Jamie Louise "Ja'mie" King ( ) is a fictional character portrayed by actor Chris Lilley in the Australian comedy series '' We Can Be Heroes: Finding the Australian of the Year'' (2005), '' Summer Heights High'' (2007), '' Ja'mie: Private School Girl'' (2013), and the podcast series Ja'miezing (2021). Ja'mie was born in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

but lives in

Kirribilli Kirribilli is a Suburb (Australia), suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. One of the city's most established and affluent neighbourhoods, it is located three kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the Local governm ...

in the upper class North Shore region of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

.Greg Hassall, 27 July 2005
"Local Heroes"
The Age, Retrieved 12 August 2009 Ja'mie is a student in

Year 11 Year 11 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It is the eleventh or twelfth year of core education. For some Year 11 students it is their final year s ...

at Hillford Girls' Grammar School—a fictional

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

on Sydney's affluent North Shore—who is highly driven, charismatic, and accomplished but also narcissistic, neurotic, manipulative, and callous. In addition, she frequently exhibits a

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

attitude towards Asian people. The character was developed by Lilley with the assistance of comedian Ryan Shelton.Downie, Stephen; Casey, Marcus, 20 September 2007
"Meet Chris Lilley – the man behind the comic creations"
Retrieved 12 August 2009 Lilley developed the character's mannerisms by using recorded interviews with private schoolgirls and also eavesdropping.Nicole Brady, 21 July 2005

The Age, Retrieved 12 August 2009 Lilley stated that he did not want teenage girls to watch it and think "that's such an older guy's view of teenagers".

Appearances

''We Can Be Heroes''

King was first introduced in '' We Can Be Heroes'' as a 16-year-old student in

who attends Hillford Girls' Grammar and is one of several nominees for the Australian of the Year Award. Ja'mie has sponsored 85

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

ese children for Global Vision (a fictional organisation parodying

World Vision International World Vision International is an interdenominational Christian humanitarian aid, development, and advocacy organization. It was founded in 1950 by Robert Pierce as a service organization to provide care for children in Korea. In 1975, emerge ...

), which gave her the National Record. Despite her self-proclaimed

altruism Altruism is the concern for the well-being of others, independently of personal benefit or reciprocity. The word ''altruism'' was popularised (and possibly coined) by the French philosopher Auguste Comte in French, as , for an antonym of egoi ...

, her motives are not due to concern for the children's welfare; Ja'mie is shown as seeing it as a way of gaining approval and fame, as well as a chance to legitimately go on crash diets in the form of the 40 Hour Famine fundraising event every week. Due to her work of raising money, Global Vision decided to make her the "face" of their organisation. King is then featured in a school assembly to promote the work of Global Vision where she scolds the school for misusing their money telling them that each dollar they do not donate equals one dead child, and that they should convert their school oval into a "mass grave" because of the money the school accumulated from food sales at the canteen. Two weeks before the Australian of the Year finals, Ja'mie is informed that a flood has hit "her" village, killing all but two of her sponsored children. Sonali, one of the surviving Sudanese children Ja'mie has sponsored, eventually enters

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

illegally (being held at the

Villawood Immigration Detention Centre Villawood Immigration Detention Centre, originally Villawood Migrant Hostel or Villawood Migrant Centre, split into a separate section named Westbridge Migrant Hostel from 1968 to 1984, is an Australian immigration detention facility located i ...

) and writes a letter to Ja'mie asking to visit her. Ja'mie is sceptical at first but soon realises that this visit will bring her a lot of media attention, so she invites one of her friends along because she "is good at taking photos". The series ends with Ja'mie taking Sonali along to

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

for the finals and lends Sonali her Year 10 formal dress to wear for the occasion.

''Summer Heights High''

King is re-introduced in the show '' Summer Heights High'' where she is on an exchange program to a state school called Summer Heights High. She swaps schools with another student from Summer Heights, Chantelle Kwong, who will be going to Ja'mie's school, Hillford. The aim of the program is to show students from public and private schools that the schools each other attend are no different from each other, and a good education can be received from both. However, upon arriving at Summer Heights, Ja'mie assumes that the school would be full of "bogans", "sluts", and the facilities would be "crap". Ja'mie immediately makes friends with the most popular girls in Summer Heights High although her friendship is not genuine when her so-called friends discover a poster she has made of them calling them "povo skanks". Her manipulative character is enforced when she manages to convince her new friends that the poster was meant as a joke and that they need to "get a sense of humour". During the show, Ja'mie falls in love with Year 7 student named Sebastian and decides to go out with him. However, the relationship only lasts a short amount of time as Ja'mie steals Sebastian's mobile phone and finds out a girl called Madeline has been

texting Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile phones, tablet computers, smartwatches, desktops/laptops, or ...

him to sit with him in English class. Ja'mie dumps him and claims he made her "question my hotness". Later on in the show, Ja'mie and her friends form a student representative council, and decide to organise a Year 11

formal Formal, formality, informal or informality imply the complying with, or not complying with, some set of requirements ( forms, in Ancient Greek). They may refer to: Dress code and events * Formal wear, attire for formal events * Semi-formal atti ...

. Ja'mie plans to have it at a popular nightclub with an expensive DJ, but at $450 a ticket, the student council faces cancelling the event because the students cannot afford the tickets. Instead, Ja'mie arranges a day to raise money for

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, which covers the formal expenses. However, the Head of Senior School discovers the real reason for the fundraiser and as a compromise, Ja'mie is offered to hold the formal in the school's staff room, with no DJ and cheap, hand-made decorations. Ja'mie invites Tamsin to the formal, a

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

student, as she wants to make a big impression, but when Tamsin finds out that Ja'mie is not lesbian, she ditches her by

SMS Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...

, forcing Ja'mie to instead take Sebastian, who she gets back together with just for the night. The series ends with her leaving the school after her term at Summer Heights High in the car with her mum and friend Brianna; she stands up through the car's sunroof and shouts, "Public schools rock!"

''Ja'mie: Private School Girl'' and podcast

The show '' Ja'mie: Private School Girl'' is dedicated entirely to Ja'mie and depicts her final year of high school as she competes for the Hillford Medal. Ja'mie and all of her prefect friends are eventually expelled from Hillford Grammar, resulting in them not obtaining their Higher School Certificates. They then join a mixed

state school A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

, Blaxland College (where the students do not wear uniforms), to complete their education. Ja'mie decides to go through a "

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

-phase", starting a lesbian relationship with Astrid, who is also a student at Blaxland. However, despite proclaiming that she is "over the

thing", Ja'mie finishes the show by stating that she "will always be a private school girl". In 2021, Ja'mie released a podcast on various platforms, including

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, titled ''Ja’miezing''. In the synopsis for the podcast, Ja’mie reveals that she has since become an

influencer A social media influencer, or simply influencer (also known as an online influencer), is a person who builds a grassroots online presence through engaging content such as photos, videos, and updates. This is done by using direct audience intera ...

, dubbing herself "Sydney's own Gen Z icon".

Awards and nominations

ARIA Music Awards

! , - ,

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, "Learning to Be Me" , Best Comedy Release , , , -

Logie Awards

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Ja'mie Comedy television characters Cross-dressing in television Australian female characters in television Fictional bisexual women Fictional school bullies Television characters introduced in 2005 Fictional people from New South Wales Teenage characters in television