"The Bad Seed" Casting Line-up Revealed

"The Bad Seed" Casting Line-up Revealed

Dean O’Gorman (Trumbo, The Hobbit, Pork Pie) and Matt Minto (The Blue Rose, Shortland Street) headline the cast of TVNZ 1’s new drama series The Bad Seed, based on the books by award-winning New Zealand author Charlotte Grimshaw.

O’Gorman and Minto play Ford and Simon Lampton, two brothers, from the same dysfunctional family with a dark history. Simon has escaped his past to become a successful obstetrician living in the best part of town with the perfect family.

Older brother Ford, once estranged and still rough around the edges, is staying in the spare room and appears to be the only outward disruption to Simon’s controlled life. But when the Lamptons' neighbour is brutally murdered, Detective Marie Da Silva’s routine investigation draws the household into a hurricane of scandal and threatens to change Simon's and Ford's lives forever.

Madeleine Sami (The Breaker Upperers, Sione’s Wedding) plays Detective Marie Da Silva, and recent Toronto Film Festival ‘Rising Star’ Vinnie Bennett (Human Traces) plays her colleague, Detective Bennett.

Xavier Horan (Westside, 6 Days) and Chelsie Preston Crayford (Home by Christmas, Ash vs Evil Dead) play Prime Ministerial candidate David Hallwright and wife Roza, whose mysterious connection to the Lamptons takes a sinister turn.

Jodie Hillock (The Inland Road), Amanda Billing (Shortland Street), Michelle Langstone (800 Words, McLeod’s Daughters), Glen Levy (Westside) and Calvin Tuteao (Nights in the Garden of Spain, The Deadlands) make up the ensemble cast for this psychological thriller series.

The Bad Seed has been adapted for television by popular New Zealand author and magazine columnist, Sarah-Kate Lynch. Sarah-Kate has written 12 books and has established a broad fan-base thanks to her hugely successful lifestyle columns in several well-known magazines. She has also written for a number of New Zealand television shows including the hit series 800 Words.

Author Charlotte Grimshaw says: “I’m delighted with the aim of Robin Scholes’ (series producer) project: to make exciting, high quality TV drama out of New Zealand fiction. I’ve been very interested in the choices the screen writers have made in adapting my novels,The Night Book and Soon, and have enjoyed reading their work and offering suggestions. I made the choice early on that I didn’t want to write screenplays myself, so I view this as a new interpretation of my work, and look forward to seeing it on the screen.”

TVNZ Director of Content, Cate Slater adds: “The Bad Seed is a stellar addition to TVNZ’s upcoming local content line-up. We look forward to seeing this gripping story brought to life by such an incredible cast and crew.”

The Bad Seed is produced by Jump Film & TV and South Pacific Pictures and began filming last week. The production is funded by New Zealand on Air.

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