Nava Mau stars as Teri in new Netflix present Nava Mau. (Netflix)
New Netflix mini-series Child Reindeer, that includes up-and-coming trans actress Nava Mau as Teri, seems to be set to be one of many most-talked about TV exhibits of the month.
Primarily based on actual occasions, the Netflix drama tells the chilling story of Scottish comic Richard Gadd being harassed by a middle-aged girl he meets on the pub the place he works.
The star first shared his expertise within the type of a one-man play on the Edinburgh Competition Fringe in 2019, which went on to win an Olivier Award. Whereas the stage present depicted the stalker in query as a bar stool, in Child Reindeer, she is Martha, performed by Satisfaction star, Jessica Gunning.
Gadd stars within the lead function, though he’s not precisely taking part in himself. He’s Donny, a author and comic struggling to seek out the success he craves.
Whereas working within the pub, he sees Martha enter in tears. One easy act of kindness, providing her a cup of tea, results in seven episodes of harrowing viewing as she makes an attempt to infiltrate each facet of Donny’s life.
Regardless of solely dropping on Netflix on Thursday (11 April), the drama is already garnering crucial acclaim, with The Guardian, The Unbiased and the Night Customary awarding it 4 out of 5 stars.
The solid is pretty small. Apart from Gadd and Gunning, Mau has probably the most sizeable half. She performs trans girl and American therapist Teri.
Who’s Teri in Child Reindeer?
Teri meets Donny on a courting app, however is unimpressed by the best way he treats her, unaware of what’s occurring to him behind the scenes.
In accordance with 31-year-old, San Antonio-raised actress Mau, it was Gadd’s writing which drew her to Child Reindeer.
“After I was studying the script, it felt like the primary time studying a personality written by somebody who really had recognized and liked a trans girl,” she informed Netflix’s fan occasion Tudum.
“It felt like an honour to even get to learn the script due to Richard’s vulnerability. There’s a lightweight that I believe pulsates out of that type of vulnerability, and so all of the characters within the story are solid in that mild. I felt that in that first learn of Teri.”
Though Teri is sort of definitely Mau’s largest function thus far, followers of HBO’s queer teen comedy drama Genera+ion might recognise her as Ana, the supportive, transgender aunt of lesbian character Greta.
Genera+ion was Mau’s first appearing function, after she was contacted by a casting agent in 2019 by way of Instagram. Since then, she’s starred, directed and produced a number of brief movies.
She additionally labored behind the scenes on Laverne Cox’s documentary Disclosure, about trans lives on TV.
Initially, the actress needed to be a pop star, by no means considering appearing was a risk.
“I by no means thought-about [acting] a possible career for me as a result of I didn’t see anyone within the media, anyone in management, at school, in my family, who I might relate to or emulate with regard to my gender identification,” she informed Texas Month-to-month in 2021.
Is Child Reindeer a real story?
The present relies on the real-life stalking expertise of its creator and star, Richard Gadd.
In his theatre present of the identical title, Gadd tells the story of him taking pity on Martha, a girl who got here into the bar the place he labored within the early 2010s.
Very similar to within the Netflix present, she then didn’t depart him alone, continuing to bombard him with emails and voicemails, hound his family members, and even turning up in particular person to harass him.
Child Reindeer, as Gadd tells it, is the title Martha gave him as she started her reign of terror.
Child Reindeer is streaming on Netflix now.
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