Mortified

Premise

Mortified follows the imaginative life of Taylor Fry, an 11-year-old girl living in a beachside town in Australia called Sunburn Beach, struggling to make it through her pre-teen years with her flawed and embarrassing family. She is embarrassed by her parents, Don and Glenda; sometimes jealous of her close friend/neighbour Brittany; unaware that her best friend, Hector, has a crush on her while she has a one-sided crush on popular Leon. Taylor frequently breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the audience. Her imagination causes inanimate objects to seemingly come to life.

Cast

Main

Marny Kennedy as Taylor Fry, the main character and protagonist who is embarrassed by her parents Don and Glenda, annoyed by her older sister Layla and has a crush on her classmate Leon (while her best friend Hector has a crush on her, but she does not know it as he won't even admit it). Taylor regularly breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to the audience. For the role of Taylor, Marny won the Young Artist Award at the 2006 Australian Film Institute Awards.

Nicolas Dunn as Hector Garcia, Taylor's loyal best friend who often gets dragged along on her crusades. However, he falls out with Taylor twice-- in the episode "Flag Fall" when he volunteers to raise the new Sunburn Primary School flag and Taylor calls him a dork and in the episode "School Trivia Night" when Taylor conspires with Leon to sabotage their families during the event, but he reconciles with her both times. In the episode "DJ Taylor," as Hector secretly has a crush on Taylor, he even goes so far as to send her a Valentine's Day card (though Taylor mistakenly assumes the card was from Leon, though even after finding out that this was not the case, as Leon humiliates Taylor on the airwaves by revealing he doesn't like Valentine's Day, Hector still does not tell her the card was from him). It is revealed in the episode "Taylor Gets a Job" that he is allergic to cats.

Maia Mitchell as Brittany Flune, Taylor's friend/next-door neighbour who sometimes has a competitive friendship with Taylor. She is beautiful and is best known for being perfect. Like Taylor with her parents Don and Glenda, Brittany is shown to feel embarrassed by her parents, Michael and Loretta, though not to the same extent as Taylor to the point she wants to change her name or try going into space. She talks in flowery language and appears to be the leader of a clique as evidenced in the episode "Bigger Than Vegas."

Dajana Cahill as Layla Fry, Taylor's older sister who is shallow, irresponsible, nasty, annoying and always getting on Taylor's nerves. She is obsessed with fashion (as evidenced in the episode "Mother in the Nude" when she gets a job of presenting Hibbs Apricot Hand Cream in a TV commercial-- ultimately developing a severe allergic reaction at the end of the episode from overusing the lotion-- and steals Taylor's hairbrush in the episode "The Chosen One") and is always finding and dumping boyfriends (as evidenced in the episode "Return of the Mothership" when she moves on from Scary Mutant Death Monster drummer Lennie, for example). Despite the feud between them, however, Layla does show some positive actions towards Taylor (if that's even possible to believe), as in the episode "Taylor Gets a Job," after realizing that everything Taylor said about her being "the walking definition of selfish" was true, she decided that, since Taylor had struggled so hard to earn enough money to buy a mobile phone of her own so as not to feel left out because Don and Glenda wouldn't buy one because Layla racked up an expensive phone bill, Layla gave Taylor her old mobile phone (all while forgetting to let all her friends know she spent the money she earned working at the Underpant Emporium to buy an updated phone, meaning Taylor ended up getting phone calls from random people during the closing credits) and helped Taylor rebuild the half-destroyed model of a Roman kitchen in the episode "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day" after Taylor reunited her with Dave, the pizza-delivery driver ex-boyfriend Layla dumped for Matt (who, ironically, turned the tables and dumped Layla earlier in the episode after Layla had to cancel her movie date with Matt because Don and Glenda were going to Don's high school reunion and Layla had promised to watch Taylor, even though it was obvious that Taylor was clearly more than capable of watching herself since Hector was over to work on the school project, anyway), resulting in Taylor and Hector receiving a passing grade on the project. It is revealed in the episode "Taylor Turns Bad" that while Glenda considers Layla a rebel, Taylor considers her to be an idiot after Layla's friend Katie's mum confronts Don and Glenda about what a bad influence Layla is after Layla gave Katie's dog the ugliest makeover of all-time.

Recurring

Sally McKenzie as Mystic Marj, Glenda's seer/fortune teller/mystic/prophetic/psychic cousin who is eccentric and, like Glenda, has a passion for chakras, making a living out of reading tea leaves. Despite her reputation, Marj is often thought to be a fraud and a bit insane (in the episode "Bigger than Vegas," Taylor goes to ask her advice for something and Marj correctly guesses that Taylor had been nominated for school captain, but only because Glenda told her (blabbermouth) and in the episode "Mother in the Nude," she and Taylor create a video where Marj predicts a series of cataclysmic events occurring at the seaside at the time of Sculpture by the Beach-- e.g. rainstorms, glaciers, landslides and thunderstorms-- so as to get the event cancelled and no one believed her).

Steven Tandy as Mr. McClusky, Taylor, Hector, Brittany and Leon's primary school teacher (and presumably Layla's old primary school teacher, as evidenced in the episode "Taylor Turns Bad," when he keeps saying her name and acts like he really knows her; spoiler alert, he clearly doesn't). He is wise and can be strict at times (especially with Leon when he throws "air-born missiles" at Hector). With the exception of the episode "The Talk," Mr. McClusky appears in every episode of series one, but is completely absent in series two since Taylor, Hector, Brittany and Leon depart for high school (though he is mentioned briefly by Taylor in the episode "Little Fish" that Taylor misses him and his bush-walking socks, to which Hector replies "Seriously?").

Peter Kent and Veronica Neave as Michael and Loretta Flune, Brittany's lawyer dad and doctor mum, respectively, who are brilliant musicians (as revealed in the episodes "Taylor's DNA" where they play a piano duet for the Sunburn Beach school talent quest and in "Mother in the Nude" where Loretta plays the piano and Michael plays the cello) and like to keep everything "perfect" and are zero-tolerant of stains (as evidenced in the episode "Girl Power," when Taylor accidentally spilled raspberry cordial on the carpet and Brittany ended up getting in trouble for it) and have strict house rules (as seen in the episode "Taylor's Song" when Taylor tries to play the piano without wearing gloves).

David Anderson as Gary Lipowski, Leon and Brett's dad. His wife is not shown, suggesting/implying that he is either widowed or divorced. He owns a repair shop for things like radios and televisions and microwaves. In the episode "School Trivia Night," he was thought to have briefly stolen the Flunes' television and donated it to Driftwood High School instead of repairing it (even though there was nothing wrong with the TV other than Loretta's paranoia driving the rest of the house crazy).

Episodes

Development and production

Mortified was created by screenwriter and author Angela Webber (who later passed away before the final four episodes aired) and directed by Pino Amenta. The first season of Mortified had a budget of A$9.3 million. It was shot on location in Coolangatta, Palm Beach, Currumbin, Burleigh Heads, Elanora, Tugun and Bilinga on the Gold Coast, with most of the school scenes filmed at the local Palm Beach Currumbin High School and Coolangatta State School starting on June 8, 2005 and the shopping centre scenes filmed at The Pines Shopping Centre, primarily outside Woolworths and inside the Dimmeys store located opposite Woolworths. Mortified was launched in Cannes at MIPTV in April 2006.

Crew

Series creator: Angela Webber

Executive producers: Phillip Bowman, Jenny Buckland, Bernadette O'Mahony, Jo Horsburgh

Producers: Phillip Bowman, Bernadette O'Mahony

Writers: Angela Webber, Sam Carroll, Tim Gooding, Johanna Pigott, Steve Wright, Max Dann, Chris Anastassiades, Shirley Pierce, Adam Bowen, Helen McWhirter

Directors: Pino Amenta, Paul Moloney, Ian Gilmour, Michael Pattinson, Evan Clarry

Script editors: Sam Carroll, Steve Wright