Baby Reindeer is a British black comedy, drama and thriller television miniseries created by and starring Richard Gadd. It is adapted from his autobiographical one-man show. Directed by Weronika Tofilska and Josephine Bornebusch, it also stars Jessica Gunning, Nava Mau and Tom Goodman-Hill. It was released on 11 April 2024 on Netflix, where it had a strong viewership and was critically acclaimed.
Baby Reindeer won six Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Outstanding Writing for Gadd, Outstanding Lead Actor for Gadd, and Outstanding Supporting Actress for Gunning. It also won two Golden Globes: Best Limited or Anthology Series and Best Supporting Actress for Gunning.
Premise An aspiring comedian named Donny Dunn works as a bartender at a pub in London. He offers a free cup of tea to a weeping customer, Martha, to cheer her up. Martha develops an attachment to Donny and begins to stalk him both in person and online. As Donny attempts to further his career in comedy, the stalking begins to affect every aspect of his life, forcing him to understand his own behaviour, confront his sexuality, and come to terms with the trauma of a past sexual assault. As he attempts to escape Martha's stalking, the mix of fear, sympathy and revulsion he feels for his stalker threatens to ruin his life.
Cast and characters
Main Richard Gadd as Donny Dunn, an aspiring comedian who works as a bartender Jessica Gunning as Martha Scott, a former lawyer with a criminal past Nava Mau as Teresa "Teri", a transgender American therapist Donny meets on a dating website Tom Goodman-Hill as Darrien O'Connor, a television writer
Recurring Nina Sosanya as Liz, Keeley's mother and Donny's landlady Michael Wildman as Greggsy, owner of the pub Donny works in Danny Kirrane as Gino, Donny's co-worker Thomas Coombes as Officer Daniels, an incompetent police officer Shalom Brune-Franklin as Keeley, Donny's ex-girlfriend
Guest Tom Durant Pritchard as Jason, host of a comedy competition Laura Smyth as Glenda, master of ceremonies of the comedy competition Will Hislop as Billy, a fellow comedian Amanda Root as Elle Dunn, Donny's mother Mark Lewis Jones as Gerry Dunn, Donny's father Hugh Coles as Francis, Donny's friend from drama school Josh Finan as Diggsy, a new employee at the pub Alexandria Riley as Detective Culver, the detective assigned to Donny's case
Episodes All seven episodes were released simultaneously on Netflix on 11 April 2024.
Original play The original play premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019 and transferred to the Bush Theatre later that year. It was directed by Jon Brittain and produced by Francesca Moody. It won a Scotsman Fringe First Award and the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. It was due to transfer to the Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End in April 2020 but the run was cancelled due to Covid-19 lockdowns.
Production Development and casting The series was announced in December 2020, with Richard Gadd set to write the series and star. Clerkenwell Films was set to produce. Weronika Tofilska was added as the director in August 2022, with Josephine Bornebusch announced as an additional director in March 2023. Gadd was cast alongside the series announcement. Jessica Gunning was cast on 26 August 2022. Nava Mau was announced as a cast member in March 2023.
Filming
Filming began in mid-August 2022 in the Grassmarket in Edinburgh, and continued in London in September.
Among the filming locations in London were the Stag's Head pub in Hoxton, which was used for exterior scenes at the Heart pub, the Regent's Canal in Haggerston, and the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. Donny's stand-up comedy shows were filmed at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club, the Rivoli Ballroom in Brockley and The Comedy Store in Leicester Square. Darrien's flat was filmed inside Marsham Court in Victoria, London. In Edinburgh the Hoppy pub in Meadowbank served as the exterior of the Festival Fringe venue for Donny's comedy show (interior scenes were filmed in the Army & Navy pub in Stoke Newington, London). Other exterior locations are the Royal Mile and the Grassmarket, where Donny is shown walking along the street amid festival activities.
Filming wrapped by early March 2023.
Reception Critical response The series was critically acclaimed. On the online review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 99% of 70 critics gave the series a positive review, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "A bracing work of autofiction by creator and star Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer can be a punishing watch but richly rewards viewers with its emotional complexity and excellent performances." On Metacritic the series holds a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating “universal acclaim”.
Audience viewership Baby Reindeer debuted at number five on Netflix's Top 10 TV English titles for the tracking week of 8–14 April 2024, with 10.4 million hours viewed. On the following week, it climbed to number one and garnered 52.8 million viewing hours. The series remained at the same position for its third and fourth weeks, earning 87.4 and 73.6 million viewing hours.
Accolades Award Date of ceremony Category Nominee(s) Result Ref. Artios Awards 12 February 2025 Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Limited Series Nina Gold and Martin Ware Astra TV Awards 8 December 2024 Best Limited Series Baby Reindeer Best Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie Richard Gadd Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie Tom Goodman-Hill Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie Jessica Gunning Nava Mau Best Directing in a Limited Series or TV Movie Weronika Tofilska Best Writing in a Limited Series or TV Movie Richard Gadd British Academy Television Awards 11 May 2025 Best Limited Drama Richard Gadd, Weronika Tofilska, Petra Fried, Matt Jarvis, Ed Macdonald, and Matthew Mulot Best Leading Actor Richard Gadd Best Supporting Actress Jessica Gunning Nava Mau British Academy Television Craft Awards 27 April 2025 Best Director: Fiction Weronika Tofilska Best Writer: Drama Richard Gadd Best Editing: Fiction Peter Oliver and Benjamin Gerstein Best Sound: Fiction Matthew Skelding, Tom Jenkins, Milos Stojanovic, James Ridgway, and Jack Whitelee Cinema Audio Society Awards 22 February 2025 Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Non-Theatrical Motion Pictures or Limited Series Jake Whitelee, James Ridgway, and Keith Partridge Costume Designers Guild Awards 6 February 2025 Excellence in Contemporary Television Mekel Bailey Critics' Choice Awards 12 January 2025 Best Limited Series Baby Reindeer Best Actor in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television Richard Gadd Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television Jessica Gunning Golden Globes 5 January 2025 Best Limited or Anthology Series or Television Film Baby Reindeer Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film Richard Gadd Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film Jessica Gunning Golden Reel Awards 23 February 2025 Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Broadcast Short Form Matt Skelding, Tom Jenkins, Milos Stojanovic, Mathias Schuster, and Barnaby Smyth Outstanding Achievement in Music Editing – Broadcast Short Form Jack Sugden Golden Trailer Awards 29 May 2025 Best Comedy Poster for a TV/Streaming Series Netflix / Netflix Creative Studio (for "Pub Sign") GLAAD Media Awards 29 March 2025 Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series Baby Reindeer Gotham TV Awards 4 June 2024 Breakthrough Limited Series Outstanding Performance in a Limited Series Richard Gadd Hollywood Music in Media Awards 20 November 2024 Best Music Supervision – Television Catherine Grieves Independent Spirit Awards 22 February 2025 Best New Scripted Series Richard Gadd, Wim De Greef, Petra Fried, Matt Jarvis, and Ed Macdonald Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series Richard Gadd Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series Nava Mau Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series Jessica Gunning Peabody Awards 1 May 2025 Entertainment A Netflix Series / A Clerkenwell Films Production Primetime Emmy Awards 15 September 2024 Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series Richard Gadd, Wim De Greef, Petra Fried, Matt Jarvis, Ed Macdonald, and Matthew Mulot Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Richard Gadd Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Tom Goodman-Hill Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Jessica Gunning Nava Mau Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Weronika Tofilska Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Richard Gadd 8 September 2024 Outstanding Casting for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Nina Gold and Martin Ware Outstanding Contemporary Costumes Mekel Bailey and Imogen Holness Outstanding Music Supervision Catherine Grieves Outstanding Picture Editing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Peter H. Oliver and Benjamin Gerstein Satellite Awards 26 January 2025 Best Miniseries & Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television Baby Reindeer Best Actor in a Miniseries, Limited Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television Richard Gadd Best Actress in a Miniseries, Limited Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television Jessica Gunning Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries & Limited Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television Nava Mau Screen Actors Guild Awards 23 February 2025 Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Richard Gadd Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Jessica Gunning Set Decorators Society of America Awards 5 August 2024 Best Achievement in Décor/Design of a Television Movie or Limited Series Hannah Evans, Lucy Haley, and Debbie Burton Television Critics Association Awards 12 July 2024 Program of the Year Baby Reindeer Outstanding Achievement in Drama Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials Outstanding New Program Individual Achievement in Drama Richard Gadd
Source material Fans began to speculate on social media about possible people who inspired the show's fictional characters. In April 2024 Gadd asked fans to cease speculating. After being falsely identified online as the factual person from whom the character Darrien was derived, the theatre director Sean Foley reported the false allegations to the police. The police investigated the reports. Gadd confirmed that Foley was not his source of the character.
On 9 May 2024, in an interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, 59-year-old Fiona Muir-Harvey, a Scottish woman with a law degree, claimed to have inspired the Martha character. Earlier tweets from a Twitter account linked to Muir-Harvey resulted in increased fan connections between her and the Martha character. These included a reference to hanging curtains, a sexually suggestive phrase that was later used in the script of Baby Reindeer.
During her Uncensored interview, Muir-Harvey said that she had met Gadd several times at The Hawley Arms, Camden, but denied sending him 41,000 emails or going to his home, as was stated of her erstwhile character on the show. She said that she was planning to start legal action for defamation against both Gadd and Netflix for claiming the series is "a true story" and suggesting that she had been convicted of stalking and sexual assault, as is the Martha character in the series.
Muir-Harvey said she had sent up to 10 emails and a letter, as well as several tweets, to Gadd. She later claimed she was paid £250 to appear, and said that the interview left her feeling "a bit used". The interview drew some criticism, with people questioning the ethics of the event.