Paul Fenech (born 21 November 1972) is an Australian filmmaker, film and television actor, director, producer and writer. He is best known for writing, directing, producing and starring in the television series ''

Pizza Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, onions ...

'', ''

Swift and Shift Couriers ''Swift and Shift Couriers'' is an Australian comedy television series that first screened on SBS TV in October 2008. The series is produced, directed and written by Paul Fenech, who was also responsible for the comedy series '' Pizza''. It is s ...

'', ''

Housos '' Housos '' is a Logie Award-winning Australian comedy television series created by Paul Fenech for SBS, that screened on SBS One. The series is a satirical parody of low income Australian residents of fictional suburb Sunnyvale, New South Wal ...

,'' ''

Bogan Hunters ''Bogan Hunters'' is an Australian comedy reality television series created by Paul Fenech for Seven Network's 7mate. The series provides an in-depth look into Australia's bogan subculture, as the Bogan Hunters traverse the nation looking for ...

,'' Fat Pizza: Back in Business and Housos Vs. Virus: The Lockdown, as well as the motion pictures ''

Fat Pizza ''Fat Pizza'' is a 2003 Australian comedy film based on the ''Pizza'' television series, both of which were created, produced, written and starred in by Paul Fenech. It was produced by Village Roadshow Pictures and SBS Independent (uncredited). ...

'' (2003), '' Housos vs. Authority'' (2012), ''

Fat Pizza vs. Housos ''Fat Pizza vs. Housos'' is an Australian film based on the combination of the stories and characters of the SBS series ''Pizza'' and the comedy series ''Housos'', both created by Paul Fenech. The film began screening in Australian cinemas on 2 ...

'' (2014) and ''Dumb Criminals: The Movie'' (2015).

Career

Early in his career, Fenech directed ''More Than Legends'', a documentary highlighting Aboriginal culture through the eyes of elders from the

Nyungar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...

( W.A.),

Arrernte Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia. It may refer to: * Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?) * Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...

( N.T.) and Tiwi ( N.T.) groups. He first achieved prominence by winning third place in Sydney's annual

Tropfest Tropfest is the world's largest short film film festival, festival. It has also become known as the world's first global film festival. Founded by actor/director John Polson, Tropfest began in 1993 as a screening for 200 people at the 'Tropic ...

short film festival in 1995 for a biographical short entitled ''Pizza Man'' based on his experiences as a pizza delivery driver. He won the Tropfest award for best film in 1998 for ''Intolerance'' written by and starring Acclaimed Australian Comedy Superstar Austen Tayshus, although he had submitted the film under the pseudonym Laura Feinstein to appeal to the sensitivities of the judges, particularly

founder

John Polson John Polson (born 6 September 1965) is an Australian actor, director and founder of Tropfest. As an actor, Polson's best known role is probably starring opposite Russell Crowe and Jack Thompson in '' The Sum of Us'' (1994). In February 2001, ...

, who hoped that a female director would win the award. Fenech was then able to secure a deal with Australian community broadcaster SBS to produce a sitcom based on his short film. Entitled ''

'', and premiering in 2000, it ran for five seasons, with the final season airing in 2007. A full-length motion picture based on the series entitled ''

'' was released in 2003. Over a decade later, Fenech combined the storyline of Pizza with that of his third SBS Series ''

'' to create the feature film ''

''. Following the success of ''Pizza'', he created the sitcom series ''

''.

Series 1 The IBM Series/1 is a 16-bit minicomputer, introduced in 1976, that in many respects competed with other minicomputers of the time, such as the PDP-11 from Digital Equipment Corporation and similar offerings from Data General and HP. The Seri ...

began airing on SBS on 27 October 2008 and

Series 2 Series 2 could refer to: * Apple Watch Series 2, a smart watch by Apple * Aston Martin Lagonda Series 2, the automobile model * Aston Martin V8 Series 2, the automobile model * BMW 2 Series, the automobile model line * GeForce 2 series, line of nV ...

premiered on 15 August 2011. His third television show for SBS, ''

'', first aired on 24 October 2011. To date, two series have been produced, in addition to two full-length, cinematically-released motion pictures, '' Housos vs. Authority'' (2012) and ''

'' (2014). Housos won the award for ''Most Outstanding Light Entertainment Program'' at the 2014 Logie Awards. Fenech's program ''

'', a combination of

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

and

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

, began airing on 13 May 2014 on

7mate 7mate is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Seven Network on 25 September 2010. The channel contains sport and regular programs aimed primarily to a male audience, with programming drawn from a c ...

and was the channel's highest-rating entertainment program and second highest rating show to date. Fenech has recently re-started his shows

and

on the 7 Network, after his deal with SBS was not renewed. These shows are under variations of the original name, both called, Housos Vs. Virus: The Lockdown and Fat Pizza: Back in Business. These spin-off shows star Fenech playing the same characters as he did in the original shows and most of the original cast, however the shows are far more lewd than their SBS filmed counterparts, with far more reference to touchy social issues such as the

COVID-19 Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and a lot more nudity and swearing. These shows, airing on the 5th of November 2019 for Fat Pizza: Back in Business and the 26th of October 2020 for Housos Vs Virus: The Lockdown have proven successful with consistently high ratings online.

Filmography

Charity work

In 2014, Fenech broke the

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for 'Most Self Portrait (selfie) Photographs Taken in 24 hours’, taking a total of 2408. In order to qualify, each 'selfie' photograph had to be taken with a different participant. The event was held to raise money and awareness for Barnardo's Australia.

Awards and nominations

ARIA Music Awards

The

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

are a set of annual ceremonies presented by

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing th ...

(ARIA), which recognise excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of the

music of Australia The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions of ...

. They commenced in 1987. ! , - ,

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, , ''Pauly's Shorts'' , ,

ARIA Award for Best Comedy Release The ARIA Music Award for Best Comedy Release, is an award presented at the annual ARIA Music Awards, which recognises "the many achievements of Aussie artists across all music genres", since 1987. It is handed out by the Australian Recording Indu ...

, , , , , -

*1998: Best Film (''Intolerance'', won)

Slamdance Film Festival The Slamdance Film Festival is an annual film festival focused on emerging artists. The annual week-long festival takes place in Park City, Utah, in late January and is the main event organized by the year-round Slamdance organization, which als ...

*1999: Grand Jury Prize (''Somewhere in the Darkness'', nominated)

Logie Awards The Logie Awards (officially the TV Week Logie Awards; colloquially known as The Logies) is an annual gathering to celebrate Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine ''TV Week''. The first ceremony was held in 1959 as the ...

*2001: Most Outstanding Comedy Program (''Pizza'', nominated) *2002: Most Outstanding Comedy Program (''Pizza'', nominated) *2004: Most Outstanding Comedy Program (''Pizza'', nominated) *2005: Most Outstanding Comedy Program (''Pizza'', nominated) *2014: Most Outstanding Light Entertainment Program (''Housos'', won) Australian Comedy Awards *2003: Outstanding Australian TV Comedy – character based (''Pizza'', nominated)

Australian Writers' Guild The Australian Writers' Guild (AWG) is the professional association for Australian performance writers for film, television, radio, theatre, video and new media. The AWG was established in 1962. The AWG is a member of the Australian Council of ...

*2011: Comedy – Situation or Narrative (''Housos'', nominated)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fenech, Paul 1972 births Australian film directors Australian people of Maltese descent Australian television directors Living people Male actors from Sydney Participants in Australian reality television series