly for this AMAZING selfie. You’re the greatest and I feel like we’re bonded for life? OKAY THANK YOU FOREVER.
Hey, maybe Ayo can pay Carson back by getting him one of those snazzy little The Bear cameos à la Jamie Lee Curtis or Olivia Colman? Weirder things have clearly happened!
