Starstruck: Rose Matafeo's new sitcom hits New Zealand screens

Nikesh Patel and Rose Matafeo in a scene from Starstruck. Photo / BBC

New details about Rose Matafeo's upcoming sitcom have been revealed.

Starstruck, an HBO Max and BBC co-production, will air on TV2 tonight at 9.30pm.

A first-look was released from the six-episode series, which will screen on TVNZ in New Zealand as well as HBO Max in America and BBC Three in the UK.

Starstruck, produced by Last Week Tonight With John Oliver and Avalon Television (Catastrophe), will follow 20-something Jessie (played by Matafeo), a millennial living in London, juggling two jobs and navigating the fallout from accidentally sleeping with a movie star.

here she is, looking drunk in a press shot that will circulate for an entire calendar year https://t.co/qQDRCrJlkC

— Rose Matafeo (@Rose_Matafeo) March 15, 2021

First look at Starstruck—the new TV series I directed starring so many lovely people and made with such an extraordinary crew! 💕 Out on the BBC and HBOMax soon! https://t.co/WAGavee9lG

— Karen Maine (@KL_Maine) March 15, 2021

Matafeo posted a tweet poking fun at the picture from the show.

"Here she is, looking drunk in press shot that will circulate for an entire calendar year," she wrote.

The still from the show shows Matafeo and Nikesh Patel sitting together at a bar. Patel (Indian Summers) plays Tom in the show, who is the leading man and a love interest named Tom, the British Comedy Guide reports.

Good Will Hunting actress Minnie Driver is also set to guest star, according to the show's producers. Nic Sampson, Joe Barnes, Lola-Rose Maxwell, Abraham Popoola and Ambreen Razia will also star in the series, according to the British Comedy Guide.

It will be a great platform for New Zealand comedy: Matafeo and fellow NZ comedian Alice Snedden have penned the episodes. Karen Maine directed the series and it was produced by Toby Welch.

And while the pandemic paused filming last July, it turned out to be a positive for the sitcom. The show has been greenlit for a second season before the first has even aired.

When the show was announced in 2019, Matafeo spoke to Deadline about the project and what we can expect.

"The BBC have been so supportive of this project from the get-go and to be able to get this show in front of American audiences at the same time via HBO Max is truly exciting," Matafeo told Deadline in 2019.

"I'm thrilled we get to make it, otherwise it would've technically just been a creepy fan fiction script that I submitted to the national broadcaster. The team we've brought together for this series are absolute dreamboats and I'm super excited to be working with them."

The sitcom is the latest in a string of successful projects for Matafeo. Her Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning show Horndog was filmed for HBO and released on the UK's BBC iPlayer. It is available to watch on Neon in New Zealand.

Matafeo also recently starred in the Kiwi comedy movie Baby Done, where she played a woman named Zoe who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant and attempts to tick off a list of experiences before the baby is born.

Starstuck will air in New Zealand tonight on TV2, all episodes after will be available on, on demand.