In 2024, Richard Gadd gave us Baby Reindeer. He follows it up with Half Man

Richard Gadd won Emmys for producing, starring in and writing Baby Reindeer, his first TV show, and returns to the screen with Half Man. (Supplied: Stan) Link copiedShareShare articleRichard Gadd never expected his first TV show, Baby Reindeer, to resonate the way it did. The series followed comedian Donny Dunn (Gadd), struggling professionally and working behind a bar, when he catches the attention of the lonely and obsessive Martha (Jessica Gunning). In 2024, the stalker dramedy debuted at number five in Netflix's top 10 English-language TV shows, before climbing to the top spot the following week. It landed Gunning a BAFTA, an Emmy and a Golden Globe, and an Emmy for Gadd. It also won best limited series at both the Emmys and the Golden Globes, among a slew of other accolades. When Gadd won the Emmy for writing Baby Reindeer, he said he had been "down and out" 10 years ago: I never, ever thought I'd get my life together … [Now] here I am." (Getty Images: Kevin Winter) "I never anticipated that level of success," Gadd says. "And that kind of stuff just doesn't come into my mind when I'm writing. "I thought it would be a critical success maybe." Based on two of his award-winning live shows, Baby Reindeer came directly from the comedian-turned-screenwriter's life. A card at the start of the first episode even reads: "This is a true story." Gadd was stalked for six years by a woman he met working behind a bar in London, who went on to send him more than 40,000 emails and 350 hours of voicemail messages. That authenticity proved fraught when internet sleuths tried to figure out Martha's real identity. The woman who was exposed contradicted the way she had been portrayed and has since sued Netflix for defamation, seeking $US170 million ($239 million) in damages. The case is ongoing. "I believed in [Baby Reindeer]," Gadd says. "I felt like it was doing and saying and showing something unique. "It was almost like an indie film in a lot of ways — it's a stand-up comedian's sort of psychosexual relationship with his stalker. It doesn't scream commercial hit." Baby Reindeer is currently the most watched TV title on Netflix but some fans are taking the real life story of a stalker and the man she stalked too far. Now, Gadd has followed up Baby Reindeer with the six-episode series Half Man. It stars Jamie Bell (Billy Elliott) as Niall Kennedy, a semi-successful writer, whose estranged stepbrother, Ruben Pallister (Gadd), arrives unexpectedly at his wedding, seemingly to settle old grudges. The series charts about 30 years in the brothers' lives, from their teens, when Ruben (Stuart Campbell), recently released from a young offender institution, moves into the home Niall (Mitchell Robertson) shares with his mum, through to Niall's college years, Ruben's adult imprisonment and release, and Niall's struggles with substance addiction and his sexuality. While Gadd might have felt some pressure to repeat the success of the Baby Reindeer, he says he tried to let go of the weight of expectation. "Capturing the Zeitgeist is so rare, and I'm so proud of having done that," Gadd says. "People will always refer back to it because it was such a cultural explosion. "But I realised after Baby Reindeer that either I let all that expectation and pressure in and let it stifle me and make me reticent to move forward or I just get back on the horse and do it again. "Once I committed to [making Half Man], the pressure was trying to make it as good as possible." When Gadd started writing Half Man in 2019, he had no intention of starring in it. This time, he didn't want to juggle the roles of both showrunner and star. "It's really challenging and all-consuming," he says. He had written the character of Niall with Bell in mind, and when he visited the actor in Los Angeles to talk about the show, Bell convinced him to play Ruben. At the same time, the networks — HBO in America and BBC in the UK — suggested starring in Half Man would help audiences recognise it as his next project after Baby Reindeer. "It terrified me," Gadd says. "I mean, that's not Donny Dunn. "I went to bed one night and I thought, 'What if I make a fool of myself?' Everything I was thinking of was fear of what people might think. "If that's the only reason then it's not good enough." To play Ruben required more than being able to capture the threat of violence that festers beneath the surface of his hardened exterior. It required a complete physical transformation, with Gadd adhering to a strict diet and exercise regime throughout filming and production. Gadd's transformation was so complete he insisted on including his personal trainer, David Jenkins, and nutritionist, Andrew Usher, in the credits. (Supplied: Stan) "Alongside trying to artistically do something different — Half Man has got different pacing, different feel, it's a bit more socially realist, there's no ironic score or playful tone — I was in the gym all the time, eating a diffe

In 2024, Richard Gadd gave us Baby Reindeer. He follows it up with Half Man

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