Rose Matafeo pilots TV sketch show
- The former Edinburgh Comedy Award winner directs and stars in The Normal World Of Rose Matafeo
- Mawaan Rizwan, John Kearns and Emma Sidi co-star in the pilot for an undisclosed broadcaster
- Matafeo has also cast doubt on the future of her sitcom Starstruck beyond its second series next year
Rose Matafeo is piloting a sketch show with an all-star cast of UK comedy talent, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.
The London-based Kiwi comic stars in and directs The Normal World Of Rose Matafeo, which also features Mawaan Rizwan, John Kearns and Emma Sidi.
Shot in the capital, the pilot is being produced by Matafeo's management company Avalon, which also makes her BBC Three romantic sitcom Starstruck. Co-starring Sidi and Nikesh Patel, it returns for a second series next year.
The Normal World's producers are Toby Welch (Starstruck, Catastrophe) and Matt Clinch (Roald & Beatrix: The Tail Of The Curious Mouse).
A broadcaster for the pilot has yet to emerge. Former flatmates Matafeo and Sidi previously piloted a sketch show for the BBC with Lolly Adefope, which was variously known as Party Game and Hot Fuss.
Matafeo has enjoyed a breakout 2021, with Starstruck, which is also shown in the US, Australia and New Zealand attracting critical plaudits internationally.
Her special Horndog, a recording of her 2018 Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning stand-up show and the pregnancy comedy Baby Done, her first film role, were also released in the UK in the last twelve months.
Matafeo made her directing debut in 2019 with the New Zealand sitcom Golden Boy, in which she also had a supporting role. She previously wrote, starred in and produced the Kiwi sketch show Funny Girls with Brynley Stent and Laura Daniels, several skits of which can be seen online.
Recently asked if there would be a third series of Starstruck, she cast doubt on the sitcom's future.
"No. I can't even imagine making that" she told Kiwi magazine Ensemble. "I have just finished the second one and I would be so happy not to look at something I'm in ever again."
Starstruck, "it's me" she explained. "The character has so many elements of me and what I do in my comedy. And I wrote it. I'm very grateful for every opportunity - but I just want to lie down."
A spokesperson for Avalon declined to comment upon the sketch pilot to BCG.
Matafeo appears as part of BBC One's Would I Lie To You? At Christmas line-up on Monday and The Great British Sewing Bee on December 30th.