Australian comedian Celeste Barber is set to star in a new Netflix series.
Barber, best known for her celebrity parodies on Instagram but trained as an actor, will mark her return as a lead character in the streaming platform’s recently announced comedy-drama series, Wellmania.
The viral video creator will also serve as an executive producer on the eight-episode series, which boasts Benjamin Law as co-creator and is based on Brigid Delaney’s novel Wellmania: Misadventures in the Search for Wellness.
Barber, 39, posted cryptic clues of her new role on Instagram last week, before an official statement on Sunday.
“I’m so excited about this project, the whole team is awesome. We’ve been working on it for a while and I’ve been busting to tell everyone about it,” she said in her statement.
“I’m drawn to projects that centre around interesting, dynamic and complex lead female characters and that’s exactly what is.
“I’m stoked to be working with Netflix and tell this Australian story to an international audience, and to also be an executive producer so I can boss people around.”
Wellmania follows the story of Liv (Barber), a food and wine journalist who turns her hand to a series of wellness fads after suffering a major health crisis.
The series is expected to be released in 2022.
Most recently, Barber voiced the character of Kayla the koala in the animated Netflix movie Back to the Outback.
Barber has also made brief appearances in All Saints, The Letdown and How Not to Behave during her career.
In 2019, she helped raise more than $50 million for the Rural Fire Service after the country’s worst bushfire season in decades.
Netflix’s director of content in Australia and New Zealand, Que Minh Luu, said it was an “absolute delight” to have Barber on board the project.
“Celeste embodies exactly what Netflix ANZ is striving for – sparking global love for being our quintessentially Australian and funny selves,” Deadline reported her as saying.
“The search for wellness and meaning is a fundamentally human drive, and in a post-pandemic world this quest carries for us more weight than ever.
“To have an artist with Celeste’s warmth and comedic talent guide us through the extremes, triumphs and revelations of self-improvement and understanding is an absolute delight, and one we know our members will love.”
The post Celeste Barber scores lead role in new Netflix series <i>Wellmania</i> appeared first on The New Daily.
Powered by WPeMatico
