For those not in the know, the brilliant New Zealand comedy “Kid Sister” (which is itself reminiscent of Nobody Wants This, with a few extra quirks thrown in for good measure) follows Lulu (Nathan) a single, 29-year-old, navigating love, identity, and family while living with her Jewish family in Auckland, New Zealand — where, remarkably, more people are registered as Jedi than there are Jews.

The so far two season series combines the sharp wit of Shiva Baby, the romantic charm of Nobody Wants This, and the raw honesty of Girls. Inspired by her own experiences with dating, family, religion, and getting older, Simone took those moments and created a hilarious television comedy that focuses on New Zealand’s Jewish population (one of the first).

The series, which for the first time is being made available to U.S. audiences, has received critical acclaim with Hey Alma hailing “...laugh-out-loud funny…,” and Haaretz declaring “...the funniest Jewish comedy in years.” Stuff called it “A confident, bold debut full of chutzpah that deserves to find an audience, both among ‘insiders’ and Kiwis from all walks of life.”

On the brink of being considered a ‘spinster,’ Lulu’s family continues to pressure her to marry a ‘nice Jewish boy’ so she can keep their traditions alive. But Lulu is secretly still in a relationship with her on-again, off-again, very non-Jewish boyfriend, Ollie. To make matters even more complicated, Lulu has just found out she is pregnant with Ollie’s child. As Lulu digs herself deeper and deeper into a ‘shituation,’ she is forced to face the question she’s been avoiding her entire adult life: how can she do what she wants while also making everyone else happy?

The first season of “Kid Sister” consists of five episodes, approximately 20 minutes each. The series begins its U.S. streaming premiere on ChaiFlicks Sunday, October 11th, 2026 with subsequent episodes dropping each week.

I sat down with creator/star (and also writer on Our Flag Means Death) Simone Nathan and discussed everything about the TV show, what she grew up watching, that lonely Thanksgiving night in NYC when she began writing the series, and what she has upcoming.

Simone, Kid Sister is noted as being ‘semi-autobiographical’ about you, so given you wrote/created the TV series, what other autobiographical facts did you either change, or just leave out? - “That is something I’ll never tell. Kidding. Although the word ‘semi’ does give me a perfect amount of wiggle room and I do really enjoy getting to operate in that uncertainty. One of the biggest changes from reality is that I completely ignored the fact that I actually have two brothers and am a middle child. My little brother was fully erased in the show - but he can’t be too mad because he is an actor and actually plays my older brother in the show! Other than that: the baby storyline is made up and provided a dramatic ticking time bomb to hang the rest of the comedy off of. Also, I never had a sex-crazed grandpa like the one in the show.”

First airing in mid-2022, and having had a second season drop in late 2023, in reflection over those past few years of it being out in the big, wide world, is there anything you would have changed or left out due to public interweb opinions? - “No regrets and I hope the show continues to be seen by more people on its slow but steady rise to world domination. Time has actually made me more fond of the show: less bashful and more able to see how cool it is to have this time capsule of some version of my life, though it will probably be super weird for my son (now seven months old) to watch his parents playing heightened versions of themselves onscreen together one day.”

Your character Lulu is lovable, fallible, chaotic and importantly relatable, so autobiographical or not, are you playing yourself on screen (within your mannerisms, spoken words and such) or do you feel you are acting a role that is similar to who you are in real life? - “Well, she looks a lot like me. Other than that - I like to think of her as an alternate universe version of me, but perhaps a little (more) immature and a little less type A or sensible. She’s also a really bad liar and is terrible at keeping a secret and I would have gotten away with her situation way longer than she does! I am fairly chaotic though, and have been known to miss or really nearly miss several flights in my lifetime.”

And it has been said that you had to actually audition for the central role ... and yet it was your creation! Please explain this more and who you had to audition for? - “I was happy to do it because I’m not a trained actor and so, when they gave me the role, I felt reassured that the rest of the team believed that I was capable of bringing what was required for this strange and unusual task of depicting a version of myself onscreen.”

You also have your husband in real life, Paul Williams, acting as your BF in the series, so did he also have to audition for the role ... or was he always a shoo-in?! - “It wasn’t a free ride for anyone! Paul also auditioned for the role and - not only that - we both auditioned against other actors as well. So the team might have cast me and then a different actor in Ollie’s role, or cast Paul but someone else to play my likeness. In hindsight, that would have been mad awkward and I’m really glad that did not happen.”

Labelled as a ‘non-traditional culture’ for TV, were there other shows you grew up with that might have influenced your Judaism-themed styling when it came to putting Kid Sister together? - “I liked ‘The Nanny’ so much, and also really enjoyed the Jewish references in ‘Rugrats’ and ‘Friends’ as a kid. But those shows are very more Jewish without the religion being the central topic of the show’s plot lines - which I can’t say is fully true for Kid Sister. I’d say our show is more overtly Jewish because it’s based in New Zealand, where that is such an unusual point of difference.”

Taking you back to that lonely Thanksgiving night in NYC when you first began to write Kid Sister, all alone, what was it that got you to sit down and start writing the script outline and such for Kid Sister? - “At the time. I wanted to build my portfolio and write something personal that I could use as a script sample. I’d recently graduated and was working a non-industry day job that meant I didn’t have much time to focus on my writing - so when all my American friends and coworkers went home for Thanksgiving, I jumped at the chance to have a few days to myself. After three days I had written something that I was really excited about - and is not too dissimilar to the pilot script that we ended up shooting, and I was quietly relieved I didn’t have to eat the strange Thanksgiving foods I’d tried in the past, like the marshmallow yam thing.”

And I have to ask, will there ever be a third season? - “I would absolutely never say never but at the moment, the two existing seasons tell the story I set out to tell. The show sort of caught up to my real life, so who knows what could happen one day when I’ve had a few more experiences!”

And finally, are you working on anything new that you can tell us about? I mean, we’re not called Exclusive Magazine for nothing, so if there is a little yet-unheard exclusive tidbit you can kindly spill the tea on, that would be rather lovely. - “I can’t get into specifics but I’m proud to be working with my hero, Taika Waititi on a few projects and I hope at least one of them sees the light of day.”

If you would like to win something very cool, ChaiFlicks is kindly offering 5 lucky readers of our website a free one-year subscription to ChaiFlicks!

All you have to do to enter is answer this very easy question: Simone Nathan is also the script producer for which brand new 2026 TV show filmed in New Zealand?

Send us your answers (one entry per email address only) and if you’re correct you’ll be in the running to win a free one-year subscription to ChaiFlicks!

Just send us an email before January 15th, 2027 with your answer and the subject title CONTEST: KID SISTER to: exclusivemagazine@flash.net

About ChaiFlicks:
Launched in 2020, ChaiFlicks is the world’s largest streaming platform dedicated to Jewish content from around the globe. Co-founded by Neil Friedman, Heidi Bogin-Oshin, and Bill Weiner, ChaiFlicks has over 3,000 hours of acclaimed films, television series, documentaries, and short films.

Available on every major streaming device, ChaiFlicks is a collection of the world’s best Jewish storytellers and creators, with new programming launching every week. The platform is currently available in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand. Its sister company, Menemsha Films, was founded in 1998 and is dedicated to distributing the highest-quality arthouse films, hand-picked from around the globe.

Kid Sister | Official Trailer | Exclusive to ChaiFlicks