Paul Fenech

Paul Fenech
Paul Fenech
	Paul Fenech on left in 2017
Born	Paul Fenech; 21 November 1972 (age 51) ; Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation(s)	Filmmaker, film and television actor, director, producer and writer
Years active	1995–present

Paul Fenech (born 21 November 1972)^[1] is an Australian filmmaker, film and television actor, director, producer and writer.^[2] He is best known for writing, directing, producing and starring in the television series Pizza, Swift and Shift Couriers, Housos, Bogan Hunters, Fat Pizza: Back in Business, Housos vs. Virus: The Lockdown and Darradong Local Council as well as the motion pictures Fat Pizza (2003), Housos vs. Authority (2012), Fat Pizza vs. Housos (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 (W.A.), Arrernte (N.T.) and Tiwi (N.T.) groups.^[3]

He first achieved prominence by winning third place in Sydney's annual Tropfest 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 Tropfest founder John Polson, who hoped that a female director would win the award.^[4]

Fenech was then able to secure a deal with Australian community broadcaster SBS to produce a sitcom based on his short film. Entitled Pizza, 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 Fat Pizza was released in 2003. Over a decade later, Fenech combined the storyline of Pizza with that of his third SBS Series Housos to create the feature film Fat Pizza vs. Housos.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]

Following the success of Pizza, he created the sitcom series Swift and Shift Couriers. Series 1 began airing on SBS on 27 October 2008 and Series 2 premiered on 15 August 2011.^[10]^[11]

His third television show for SBS, Housos, 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 Fat Pizza vs. Housos (2014). Housos won the award for Most Outstanding Light Entertainment Program at the 2014 Logie Awards.^[8]^[12]

Fenech's program Bogan Hunters, a combination of comedy and reality television, began airing on 13 May 2014 on 7mate and was the channel's highest-rating entertainment program and second highest rating show to date.^[13]^[14]

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

Filmography

Year	Title	Credit	Role	Notes
Feature films
2020	The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee		Emilio (Gardener)
2018	That's Not My Dog!		Himself
2015	Dumb Criminals: The Movie	Director, writer, producer and executive producer	Rabbit
2014	Fat Pizza vs. Housos	Director, writer, producer and executive producer	Franky Falzoni/Pauly Falzoni
2012	Housos vs. Authority	Director, writer, producer and editor	Franky Falzoni
2003	Fat Pizza	Director, writer and producer	Pauly Falzoni/Alfredo Falzoni
1999	Somewhere in the Darkness	Director, writer and producer	Lawnmower Man
Television
Year	Title	Credit	Role	Notes
2023	Darradong Local Council	Creator, director, writer and producer	Sam 'Fox' Foxitini	9 episodes
2022	SAS Australia: Who Dares Wins^[15]	Contestant	Himself	9 episodes
2018	Deadly Down Under	Presenter, Creator	Pauly	10 episodes
2018	Drunk History Australia		Jesse Dowson	Pilot
2015	Dumb Criminals Motorcycle Club	Creator, director, writer and producer	Rabbit
2015	Summernats and the Hunt for the Great Aussie Hoon		Pauly	TV movie
2014	Bogan Hunters	Creator, director, writer and producer	Host	10 episodes
2013	Celebrity Splash!	Contestant	Himself	^[16]
2011–2013; 2020-present	Housos / Housos vs Virus: The Lockdown / Housos: The Thong Warrior	Creator, director, writer and producer	Franky Falzoni	23 episodes
2008–2011	Swift and Shift Couriers		Paul 'Mario' Gauci	19 episodes
2006	World Record Pizza		Pauly Falzoni	6 episodes
2006	The Da Vinci Cup			3 episodes
2004	Pizza: Special Deliveries			10 episodes
2004	Pizza Live			5 episodes
2000–2007; 2019-present	Pizza / Fat Pizza / Fat Pizza: Back in Business			56 episodes
1999	The 50 Foot Show	Director
1998	Heartland	Title Design		Mini-series
Short films
Year	Title	Credit	Role	Notes
1998	Intolerance	Director and producer
1997	Dangerous Pizza	Director, writer and producer
1996	Space Pizza
1995	Pizza Man
1994	More Than Legends	Director and writer

Charity work

In 2014, Fenech broke the Guinness World Record 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.^[17]

Awards and nominations

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards are a set of annual ceremonies presented by Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), which recognise excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of the music of Australia. They commenced in 1987.


Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result	Ref.
2013	Pauly's Shorts	Best Comedy Release	Nominated	^[18]

Tropfest

1998: Best Film (Intolerance, won)

Slamdance Film Festival

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

Logie Awards

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

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

References

^ ^a ^b "Our Authors: Paul Fenech". Pan Macmillan Australia. 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
^ "Ohmoy Gourd!". The Sydney Morning Herald. 28 August 2003. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
^ "More than legends [videorecording]". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
^ Bookallil, Simon, Gone Troppo (documentary), 2004
^ "Interview With Pauly Fenech". Dimensions. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 14 July 2003. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
^ "Triple J Film Reviews – Fat Pizza". Triple J. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
^ Woodhead, Cameron (2 March 2006). "Pizza: Subwoofers Of Mass Seduction". The Age. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
^ ^a ^b "Fat Pizza Vs Housos". Hoyts. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
^ Vagg, Stephen (18 August 2019). "Australian Movie Stars". Filmink.
^ Molitorisz, Sacha (6 November 2008). "Fast delivery of a shifty crew". The Age. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
^ "Episodes". SBS. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
^ "Victory for Aussie battlers at the Logies". SBS. 27 April 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
^ "Bogan Hunters is car-crash TV says creator Paul Fenech". Sydney Morning Herald. 14 May 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
^ "Sarah Ferguson grilling tops ABC1". TV Tonight. 19 May 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
^ "REVEALED: The full celebrity cast of SAS Australia 2022". 7NEWS. 2 October 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
^ "Yahoo Australia | News, email and search".
^ "PAUL FENECH SNAGS NEW WORLD RECORD!!". FilmINK. Archived from the original on 10 December 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
^ "ARIA Awards Best Comedy Release". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Retrieved 17 April 2022.