Comedic Director Duo Freudian Nip Joins Collider’s Roster

Vic Zerbst and Jenna Owen of Freudian Nip have joined Collider’s directors roster. The production company said the duo can be described as the “Avengers of comedy—if the Avengers were BFFs fusing wit with cultural takedowns and no patience for boring content.”

The award-winning screenwriters, directors, and “professional chaos agents” got their start on social media, and told LBB humour is key to their work.

“We see comedy as a way into a lot of difficult conversations and as a great unifying tool when deployed with empathy and understanding,” Vic and Jenna said. 

“It’s important we can always laugh at ourselves and the world around us to deal with the pain of being alive.

“We are just so excited to bring our sense of play and irreverence to the commercial space.”

Over the past five years, their work has centred around writing political satire and creative sketch comedy, which has allowed them to cement their comedic voice. 

“We know what we stand for and we’re excited to work with people who stand for something too.” 

Their work on The Feed for SBS has amassed over 80 million views and earned them three AWGIE Awards, run by the Australian Writers’ Guild. They also directed two series: The War on 2020, which received an Australian Directors’ Guild award nomination, and their latest project, Me & Her(pes) a six-part romantic comedy for YouTube.

Collider’s managing partner and EP Rachael Ford-Davies said, Vic and Jenna are comedy’s sharpest social critics, with a love of genre experimentation and a streak of absurdism. They are funny and a little bit ruthless.”

Vic and Jenna worked with Collider and director Nash Edgerton on the Senator Briggs Project, ‘Far Enough’ during The Voice referendum in 2023. They revealed that they became “obsessed with their [Collider’s] values as a creative company and we love the work they do for good.” 

“Not to mention they are a female run and operated company in an industry that has been so historically male,” they added. 

“We just love everyone in the team, the warm inclusive energy they create, and their complete dedication to excellence.”

Collider said the duo commands attention and produces work as intelligent as it is provocative.

“Last week, we saw an ad for the first time and we were like, ‘Wow, the camera work, the colours’, it looked amazing and so expensive. We thought, ‘Where’s our slice’?” the pair added playfully. 

“As buyers of products, we feel we deserve to play in this commercial space and we cannot wait to direct ads that push our woke agenda and have budget for VFX.”