Morgana O’Reilly is following The White Lotus with New Zealand procedural crime series Bust Up, where she will star opposite Roimata Fox.
Production kicked off on the series, commissioned by Sky New Zealand Originals and Germany’s ZDF, last month.
O’Reilly and Fox play Deb Brighton and Mihi Renata, respectively – former romantic partners who are unexpectedly reunited after a decade apart. They’re forced to team up as cops on the beat in the fictional North Island town of Waitote when Mihi returns to her hometown.
Each episode of Bust Up will centre on a standalone crime with the duo’s slow-burning relationship story then unfolding across the series.
Lippy Pictures produces in co-production with MadeFor Film, ZDF, and ZDF Studios, who are also the distribution partner.
Max Currie and Awanui Simich-Pene direct, with screenplays written by Donna Malane, Paula Boock, Holly Hudson and Annette Tahitahi Fifield.
Executive producers are Lippy Pictures’ Paula Boock and Donna Malane, MadeFor Films’ Nicole Horan, Gunnar Juncken and Katrin Goetter, and ZDF Studios’ Sebastian Krekeler and Sarah Eichenlaub. Claus Wunn and Frank Seyberth are responsible for ZDF as executive producers, with Thomas Robins, head of commissioning for Sky New Zealand Originals, as executive producer for Sky.
“To make a procedural drama that showcases the diversity and beauty of Aotearoa and openly centres the attraction between two women police officers is a special opportunity and we’re proud to have the backing of Sky, ZDF and a sales team that is primed to sell it to the world,” said Boock and Malane in a joint statement.
“It’s been enormous fun taking the much-loved buddy cop genre out of the closet and giving it a contemporary, queer twist, while also exploring the struggles, triumphs and eccentricities that exist in bicultural communities of New Zealand. Bust Up is two parts crime, two parts drama and one part just bonkers!”
The series is supported by NZ On Air and the New Zealand Screen Production Rebate.
Bust Up is expected to screen on Aotearoa’s Sky Open, Neon and Sky Go in 2026.