Rose Matafeo can deliver a joke and regret it before she has finished speaking. We rate the quickness and kindness of Starstruck, though its stories sometimes need more than her charm.
Fi1m perspective
In Starstruck (2021), Rose Matafeo can keep talking while her face registers that she should have stopped. Her Jessie has a joke ready for every silence and little protection against the response. We laughed at how little being the funniest person present helps her, because Matafeo lets us see the regret before the line is finished. She makes Jessie good company without asking us to think she always behaves well.
Stand-up and sketch work came first, with Funny Girls among the programmes she wrote and performed in. The stand-up hour Horndog (2018) led to Starstruck; between them came the lead role of Zoe in Baby Done (2020). Creating her own series gave her room to make the funny woman the romantic lead, with all her irritating habits intact. Across its three series, from 2021 to 2023, the ordinary-woman-meets-film-star premise stays grounded in awkward conversations rather than glamour.
Writing with Alice Snedden and Nic Sampson, Matafeo makes Jessie quick enough to recognise a bad idea and quite capable of pursuing it anyway. Nikesh Patel's Tom gives her someone worth talking to: he listens, and his pleasure in her company never needs much announcing. We rate Starstruck for that kindness, though it can feel slight when charm is doing most of the work. Its small scale usually suits her, but there are limits to how far an amusing exchange can carry a story.
Will Hanke's flat daylight keeps London from looking like a romantic reward. The editing by André Rodrigues, Christopher Watson, Robbie Morrison and Nik Hindson gives reactions the last beat of a scene, allowing Matafeo's timing to include the other actor. Directors including Karen Maine, Snedden and Matafeo herself keep the attention on the faces. There is nothing fussy here to distract from the moment Jessie hears herself.
Moana 2 (2024) gives her much less to work with as the voice of Loto, an inventor whose job description largely substitutes for a personality. Matafeo earns a couple of laughs, but cannot make the thinly written crew worth the extra company. For a proper introduction, start with Starstruck rather than the boat.
Biography
Rose Matafeo is a New Zealand comedian, actress and writer. She was born on 25 February 1992 in Auckland and began performing stand-up comedy at the age of 15.
She created, wrote and starred in the BBC and HBO Max series Starstruck (2021–2023). Her other screen credits include voicing Loto in the animated film Moana 2 (2024), appearing in The Breaker Upperers (2018) and Dead Pixels (2019), and playing Jessie in Starstruck. She has also appeared on panel shows including Taskmaster.
In 2018 Matafeo won the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Show for her stand-up performance Horndog. She received a BAFTA nomination for her work on Starstruck.
