Aunty Donna

Aunty Donna was formed in 2011 after its five original members (Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly, Joe Kosky, Sam Lingham, and Zachary Ruane) met at University of Ballarat's Arts Academy.[8] Trained as actors, the group saw a lack of demand for independent theatre and decided to attempt comedy instead,[9] beginning as live performers.[10] Their first live show, Aunty Donna in Pantsuits, debuted in 2012 at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) and was nominated for a Golden Gibbo award, which pushed the group to continue making comedy.[11][12] Kelly also recruited his high school friend, composer Thomas Zahariou (formerly Thomas Armstrong) soon after its founding.[13] To perform at the festival, MICF required the group to film a selection of comedy sketches, for which they recruited director Max Miller, who Kelly and Zahariou knew from high school.[4][13] They created sketches for C31 Melbourne, and began their YouTube channel in 2011 to upload the sketches from C31 and their MICF online.[4]

Joe Kosky and later Adrian Dean departed Aunty Donna to pursue other ventures, bringing the group to the current six members.[14][15] Their second live show, Aunty Donna and the Fax Machine Shop, debuted at the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2012,[16] and won its People’s Choice Award.[17]

The group perform outside at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2014

2014 saw their third live show, World's Greatest Showbag, at the MICF, as well as a Best Of live show that debuted the group internationally at both the SF Sketchfest and Edinburgh Festival Fringe.[18][19]

In 2015, the group created a self-titled half-hour television pilot for the ABC and Screen Australia as part of the inaugural Fresh Blood Pilot Season comedy initiative, but the series was not picked up.[20] According to Kelly, the pilot was about the experience of Dean leaving the group.[21] They released the sketch "Bikie Wars" on YouTube, featuring John Wood of Blue Heelers fame, which became their most popular video.[8] The Sydney Morning Herald credited the group with successfully converting its online fanbase into "bums on seats" for their live shows.[21]

In 2016, the group released the web series 1999, based on the Y2K panic and funded by Screen Australia as part of their Skip Ahead talent development initiative.[22] The group began the weekly Aunty Donna Podcast.[23]

In 2017, the group announced a second half-hour pilot, Chaperones, which was created with Australian online streaming service Stan. The pilot was again not continued into a full series.[20] The group adopted the mantra "whatever's funniest," attempting to adapt their source material uniquely to different comedic formats such as their live shows and YouTube sketches.[16][13] Their live show Big Boys was the group's first North American theater tour.[24]

2018 saw the release of the group's first full-length studio album, The Album, which featured Montaigne, Matt Okine, Michelle Brasier, and Joey Walker of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard,[25] and was followed by a tour.[26][27] Their production company, Haven't You Done Well Productions, was established.[28] The group also released the sketch "Always Room for Christmas Pud", which the Australian Financial Review later said had become "something of a Millennial cultural touchstone in Australia".[29] The sketch would become a running gag for the group, with it being frequently listed among the groups highest achievements, getting referenced in various sketches, as well as the video being taken down and reuploaded every Christmas.

Making use of their production company, the group released the Glennridge Secondary College web series in 2019, which followed a fictional Australian secondary school.[30]

In November 2020, Aunty Donna released their Netflix series Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun, which featured guest appearances from Ed Helms, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Antony Starr, Kristen Schaal, and others.[23][31] The show was aided by Helms' Pacific Electric Picture Company.[20] To promote the show, the group erected a replica of the Utah monolith in Melbourne with help from YouTubers I Did a Thing and Aleksa Vulovic.[32][33]

In 2021, Aunty Donna hosted the Opening Night Comedy Allstars Supershow at the MICF.[34][35]

2022 saw The Magical Dead Cat Tour, the group's first live tour in three years after it was delayed by COVID-19 lockdowns, covering Australia and New Zealand.[36] Later in the year, the group released Always Room for Christmas Pud, a picture book published by Penguin Books and illustrated by James Fosdike, based on their popular YouTube video of the same name.[29][37] In August, the group announced that they had been signed by ABC to create a new sitcom TV series depicting them running a café in the Melbourne laneways.[38] The show was later named Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe and was released on the 12 April 2023.[39][7] Alongside the main members of the group, the series starred Gaby Seow, Sally-Anne Upton, Michelle Brasier, Vidya Rajan, and Mish Wittrup, while several guest stars made an appearance including Richard Roxburgh, Pia Miranda, Nazeem Hussain, Miranda Tapsell, Shaun Micallef, Tony Martin, Melanie Bracewell, Steven Oliver, Sam Pang and Sammy J.[40]

In 2023, The trio provided voices for characters in the Australian version of the 2023 film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.[41] They continued The Magical Dead Cat Tour in the UK, Ireland, Canada and the United States.[42]

The other members of the troupe have noted that Kelly is its hardest worker, and that he possesses "clarity about how an audience is likely to react to something.”[23] Outside of Aunty Donna, Kelly has appeared in Orange Is the New Brown,[43] How to Stay Married,[44] True Story with Hamish & Andy, Fisk,[45] and Would I Lie to You? Australia.[45] In 2023, Broden began the podcast The Footy with Broden Kelly alongside Zahariou, which has featured Bronson Reed as a guest.[46]

Bonanno has been described by Kelly as "laser-focused and into the meticulous detail" in terms of his work in the group.[23] He played the character Skulldrich in The Wizards of Aus in 2017,[47] co-created the ABC television series Why Are You Like This with Naomi Higgins and Humyara Mahbub in 2021,[48][49] and has directed a comedy show for gay comedy duo Woah, Alyssa!.[50] He has a channel on Twitch.[51] In 2020, he received media attention for posting the same photo of himself and his father to Instagram every day,[52] and in 2023, he appeared as a guest on season 5 of Thank God You're Here.[53]

Described by Kelly as "macro-minded" in his Aunty Donna work,[23] Ruane also hosts a film podcast alongside Mish Wittrup called Mish and Zach's Leguizamarama, about character actor John Leguizamo and his works,[54] and hosts film screenings at Lido Cinemas under the title Fun Time Film Club.[55]

Miller is half Greek, half Scottish, and studied at Swinburne University of Technology. Outside of his directing for Aunty Donna, he has directed short films and commercials.[4] In 2014, he co-directed the music video for "High" by Peking Duk, which won a 2015 Rolling Stone Australia Award for "Music Video of the Year."[56]

Lingham is a co-writer for the group, and also operates as a director and producer.[24][7]

Zahariou (formerly Armstrong) is the group's composer,[7][13] composing the entire soundtrack for Big Ol' House of Fun.[57]

Aunty Donna stated on their podcast that their live shows are "deep down, what [they] are most passionate about".[63] As such, they try to plan and perform one live show per year.

In December 2012, Aunty Donna created Aunty Donna's Rumpus Room, a seven-part web series which originally aired as segments on C31 Melbourne and its YouTube channel.[5] Much of its YouTube content is based on content adapted from its live shows, and vice versa.

The majority of Aunty Donna's YouTube content is organized by the group into different series. These series include:

• Rumpus Room (2012)[64]
• Fortnightly Fap Off (2013)
• Fapé in the Cafe (2013)
• Haven't You Done Well (2013–2020)
• Fresh Blood (2014)
• 1999 (2015/2016)[22]
• Trendy (2016)
• Ripper Aussie Summer (2017)[5]
• BEST CONTENT EVER!!1! (2017)
• Aunty Donna: The Album (2018)
• Camp Bush Camp (2018)
• Glennridge Secondary College (2019)
• The Rove Tapes (2020)
• The House Series (2022)

The group began a self-titled podcast in 2016, releasing weekly episodes.[23] It usually involves improvised character comedy with satirical premises,[65] and occasionally includes special guests such as comedians Ben Russell, Tim Minchin, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Bob Saget, Demi Lardner, Michelle Brasier, Rove McManus, and David Cross. The podcast is represented under LiSTNR.[66]

In 2018, Aunty Donna announced they would be releasing their debut album The Album on 6 April 2018. On 9 February 2018, Aunty Donna released the first single from the album, "Chuffed (Dad Song)", and accompanying video. The album debuted at No. 30 on the ARIA Albums Chart.[67]