Aunty Donna is an Australian surrealist comedy group formed in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in 2011. The group currently consists of performers and writers Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly and Zachary Ruane, alongside writer and director Sam Lingham, director Max Miller and composer Thomas Zahariou (formerly Armstrong). Their work spans numerous live shows, a

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel, podcasts, a studio album, the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

produced ''

Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun ''Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun'' is a sketch comedy television series on Netflix, created by and starring members of the Australian comedy group Aunty Donna. It premiered on 11 November 2020. The series' music was composed almost entirely ...

'', the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

produced series '' Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe'' and a picture book. The group also founded Haven't You Done Well Productions together in 2018, through which they produce their own work as well as others. They have frequently collaborated with other comedians, including

Michelle Brasier Michelle Brasier (born ) is a Melbourne-based comedian, writer and actor. She is known for her work with the comedy group Aunty Donna, her live shows, performing in comedy duo Double Denim with Laura Frew, and for performing with her partner Ti ...

, Mish Wittrup, and Demi Lardner.

Influences

Members of the group have cited comedians

Monty Python Monty Python, also known as the Pythons, were a British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. The group came to prominence for the sketch comedy ser ...

Shaun Micallef Shaun Patrick Micallef (; born 18 July 1962) is an Australian comedian, actor, writer, television presenter, and formerly a lawyer. He was the host of the satirical news comedy series '' Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell'' on the ABC. He also hoste ...

The Mighty Boosh The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows, The Mighty Boosh (1998 stage show), ''The Mighty Boosh'', Arctic Boosh, ''Arctic Boosh'' (1999) and Autoboosh, ...

Nathan Fielder Nathan Joseph Fielder (born May 12, 1983) is a Canadian comedian, actor, writer, director, producer, and pilot. He is known for his awkward persona and involvement in works blurring reality and perception. His accolades include an Independent S ...

, and

Tim & Eric Tim & Eric are an American comedy duo consisting of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. They are the creators and stars of the Adult Swim television series ''Tom Goes to the Mayor'', ''Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!'', '' Check It Out! w ...

as influences, as well as television series such as '' Mr. Show with Bob and David'' and ''Stella'', and programming block

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representativ ...

and s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

.''''

History

2011–2014: Formation and live shows

Aunty Donna was formed in 2011 after its five original members (Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly, Joe Kosky, Sam Lingham, and Zachary Ruane) met at

University of Ballarat The University of Ballarat, Australia was a dual-sector university with multiple campuses in Victoria, Australia, including its main Ballarat campus, Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide that were authorized by the university to provide diploma, un ...

's Arts Academy. Trained as actors, the group saw a lack of demand for independent theatre and decided to attempt comedy instead, beginning as live performers. Their first live show, ''Aunty Donna in Pantsuits'', debuted in 2012 at the

Melbourne International Comedy Festival The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the largest international comedy festival in the world. First held in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typically starti ...

(MICF) and was nominated for a

Golden Gibbo Award The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the largest international comedy festival in the world. First held in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typically starti ...

, which pushed the group to continue making comedy. Kelly also recruited his high school friend, composer Thomas Zahariou soon after its founding. To perform at the festival, MICF required the group to film a selection of comedy sketches, for which they recruited director Max Miller, who Kelly and Zahariou knew from high school. They created sketches for

C31 Melbourne C31 Melbourne is a free-to-air community television channel in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its name is derived from UHF 31, the frequency and channel number reserved for analogue broadcasts by metropolitan community television stations in ...

, and began their YouTube channel in 2011 to upload the sketches from C31 and their MICF online. Joe Kosky and later Adrian Dean departed Aunty Donna to pursue other ventures. Their second live show, ''Aunty Donna and the Fax Machine Shop,'' debuted at the

Melbourne Fringe Festival The Melbourne Fringe Festival is an annual independent arts festival in Melbourne, Australia, usually over three weeks from late September to early October. Held since 1982, the Festival includes a wide variety of art forms, including theatre, co ...

in 2012, and won its People’s Choice Award. Aunty Donna at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2014

2014 saw their third live show, ''World's Greatest Showbag'', at the MICF, as well as a ''Best Of'' live show that debuted the group internationally at both the

SF Sketchfest SF Sketchfest, or The San Francisco Comedy Festival, is an American comedy festival founded in 2002 by Bay Area actor-comedians David Owen, Janet Varney and Cole Stratton. It takes place every January and February in a variety of Bay Area venues ...

and

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

2015–2019: Television pilots, YouTube sketches and ''The Album''

In 2015, the group created a self-titled half-hour television pilot for the

and

Screen Australia Screen Australia is the Australian Federal Government's key funding body for the Australian screen production industry, created under the ''Screen Australia Act 2008''. From 1 July 2008 Screen Australia took over the functions of its predecess ...

as part of the inaugural ''Fresh Blood Pilot Season'' comedy initiative, but the series was not picked up. According to Kelly, the pilot was about the experience of Dean leaving the group. They released the sketch "Bikie Wars" on YouTube, featuring John Wood of ''

Blue Heelers ''Blue Heelers'' is an Australian police drama series that was produced by Southern Star Group and ran for twelve years on the Seven Network, from 1994 to 2006. Although based around the policing of the town, the series generally depicted th ...

'' fame, which became their most popular video. ''The'' ''Sydney Morning Herald'' credited the group with successfully converting its online

fanbase A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant portion of ...

into "bums on seats" for their live shows. In 2016, the group released the

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

''1999'', based on the Y2K panic and funded by Screen Australia as part of their $100,000 Skip Ahead talent development initiative. They were also selected by

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

for its Australian platform and were the first to be launched on the site. The group began the weekly ''Aunty Donna Podcast''. In 2017, the group released a second half-hour comedy pilot, ''Chaperones,'' which was not continued into a full series. In April, they starred in the music video for hip-hop duo Horrorshow's "Eat The Cake". In 2018 the group released a full-length studio comedy album, ''

The Album The Album may refer to: * '' ABBA: The Album'', released in 1977 * ''The Album'' (Caravan album), 1980 * ''The Album'' (Mantronix album), 1985 * ''The Album'' (Cliff Richard album), 1993 * ''The Album'' (Haddaway album), 1993 * ''The Album'' ( ...

'', which was followed by a national tour in November and October. ''The Album'' debuted at number 30 on the

Australian charts The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

and received an

ARIA In music, an aria (, ; : , ; ''arias'' in common usage; diminutive form: arietta, ; : ariette; in English simply air (music), air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrument (music), instrumental or orchestral accompan ...

nomination for Best Comedy Release. They also released a version of a past live show, ''New Show'', on YouTube, filmed at the

Enmore Theatre The Enmore Theatre is a theatre and entertainment venue in Enmore, New South Wales, Australia. It was built in 1908. It is located at 118–132 Enmore Road in Newtown, in the inner west of Sydney's suburbs. It was first opened in 1912 as a ph ...

. The group also released the sketch "Always Room for Christmas Pud", which the ''

Australian Financial Review The ''Australian Financial Review'' (''AFR'') is an Australian compact daily newspaper with a focus on business, politics and economic affairs. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New South Wales, and has been published continuously since its foun ...

'' later said had become "something of a

Millennial Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ...

cultural touchstone in Australia". The sketch would become a running gag for the group, later receiving a

family friendly Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety ...

re-release in 2022. Making use of their production company, the group released the 16-part ''Glennridge Secondary College'' web series in 2019, which followed a fictional Australian

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

. It was nominated for an

AACTA Award The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the film and television industry, ...

for the best online drama or comedy.

2020-present: ''Big Ol' House of Fun'', ''The Magical Dead Cat Tour'', and ''Coffee Cafe''

In November 2020, Aunty Donna released their

series ''

.'' To promote the show, the group erected a replica of the

Utah monolith The Utah monolith was a metal pillar that stood in a red sandstone slot canyon in northern San Juan County, Utah, San Juan County, Utah, United States. The pillar was tall and made of metal sheets riveted into a triangular prism. It was unlawfu ...

in Melbourne with help from YouTubers I Did a Thing and

Aleksa Vulović Aleksa Vulović (born 29 October 1992) is a Serbian-Australian YouTube personality and online entertainer. Since beginning his public career, his videos have often gained widespread attention in Australian media. This includes his participation i ...

Neil Patrick Harris Neil Patrick Harris (born June 15, 1973) is an American actor, singer, writer, producer, and television host. Primarily known for his comedic television roles and dramatic and musical stage roles, he has received List of awards and nominations ...

and

RuPaul RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960) is an American drag queen, television host, singer, producer, writer, and actor. He produces, hosts, and judges the reality competition series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and has received List of awards ...

both praised the show. In March 2021, Aunty Donna hosted the Opening Night Comedy Allstars Supershow at the MICF. They made a cameo appearance on season 1 of

RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under ''Drag Race Down Under'' (formerly ''RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under'') is a reality competition television series based on the American television series of the same name produced by World of Wonder and Warner Bros. International Television Pr ...

in June. 2022 saw ''The Magical Dead Cat Tour'', the group's first live tour in three years after it was delayed by

COVID-19 lockdowns During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of Non-pharmaceutical intervention (epidemiology), non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar socie ...

, covering Australia and New Zealand. Later in the year, the group released ''Always Room for Christmas Pud'', a

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The ima ...

based on their popular YouTube video of the same name. They hosted the musical comedy gala at Sydney's Just for Laughs comedy festival in December. For Christmas, the group released a real "$30 Bottle Of Wine", in reference to their 2016 sketch of the same name. In August 2022, the group announced that they had been signed by

to create a new

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

TV series depicting them running a café in the

Melbourne laneways The Melbourne central business district in Australia is home to numerous lanes and arcades. Often called "laneways", these narrow streets and pedestrian paths date mostly from the Victorian era, and are a popular cultural attraction for their ...

''.'' The show was later named '' Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe'' and was released on the 12 April 2023. Alongside the main members of the group, the series starred Gaby Seow, Sally-Anne Upton, Michelle Brasier,

Vidya Rajan Vidya Rajan is a Melbourne-based comedian, screenwriter, and playwright. She is best known for writing the 2022 play adaptation of Melina Marchetta's 1992 novel '' Looking for Alibrandi''. Rajan also wrote for and contributed to the ABC comedy ...

, and Mish Wittrup. In 2023, the trio provided voices for characters in the Australian version of the 2023 film '' Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves''. After returning from the tour, the group began to release a three-hour

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

campaign via

Patreon Patreon (, ) is a monetization platform operated by Patreon, Inc., that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service and sell digital products. It helps artists and other creators earn a recurring income by provid ...

in November, hosted by Bonanno and titled ''The

McMuffin McMuffin is a family of breakfast sandwiches sold by the international fast food restaurant chain McDonald's. The Egg McMuffin is the signature sandwich, which was invented in 1972 by Herb Peterson to resemble eggs benedict, a traditional ...

MacGuffin In fiction, a MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself. The term was originated by Angus MacPhail fo ...

.'' However, the hard drive holding the footage was destroyed, leading to the release of only one episode and the filming of a second campaign featuring writer Sam Lingham. They provided voices for the animated sci-fi comedy feature film '' Lesbian Space Princess'', which premiered at the

Adelaide Film Festival The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF, formerly ADLFF) is a film festival usually held for two weeks in mid-October in movie theater, cinemas in Adelaide, South Australia. Originally presented wikt:Special:Search/biennial, biennially in March from 2 ...

in October 2024.

Haven't You Done Well Productions

Haven't You Done Well Productions is a production company established by the members of Aunty Donna in 2018, with the aim of assisting and educating online creatives, who would usually struggle to find a platform due to being too "weird", to develop and produce comedy projects and to ensure they retain ownership of their own works. The company is mentored by

Andy Lee Andy Lee may refer to: __NOTOC__ Sportspeople * Andy Lee (American football) (born 1982), American football punter * Andy Lee (boxer) (born 1984), Irish boxer * Andy Lee (footballer, born 1982), English footballer for Bradford City * Andy Lee (footb ...

. In 2019, it received funding from Screen Australia, sharing a pool of $1.2 million for sector and talent development. The company produced the Aunty Donna webseries ''Glennridge Secondary College'' and co-produced ''Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun'' and ''Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe''.

Grouse House

Grouse House is a YouTube channel operated by Haven't You Done Well Productions. It has produced several comedy webseries which are hosted on the YouTube channel Grouse House, including ''Hug The Sun'' (2021) featuring Ben Russell and Xavier Michelides, ''Hot Department: Dark Web'' (2022) featuring comedy duo Hot Department, and ''Finding Yeezus'' (2022), a six-part documentary web series that revealed the identity of the creator of the 2013 video game '' Kanye Quest 3030'' starring Cameron James and Alexei Toliopoulos and directed by Max Miller. The five-part comedy ''Descent'' (2024), set on a submarine and featuring comedians Millie Holten, Madi Savage, and Ella Lawry, was also released on the channel.

Other ventures

In 2022 Screen Australia funded its production of science fiction romantic comedy ''The Alien Abduction of Emily Hill'', and in 2023 ''Crime Casters'', a comedy about a

true crime True crime is a genre of non-fiction work in which an author examines a crime, including detailing the actions of people associated with and affected by the crime, and investigating the perpetrator's Motive (law), motives. True crime works often ...

podcaster. In 2023, they produced Fairbairn Films' ''Fairbairn in the City'', again financed by Screen Australia's Skip Ahead funding. In June 2024, the company announced a commercial division, having already filmed ads for

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer (), or simply Heineken (), is a Dutch pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 February 1864, ...

, Coles and a campaign for a collaboration between

Lego Lego (, ; ; stylised as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitri ...

and

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

Works

Stage shows

YouTube

In December 2012, Aunty Donna created ''Aunty Donna's Rumpus Room'', a seven-part web series which originally aired as segments on

and its YouTube channel. Much of its YouTube content is based on content adapted from its live shows, and vice versa. The majority of Aunty Donna's YouTube content is organized by the group into different series. These series include: * ''Rumpus Room'' (2012) * ''Fortnightly Fap Off'' (2013) * ''Fapé in the Cafe'' (2013) * ''Haven't You Done Well'' (2013–2020) * ''Fresh Blood'' (2014) * ''1999'' (2015/2016) * ''Trendy'' (2016) * ''Ripper Aussie Summer'' (2017) * ''BEST CONTENT EVER!!1!'' (2017) * ''Aunty Donna: The Album'' (2018) * ''Camp Bush Camp'' (2018) * ''Glennridge Secondary College'' (2019) * ''The Rove Tapes'' (2020) * ''The House Series'' (2022)

Podcast

The group began a self-titled podcast in 2016, releasing weekly episodes. It usually involves

improvised Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...

character comedy Character comedy is a genre in which a stand-up comedian performs as a character they have created. Examples include Al Murray's crotchety Pub Landlord and Rich Hall's musician "uncle" Otis Lee Crenshaw; both of these won the Perrier Award at the ...

with

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

premises, and has been described by ''Wonderland'' as "hugely popular".

Music

In 2018, Aunty Donna announced they would be releasing their debut album ''

'' on 6 April 2018. On 9 February 2018, Aunty Donna released the first single from the album, "Chuffed (Dad Song)", and accompanying video. The album debuted at No. 30 on the

ARIA Albums Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

Discography

Studio albums

Movies

Awards and nominations

, - , rowspan="2", 2012 ,

, Golden Gibbo Award , ''Aunty Donna in Pantsuits'' , , , - ,

, People's Choice Award , ''Aunty Donna and the Fax Machine Shop'' , , , - , 2013 , Melbourne WebFest , Melbourne's Best Prize , ''Aunty Donna's Rumpus Room'' , , , - , 2014 ,

9th AACTA Awards The 9th Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (generally known as the AACTA Awards) is an awards ceremony to celebrate the best of Australian films and television of 2019. The main ceremony was held at The Star (Sydney), The St ...

, Best Online Drama or Comedy , ''Glennridge Secondary College'' , , , - , rowspan="2", 2016 , Melbourne WebFest , Best Ensemble , ''1999'' , , , - ,

Sydney Comedy Festival The Sydney Comedy Festival is held annually in Sydney, Australia. Launched in 2005 as The Cracker Sydney Comedy Festival at a number of inner city venues, the Festival has grown quickly and now attracts 111,000 patrons every year at venues all ...

, Director's Choice , ''Aunty Donna'' , , , - , 2017 ,

Helpmann Awards The Helpmann Awards are accolades for live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group Live Performance Australia (LPA) since 2001. The annual awards recognise achievements in the disciplines of musical theatre ...

, Best Comedy Performer , ''Big Boys'' , , , - , 2018 ,

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

, Best Comedy Release , ''Aunty Donna: The Album'' , , , - , 2019 , Melbourne WebFest , Best Australian Comedy , ''Glennridge Secondary College'' , , , - , rowspan="4", 2021 , rowspan="4",

11th AACTA Awards The 11th Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (generally known as the AACTA Awards) is an awards ceremony to celebrate the best of Australian films and television of 2021. The main ceremony occurred on 8 December 2021 at the S ...

, Best Narrative Comedy Series , ''Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun'' , , , - , rowspan="2", Best Comedy Performer , Mark Bonanno , , , - , Broden Kelly , , , - , Best Original Score in Television , ''Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House Of Fun - Episode 1: Housemates'' , , , -

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control Australian comedy troupes Federation University Australia alumni Performing groups established in 2011 Surreal comedy Australian YouTubers Comedy YouTubers Australian podcasters