The animated children’s series Eddie’s Lil’ Homies, inspired by the books of AFL legend Eddie Betts, will premiere on NITV and Netflix from 16 February 2024. The 10-part comedy series features the voices of Hunter Page-Lochard (Cleverman, The Newsreader, Barons) as Eddie, Miah Madden (Bali 2002, The Clearing, The Bureau of Magical Things) as Lottie, Andrew Dang as Tal and Billy Betts (Eddie Betts’ eight-year-old son) as Junior. Additional cast members include Leela Varghese (A Beginner’s Guide to Grief, Totally Wild) as Shanti, James Smith as Lachie and Crystal Nguyen (Erotic Stories) as Decks. Eddie’s Lil’ Homies is the first co-commission between Netflix and NITV. The Australian Children’s Television Foundation provided support throughout its development and then major production investment to take the series to production. The series is produced by Oscar-winner Sophie Byrne (The Lost Thing, Scarygirl) of Highly Spirited, and Eddie Betts and Anna Scullie of Betts Promotions, along with Executive/Story Producer Mark O’Toole (Black Comedy). Eddie’s Lil’ Homies follows Eddie and his ragtag group of friends on their playground adventures as they navigate the fun and challenges of friendship. Outside of home and away from school, their friends are family and the playground is their universe. It’s a world of competition, imagination and fantasy, where anything and everything is possible, where imaginary friends can be real, games of rock paper scissors can take on stupendous importance, and kindness, empathy and a good rap can help put anything right.
“I can’t wait for children all over Australia to watch, laugh and rap along with each episode. I could never have imagined when Anna and I published the first Eddie’s Lil’ Homies book that it would inspire an animated series with such a great group of characters and that the whole idea would attract such talent to every stage of production. It’s also been great to have been able to work with so many Aboriginal creatives across the series, from directing to script writers to musicians, on our first children’s television series.” Eddie Betts commented.
“We are thrilled to be working with this group of brilliant and diverse actors on Eddie’s Lil’ Homies. At NITV, our purpose is to create content made by, for and about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This beautiful children’s series is the next step in that journey, and we couldn’t do it without the help of Eddie Betts, Anna Scullie and their family, as well as Sophie Byrne, Mark O’Toole, Netflix and ACTF.” NITV’s Head of Commissions Marissa McDowell commented “It’s so important for children to see themselves represented onscreen, and this exciting and humorous series does exactly that.”
“It’s important that kids have access to great stories where they can truly see themselves represented on-screen. Partnering with NITV, ACTF and Eddie to share this story lends even more opportunities for Eddie’s Lil’ Homies to be celebrated by kids and families across Australia.” Netflix Director of Content ANZ Que Minh Luu commented.
“This is such a joyous series – funny, quirky, clever and the raps will stick with you. It’s been a delight to be able to support Eddie’s Lil’ Homies and we can’t wait for the world to see it.” ACTF Head of Content Bernadette O’Mahony commented.
Eddie’s Lil’ Homies premieres on Friday 16 February 2024 at 7:30pm on NITV and from midnight on Netflix in Australia and New Zealand. It will also be available to stream on SBS On Demand, captioned in English with subtitles in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Arabic, Vietnamese and Korean, with audio description available.
