Meet the characters.
Baby Reindeer is the brainchild of Richard Gadd, an actor, writer and comedian who has turned his award-winning one-man Edinburgh Fringe show into a seven-parter for Netflix.
The comedy-drama is based on Gadd’s own experience of being stalked by a woman who came into his life one seemingly ordinary day – and changed the course of it forever.
“In a weird way, I first started feeling like this could be a good story during the whole ordeal itself,” he told Netflix.
“It was one of the most intense periods, when I was listening to these voicemails [that she’d sent]. I’d go to sleep at night and… her words would bounce around my eyelids.
“I remember thinking, ‘God, if I was ever to speak about this onstage, I’d fire the words around. Put the voicemails in a big cacophony and fire it.’ That’s how the play was born.”
Gadd also stars in the series alongside a number of other faces, some of whom you might recognise.
For more information about the characters in Baby Reindeer and where you’ve seen the actors before, read on.
Baby Reindeer cast
- Richard Gadd as Donny
- Jessica Gunning as Martha
- Nava Mau as Teri
Richard Gadd plays Donny
Who is Donny? A “struggling comedian” who also works as a bartender. During a shift, he meets a “friendly” woman who “begins to stalk Donny relentlessly” after he shows an “act of kindness” to her.
“Stalking on television tends to be very sexed-up,” explained Gadd. “It has a mystique. It’s somebody in a dark alleyway. It’s somebody who’s really sexy, who’s very normal, but then they go strange bit by bit.
“But stalking is a mental illness. I really wanted to show the layers of stalking with a human quality I hadn’t seen on television before. It’s a stalker story turned on its head. It takes a trope and turns it on its head.”
Where have I seen Richard Gadd before? Gadd created and wrote one-man show Baby Reindeer. His on-screen roles include comedy Code 404 with Stephen Graham and Daniel Mays and BBC thriller Clique.
Jessica Gunning plays Martha
Who is Martha? Donny’s stalker. Her “obsession threatens to wreck both their lives and forces Donny to face his deeply buried trauma”.
“If you ever try to play her as a villain, I think you would ruin what a brilliant job Richard has done of the writing,” said Gunning when discussing her “sense of care, duty, and responsibility to do the story justice”.
“I think as an actor I’m not sure if you can focus on the harm she causes, because I don’t think it’s intentional from her.”
Gunning explains that, no matter how much damage Martha inflicts, “
Where have I seen Jessica Gunning before? You might recognise her from Stephen Merchant’s BBC comedy The Outlaws, Channel 4 sitcom Back starring Robert Webb and David Mitchell, Law and Order: UK, Prime Suspect 1973 and Sky Atlantic thriller Fortitude.
Nava Mau plays Teri
Who is Teri? Teri is an American therapist who has lived in London for years and meets Donny from a dating site, but she isn’t impressed with the way Donny treats her.
“When I was reading the scrip, it felt like the first time reading a character that was written by someone who actually had known and loved a trans woman,” said Mau, who is a trans woman. “And it felt like an honour to even get to read the script because of Richard’s vulnerability. There’s a light that I think pulsates out of that kind of vulnerability, and so all of the characters in the story then are cast in that light. And I felt that in that first read of Teri.”
Where have I seen Nava Mau before? She previously appeared in HBO drama Generation.
Additional cast includes:
- Danny Kirrane (Don’t Forget the Driver, Critical) as Gino – one of the pub managers who works with Donny.
- Michael Wildman (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) as Greggsy – another of Donny’s managers at the pub where he works.
- Shalom Brune-Franklin (The Tourist, Line of Duty) as Keeley – Donny’s ex-girlfriend.
- Nina Sosanya (Screw, Good Omens) as Liz – Keeley’s mother who allows Donny to continue living with her after his break-up with Keeley.
- Hugh Coles (Juice, Defending the Guilty) as Francis – one of Donny’s friends from drama school.
- Chloe Driver (Call the Midwife) as a comedian.
- Tom Goodman-Hill (Humans, Mr Selfridge) as Darrien – a TV comedy writer who meets Donny at Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Baby Reindeer is available to stream now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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