A mockumentary is one type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a documentary which in itself is a subset of a faux-documentary style of film-making.
Trailer Park Boys is a Canadian mockumentary sitcom television series created by Mike Clattenburg that began airing in 2001 as a continuation of his 1999 film bearing the same name. The show follows the misadventures of a group of trailer park residents, including two lead characters in and out of prison, living in the fictional "Sunnyvale Trailer Park" in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The series premiered on Showcase on April 20, 2001, and originally ran for seven seasons before concluding with a one-hour special on December 7, 2008. The series spawned three films: The Movie, released on October 6, 2006; Countdown to Liquor Day, released on September 25, 2009; and Don't Legalize It, released on April 18, 2014.
Christopher Daniel Lilley is an Australian comedian, actor, writer, musician, director, and producer. He is known for his creation and portrayal of several fictional characters in the mockumentary television series We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year (2005), Summer Heights High (2007), Angry Boys (2011), Ja'mie: Private School Girl (2013), Jonah from Tonga (2014), and the web series Lunatics (2019). He is a two-time winner of the Logie Award for Most Popular Actor.
Summer Heights High is an Australian television mockumentary sitcom written by and starring Chris Lilley. Set in the fictional Summer Heights High School in an outer suburb of Sydney, it revolves around high school experiences from the viewpoints of three individuals: "Director of Performing Arts" Mr G; private-school exchange student Ja'mie King; and disobedient, vulgar Tongan-Australian student Jonah Takalua. The series lampoons Australian high-school life and many aspects of the human condition and is filmed as a documentary with non-actors playing supporting characters. As he did in a previous series, We Can Be Heroes: Finding the Australian of the Year, Lilley plays multiple characters, including the aforementioned Mr G, Ja'mie and Jonah. The series premiered on 5 September 2007 at 9:30 pm on ABC TV and ended on 24 October 2007, only lasting eight episodes.
Duncan James Wisbey is an English actor, musician, writer and impressionist. He is often credited as simply Wisbey.
Jonah Takalua is a fictional character in the Australian mockumentary series Summer Heights High, and the titular character in the six-part Jonah from Tonga. He is portrayed in brownface by Chris Lilley, who also created the two shows. In 2007, referring to the character's appearances in Summer Heights High, Sydney Morning Herald television critic Michael Idato wrote that "Jonah Takalua is well on the way to becoming the voice of his generation."
Diane Morgan is an English actress, comedian, television presenter, and writer. She is best known for playing Philomena Cunk on the review programme Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe (2013–2020) and in the mockumentary series Cunk on Britain (2018) and Cunk on Earth (2022). She played Kath in the Netflix dark comedy series After Life (2019–2022). Since 2016, Morgan has played Liz on the BBC Two sitcom Motherland. She also writes and stars in the BBC Two comedy series Mandy (2019–present).
The AACTA Award for Best Performance in a Television Comedy is an accolade given by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA), a non-profit organisation whose aim is to "identify, award, promote and celebrate Australia's greatest achievements in film and television." The award is handed out at the annual AACTA Awards, which rewards achievements in Australian feature film, television, documentaries and short films. From 1986 to 2010, the category was presented by the Australian Film Institute (AFI), the Academy's parent organisation, at the annual Australian Film Institute Awards. When the AFI launched the Academy in 2011, it changed the annual ceremony to the AACTA Awards, with the current prize being a continuum of the AFI Award for Best Performance in a Television Comedy.
Sarah Baker is an American actress and comedian, best known for roles in movies such as The Campaign and Mascots, and TV shows like The Kominsky Method and Louie.
Ja'mie: Private School Girl is an Australian television mockumentary sitcom miniseries. It is set at an exclusive private girls' grammar school in Sydney's very wealthy North Shore district. It is written by and stars male comedian Chris Lilley. Continuing the mockumentary style of Lilley's previous series, Ja'mie: Private School Girl follows Ja'mie King, a character who previously appeared in Lilley's series We Can Be Heroes and Summer Heights High, during her final weeks of high school.
Jonah from Tonga is an Australian television mockumentary sitcom miniseries that is written by and starring comedian Chris Lilley. The mockumentary series follows Jonah Takalua, a rebellious 14-year-old Australian boy of Tongan descent portrayed by the Anglo-Celtic Australian Lilley in brownface. The character had been introduced in Lilley's 2007 series Summer Heights High. At the conclusion of that series, Jonah was expelled from Summer Heights High School. In this series, his father, Rocky Takalua, has sent him back to his homeland of Tonga to live with his uncle and their family in order to get Jonah's life back on track. The series was highly controversial for its use of brownface and ethnic stereotypes, much like Lilley’s other work; it has been commonly described as racist.
Talia'uli Latukefu is an Australian actor and singer, best known for his roles as Dwayne Johnson in the NBC comedy Young Rock and Byamba in the American Netflix series Marco Polo. He also played Darren Ngata in the popular Australian dramatic series Doctor Doctor in series 2–4 from 2017 to 2020. He played Cole in the short film Alien: Covenant - Prologue: Last Supper and the feature film Alien: Covenant, both directed by Ridley Scott; Last Supper was released on February 22, 2017, and Covenant on May 19, 2017. He is also known for his role as Father Matteo in the psychological thriller miniseries Devil's Playground and as "Kool Kris" in the Chris Lilley mockumentary series Jonah from Tonga. In 2004, he was a contestant in the reality singing competition series Australian Idol. In 2022, he portrayed the superhero The Champion in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) film Black Adam.
Santa Clarita Diet is an American comedy horror television series created by Victor Fresco for the streaming service Netflix, starring Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant. Fresco serves as the showrunner, and is an executive producer alongside Barrymore, Olyphant, Aaron Kaplan, Tracy Katsky, Chris Miller, Ember Truesdell and Ruben Fleischer. The series centers on husband and wife real estate team Joel and Sheila Hammond whose normal, mundane lives change dramatically when Sheila shows symptoms of having become a zombie. The bewildered family seek a cure for her condition while dealing with its consequences, such as Sheila's new craving of human flesh and radically altered personality that has become more primal and impulsive.
What/If is an American thriller miniseries, created by Mike Kelley, that premiered on May 24, 2019, on Netflix. The series stars Jane Levy, Blake Jenner, Daniella Pineda, Keith Powers, Samantha Marie Ware, Dave Annable, Saamer Usmani, John Clarence Stewart, Louis Herthum, and Renée Zellweger.
Priah Nicole Ferguson is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Erica Sinclair on the Netflix's series Stranger Things.
Allan Mustafa is a British actor, comedian and writer who is best known for portraying Anthony "MC Grindah" Zografos in the BBC mockumentary series People Just Do Nothing, which he co-created with Asim Chaudhry.
Gregory Diaz IV is an American actor, singer and dancer. Diaz is known for his role as Quentin in the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Sonny in the musical drama In the Heights.
Death to 2020 is a 2020 mockumentary by Black Mirror creators Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones under their Broke and Bones production company as a Netflix original production. The special features a series of fictional characters discussing US and UK events of 2020 including the COVID-19 pandemic and US presidential election. It was released on Netflix on 27 December 2020. The mockumentary received mostly negative critical reception, with reviewers criticising the jokes as obvious, though some of the cast performances were praised. A sequel special, Death to 2021, was released on December 27, 2021.
Princess Pictures is an Australian production studio, located in South Melbourne, Victoria. Founded by Laura Waters in 2003, the studio is best known for producing all six shows created by Chris Lilley for ABC, HBO, and Netflix. Their film and television credits include Summer Heights High, Lunatics, Superwog, How to Stay Married, Smiling Friends, YOLO, and Koala Man.
