Chris Lilley is an Australian comedian, television producer, actor, musician and writer, who got his major start as the drama teacher, Mr. G., in the sketch comedy series Big Bite. The series ended after one season, and Lilley went on to create four subsequent mocumentary-style series, We Can Be Heroes: Finding the Australian of the Year, Summer Heights High, Angry Boys, and most recently Ja'mie: Private School Girl. Each show consists of primary characters all played by Lilley, ranging from a 47 year old woman with skeletal dysplasia, a 13-year-old school boy with a Tongan accent (NSFW language), a 24 year-old African American rap artist from Los Angeles (NSFW language), and a 16 year old girl from a grammar school, to name a few.
Chris Lilley's portrayals of diverse characters goes back before he was a teenager, starting with pretending to be an American girl at the age of 8 to fool some new neighbors. Lilley takes his comedy seriously, spending time with the sorts of people he portrays, making his play with genders and races more natural than other recent cringe-inducing attempts at humor that have flopped horribly.
We Can Be Heroes: Finding the Australian of the Year focuses on five Australians who hope to represent their respective states as the Australian of the Year. From Western Australia, 47 year old Pat Mullins; South Australia is represented by 17-year-old Daniel Sims; Queensland, Ja'mie King, the prep school girl who represents New South Wales, Ricky Wong is a 23-year-old from Victoria; and Phil Olivetti is from Queensland.
The full series on YouTube: episode 1, episode 2, episode 3, episode 4, episode 5, and episode 6.
Ja'mie returned, along with Mr. G., at Summer Heights High, where they were joined by Jonah Takalua, a schoolboy of Tongan descent who acts out quite a bit.
The full series: playlist; episode 1, episode 2, episode 3, episode 4, episode 5, episode 6, episode 7, and episode 8.
Angry Boys expands the number of characters portrayed in a series by Lilley: identical twins Daniel and Nathan Sims, their grandmother, Ruth Sims, an African American rapper S.mouse, the soft-spoken Japanese wife Jen Okazaki, and Blake Oakfield, a 38 year-old former champion surfer.
The first two episodes: episode 1 on Dailymotion, episode 2 on YouTube.
Ja'mie returned for her own series, and the first episode is on YouTube.