Spy: Thomasin McKenzie to star in Downton Abbey spoof

London-based Kiwi acting star Thomasin McKenzie has multiple filming projects on the go, including starring in a period drama spoof in the style of Downtown Abbey. Photo / NZ Herald Montage

London-based Kiwi acting star Thomasin McKenzie has multiple filming projects on the go, including starring in a period drama spoof in the style of Downtown Abbey.

McKenzie will soon take a comic turn in the movie Fackham Hall, playing the youngest daughter of Lord and Lady Davenport, who are dealing with the failure of the wedding of their eldest daughter, played by Scottish actor Emma Laird, to her cousin.

McKenzie’s own unlikely relationship will be with the family’s new porter, played by English actor Hero Fiennes Tiffin of After we Collided fame.

The production is described as being in the tradition of classic, joke-a-minute spoof comedies like The Naked Gun series and Airplane and will start filming early next year.

The Last Night in Soho and JoJo Rabbit star made London her base earlier this year and last month enjoyed some downtime in Greece.

She’s apparently currently filming Netflix feature Joy, a UK production, operating under Equity. Spanning from 1968 to 1978, the film will follow three trailblazers in their pursuit of the world’s first “test tube baby”.

McKenzie, 23, will play a young nurse, while English co-star Love Actually’s Billy Nighy will play an innovative surgeon and Happy Valley’s James Norton will play a visionary scientist.

Other productions in which McKenzie is involved include psychological horror Self-Portrait set in a run-down artist’s warehouse in 1990′s Brooklyn, co-staring with Big Little Lies star Zoë Kravitz.

Next year McKenzie is due to start filming Perfect, a biopic, in which she will play American gymnast Kerri Strug, who tries to overcome a terrible injury so she can compete at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

McKenzie is also set to star in live-action/animated feature I, Object, directed by Kiwi film-maker Andrew Niccol, alongside fellow Kiwi stars Karl Urban, Melanie Lynskey and Jemaine Clement.