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Christopher "Chris" Lilley (born 10 November 1974, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian comedian, television producer, actor and writer. He is best known for his creation and portrayal of several characters as shown in the mockumentary television series We Can Be Heroes and Summer Heights High.^[1]

Career

As a film actor, he appeared in the film satire, Ned based on Ned Kelly. He has also appeared on the Hamish & Andy radio show. After the success of his series, Lilley became a national sensation and a well known comedian in Australia.^[2] Since the commencement of his career and three mockumentary television shows, he has won and been nominated for numerous awards. Lilley has been acknowledged for "[his] awareness and expression of controversial issues and not exploiting them for laughs."^[3][4]

In 2003, Lilley made his debut when he was cast in Big Bite, a Seven Network comedy program. He was cast just after he was named the "MSN Butterfly" in a series of advertisements on Television and Cinema for MSN. Big Bite was a 2003 Australian Film Institute Awards nominee for Best Television Comedy Series, marking the first time a comedy program from a commercial television network had ever been nominated at the Australian Film Institute Awards in any category. The producers co-credited Lilley and his co-star, Andrew O'Keefe. Despite high ratings and critical acclaim, the show lasted only one series before being spin-off series into the comedy/variety programme, The Hamish and Andy Show, a show that would be axed after only a handful of episodes aired. The Hamish and Andy Show welcomed Lilley as a guest several times.

After the cancellation of Big Bite, he moved to creating series in which he would cast himself and do regular comedy sketches. He created We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year. In this series he would portray many fictional characters who were nominated for the Australian of the Year Award.^[5]For We Can Be Heroes, Lilley was nominated for Best Comedy Series, Best Lead Actor in Television and Best Comedy Series at the 2006 Australian Film Institute Awards as well as winning Best New Talent and Most Outstanding Comedy Program at the Logie Awards of 2006. After its success, it was sold to other countries under the new name, The Nominees.

For his second mockumentary, Summer Heights High, Lilley received overwhelming success and went international,^[6] selling the series to the United States and the United Kingdom.^[7] The series showed three diverse characters who all attended a public school (much discussed in Australian culture for their differences from private schools). He was nominated for four Logie Awards at its 50th Awards Ceremony which included Most Outstanding Actor, Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Television^[8] and won the Silver Logie for Most Popular Actor^[9] and Logie Award for Most Outstanding Comedy Program.^[10] From the series he also released a single named Naughty Girl, which was performed by his drama teacher character Mr G.^[11]

Early career

Lilley was born in Sydney, and attended Pymble Public School. He later studied at Barker College, and obtained a degree at Macquarie University. He began his career performing stand-up comedy.

Career and life

Big Bite, Hamish & Andy and Ned

He went on to feature in Big Bite (2003) on Australia's Seven Network. He gained acclaim for his portrayal of the extreme sports enthusiast Extreme Darren and the high-school drama teacher Mr. G, characters which he continued in Hamish & Andy. He also made his film debut in Abe Forsythe's Ned.

We Can Be Heroes

After Hamish & Andy's cancellation, Lilley created We Can Be Heroes, a six-part series on the ABC. The show gained considerable praise from critics, and won the Logie Award for Most Outstanding Comedy Program in 2006. It is now being aired overseas under a new title, The Nominees. Lilley also won the 2006 Logie Award for Best New Talent, and a Rose d'Or award in Switzerland for Best Male Comedy Performance.

Lilley is known for playing a wide range of fictional characters in his shows. For example, in We Can Be Heroes, he portrayed a self-obsessed police officer, a Chinese Uni Physics student hailing from Melbourne, a 47 year-old housewife with a dream to roll on her side from Perth to Uluru, a teenager who donates his eardrum to his deaf twin brother, and an arrogant Sydney private high school girl (Ja'mie, who went on to feature in Summer Heights High.)

Summer Heights High

Lilley's most recent series, Summer Heights High, is a mockumentary set in a suburban high school. Much like We Can Be Heroes, he plays multiple characters. The program aired on ABC TV in 2007 and was a great success, winning him a Silver Logie for Most Popular Actor and for Most Outstanding Comedy. Lilley released an EP, titled "Naughty Girl", as the character Mr G on 1 March 2008. The BBC began showing Summer Heights High on BBC Three in the United Kingdom in June 2008.

On whether there will be a second series in an interview with DigitalSpy Lilley stated, "I never thought about it in the beginning because it was always a one-off thing. I'm not into just cashing in and rolling off into a second series that is not as good. I really enjoyed making the show, so the thought of writing and going back there again is really fun and exciting, but I haven't made a decision on what to do next."

Lilley embarked on a promotional tour of the United States in October 2008 to promote the US broadcast of Summer Heights High, which began to air on HBO on November 9, 2008.^[12]

Angry Boys

The Daily Telegraph revealed that Lilley was currently creating a new series for ABC TV. ABC would make no comment as to what the series would be about, however, Lilley has been keen on reviving characters Phil Olivetti and Ja'mie King.^[13] In March 2009, Michael Lombardo of HBO stated that the network would be co-producing Lilley's next series with the ABC. ^[14]

The series was fully announced in October 2009, with the title of Angry Boys. Continuing the mockumentary style of his previous series, the show will take a look at being a male in the 21st Century. In addition to ABC and HBO, it was revealed that the BBC will also be co-producing.^[15]

Awards

References

External links

• Chris Lilley (comedian) at the Internet Movie Database
• Summer Heights High official website
• Chris Lilley Fan Forums
• Chris Lilley Fan Site