Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Screen Australia and ABC announce new comedy series Optics

12/07/2024

12 07 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and ABC announce new comedy series Optics

Optics. Photo credit: Joel Pratley

ABC and Screen Australia have announced that filming has commenced in Sydney on Optics, a new 6-part comedy series from the brilliant creative minds of Jenna Owen and Vic Zerbst (The Feed, Nugget is Dead: A Christmas Story) and The Chaser's Charles Firth.

Written by and starring this dynamic trio, Optics is an Easy Tiger and Chaser Digital production, directed by the award-winning Max Miller (Aunty Donna's Coffee Caf , Australian Epic), executive produced by Firth, Easy Tiger's Rob Gibson and Ian Collie (Colin from Accounts), Owen and Zerbst, and produced by Paige Wharehinga.

Optics follows two whip-smart 20-something women (Jenna Owen and Vic Zerbst) who are unexpectedly promoted to run crisis management PR firm Fritz & Randell, after the death of office patriarch Frank Fritz. As they battle weekly public relations crises from celebrities, sports stars and corporate titans, and power challenges from veteran PR flack Ian Randell (Charles Firth), they slowly come to realise that their firm might have a scandal brewing of its own, and start to wonder: have they been set up to fail?

It's a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud workplace comedy that lifts the veil on everyday office politics and on the corporate spin that inflects all the news we consume.

Screen Australia COO Grainne Brunsdon said, Optics is clever, high-energy and perfectly poised to elevate Jenna Owen and Vic Zerbst's careers. With their unique style and Charles' hilarious touch, it's an exhilarating ride that highlights the absurdities of our digital age. I can't wait to watch it on the ABC.

ABC Head of Scripted Rachel Okine said, We're thrilled to be working with such an incredibly talented team to bring this fast-paced and bitingly funny comedy to ABC. As well as being dazzled by their sharp comic minds, we know audiences will also be gobsmacked to learn what goes on behind the scenes in the often murky world of PR.

Rob Gibson and Ian Collie said, Jenna and Vic are among our brightest new comedy talents, and their intergenerational sparring with the always-hilarious Charles Firth the middle-aged man's middle-aged man is comedy gold. We can't wait for Australia to see them all practising the dark arts of PR in the halls of Fritz and Randell.

Owen, Zerbst and Firth said, When we started, we were worried that there weren t enough PR crises in Australia to sustain 30 minutes of television each week. As it turns out, there's enough material for about 30 years of television each week.

Head of Screen NSW Kyas Hepworth said, Jenna and Vic are two of the most exciting and refreshing voices in comedy and I can't wait to see them join forces with Charles Firth to put their own unique spin on the world of crisis PR. Screen NSW are thrilled to support the entire team, including Easy Tiger and Chaser Digital, in bringing this hilarious series to ABC next year.

Optics will premiere on ABC TV and ABC iview in 2025.

Production credit: Optics is an Easy Tiger and Chaser Digital production for the ABC. Major production investment from Screen Australia and the ABC. Financed with support from Screen NSW. Optics is produced in association with and distributed by ITV Studios. Created and written by Jenna Owen, Vic Zerbst and Charles Firth. Executive Producers: Charles Firth, Easy Tiger's Rob Gibson and Ian Collie, Jenna Owen and Vic Zerbst, and ABC's Rachel Okine and Todd Abbott. Produced by Paige Wharehinga.

ABC MEDIA ENQUIRIES Amy Reiha, ABC Publicist

[email protected]

0404 026 039

Media enquiries Maddie Walsh | Publicist

61 2 8113 5915 | [email protected]

Jessica Parry | Senior Publicist (Mon, Tue, Thu)

61 428 767 836 | [email protected]

All other general/non-media enquiries

Sydney 61 2 8113 5800 | Melbourne 61 3 8682 1900 | [email protected]
LINK: https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/news/2024/07-12-new...
See more stories from screenaustralia

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

07/05/2026

IAB Tech Lab Introduces Standardized Signals For CTV Ad Portfolio

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 202...

Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show Manufacturer Recognized by TV Tech and TVBEurope for Innovation in signal processing Cobal...

07/05/2026

FOR-A delivers creativity practicality and technical exce...

Software and hardware platforms, AI power and user-friendliness on show...

07/05/2026

Intinor brings advanced IP transport diagnostics and HDR...

Intinor will demonstrate its latest technical enhancements for the Direkt series at BroadcastAsia 2026. With a continued focus on reliable contribution and remo...

07/05/2026

Bitmovin Powers Global Film Streaming Platform MUBI

Bitmovin has announced that MUBI has chosen Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner, replacing MUBI's legacy on premises encoding setup to improve scalab...

07/05/2026

Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026

Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next. ...

07/05/2026

Convergence is Now Established Reality,' Says NAB 2026 Report

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Interra Systems to Showcase Best in Class QC Monitoring a...

At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...

07/05/2026

PlayBox Neo shines a spotlight on delivering Secure Scala...

At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...

07/05/2026

BFBS selects Synamedia to deliver New Digital Platform fo...

Strategic three-year partnership marks delivery phase of BFBS' next-generation media vision Media organisation and military charity BFBS (British Forces Br...

07/05/2026

Amagi Unlocks New Opportunities for CTV Performance with...

Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced the availability of its In-Content Ads offering v...

07/05/2026

Lightware Introduces Rack Taurus For Clean Centralized AV...

Lightware Visual Engineering has developed Rack Taurus for rack-based environments such as education and corporate training spaces. It enables clean and simple ...

07/05/2026

Jigsaw24 Showcases End-to-End Media Workflows at MPTS 202...

Jigsaw24, the UK's leading media equipment supplier and systems integrator, will showcase its expanded end-to-end workflow capabilities at MPTS 2026, signal...

07/05/2026

Ease Live Granted US Patent for Technology Powering Perfe...

Ease Live, an Evertz company, today announced that it has been granted a US Patent for its proprietary graphical overlay technology, the foundation for interact...

07/05/2026

Leader prepares advanced Test and Measurement showcase fo...

Test & measurement innovator Leader Electronics of Europe will present an extensive range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix test and measurement solutions at...

07/05/2026

LiveU Signals a New Era of Live Broadcasting at Broadcast...

At Broadcast Asia 2026 (Stand 5H3 8), LiveU is redefining live production with its most powerful IP-video EcoSystem to date built to help broadcasters and con...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Streaming Server Awarded Trusted Partner Network Gold Logo Certification

January 8, 2024 Colorfront (colorfront.com), a leader in high-performance, on-s...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Unleashes New Opportunities for Content Owners Plus Other Ground-Breaking Visual Experiences at Nab 2024

March 20, 2024 NAB 2024, Las Vegas - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-awa...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Delivers Innovations for HDR Cinema at Cinemacon 2025

April 1, 2025 CINEMACON, APRIL 1, 2025 - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming syste...

07/05/2026

Colorfront to Showcase Advanced HDR Cinema Mastering Solutions at CineEurope 2025

June 15, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), an Academy and Emmy Award-winning de...

07/05/2026

Colorfront at ICTA Barcelona Cinema Technology Summit

June 15, 2025 Colorfront participated in the ICTA Barcelona Cinema Technology Summit on Sunday, June 15, 2025. Held at The Phenomena Experience, the event feat...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Does IBC 2024 Live From Stockholm!

July 1, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming systems for motion pictures, OTT,...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Transkoder Delivers a Masterful Performance at Annapurna Studios

July 1, 2025 Passion and dedication will take you places. Come with us on a short trip to the heart of India, where Annapurna Studios is living-up to the inspi...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Opens a New Chapter in Color Tools For Cinema & Television

July 3, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming systems for motion pictures, OTT,...

07/05/2026

Colorfront at IBC 2025: Advanced Tools Make Easy Work of Critical Mastering Tasks and More!

September 1, 2025 IBC 2025, Amsterdam - Colorfront (colorfront.com) - the Acade...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Introduces Colorfront Immersive Utility, a New Mac App for Creating Apple Immersive Video

April 17, 2026 LOS ANGELES - April 17, 2026 - Colorfront today announced Colorf...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Delivers Even More AI Automation Power and Extends Technology Partnerships with Dolby Apple

April 23, 2026 NAB 2026, Las Vegas - the Academy and Emmy Award-winning develop...

07/05/2026

CNN Founder Ted Turner Dies at 87

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

FCC Urges Appeals Court to Toss Challenges to Nexstar-Tegna Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Carr Announces FCC Staff Promotions

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects

Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects Graham Quince May 6, 2026 0 Comments The Time Tunnel from Doctor Who titles is one of th...

07/05/2026

Well known Irish faces pushed to the edge in new series of Uncharted with Ray Goggins

Well known Irish faces pushed to the edge in new series of Uncharted with Ray G...

07/05/2026

Powerful four generation story A Traveller Family airs on RT One and RT Player this Monday night

RT will premiere A Traveller Family, a compelling new documentary exploring the...

07/05/2026

Linked and Loaded: Gaijin Single Sign-On Now Available on GeForce NOW

Less typing, more tanking. Faster logins mean more time in the gaming action - and this week provides GeForce NOW members with a smoother path straight into th...

06/05/2026

Wisycom RF Solutions Support Gravity Medias Live Cycling and Marathon Broadcasts

Gravity Media Chief RF Communications Engineer Glenn Willems uses Wisycom RF over Fiber and wireless solutions across major cycling events and international mar...

06/05/2026

Sennheiser Spectera Module Now Available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons

A Sennheiser Spectera module is now available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons, enabling direct integration of Spectera with the two software platforms. The mo...

06/05/2026

Ted Turner, Cable Television Pioneer, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer, Dead at 87

Ted Turner, the visionary media entrepreneur whose appetite for disruption helpe...

06/05/2026

FIFA World Cup 2026: Peacock Launches Visin de Campo (aka Pitchside Live), Will Stream All 104 Matches in Spanish

Peacock is going all-in on the beautiful game - streaming all 104 FIFA World Cup...

06/05/2026

NoiseWorks Audio launch VoiceAssist Basic, Standard & Advanced

New pricing tiers for vocal/dialogue restoration tool NoiseWorks Audio's AI-powered vocal and dialogue processing plug-in is now available in three diff...

06/05/2026

RME TotalMix FX 2 now available

Popular mixing & routing software overhauled Following a recent public beta test, RME have launched the final release version of the powerful mixing and rou...

06/05/2026

Focusrite: Designing The ISA C8X Audio Interface

New SOS Video Feature Focusrites ISA C8X is a milestone product that brings together the companys analogue heritage and their expertise in digital audio. Yo...

06/05/2026

L3Harris to Boost Polish Navy Combat Power with Advanced Ship System

Polands Miecznik-class frigates are part of the largest contract in Polish shipbuilding history. (Image Credit: PGZ Stocznia Wojenna)...

06/05/2026

FCC's Anna Gomez Urges Rigorous Review of Paramount-WBD Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Riedel Ups Marc Engroff to CFO, Shifts Frank Eischet to Group COO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Amagi Launches In-Content Ads' to Attract More CTV Advertisers

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...