Kath & Kim is Australia. The foxy ladies of Fountain Lakes are so deeply woven into our culture that we’re still quoting them 20+ years since they burst onto our screens, you hornbags!
Jane Turner plays Kath Day-Knight, a suburban mum with a passion for fashion and a perennial perm. Kath is on the cusp of a sexual reawakening thanks to her new boyfriend Kel (Glenn Robbins), but their whirlwind romance is rudely interrupted when Kath’s obnoxious daughter Kim (Gina Riley) moves back home. Peter Rowsthorn plays Kim’s on-again, off-again husband Brett, and national icon Magda Szubanski plays Kim’s “second best friend” Sharon Strzelecki.
To describe it like this, Kath & Kim sounds quaint. “Perhaps they could be a regular screwball family?” you might be thinking. But no; there’s nothing like Kath & Kim. It is at once a brilliant satire of modern Australian culture and completely shameless. The affluent (or “effluent,” as they might say) family are tragically daggy and eternally confident. It’s also just really funny. Nothing can erase “little baby cheeses” from an Aussie millennial’s mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQu54sGh0R4
Yes, Kath & Kim is an Australian treasure and made Turner, Riley, Robbins, Szubanski and Rowsthorn household names. Keep reading to find out what the Kath & Kim cast have been up to since the show ended. (Not counting the movies or the 2022 reunion show.)
What Are the Kath & Kim Cast Up To Now?
Jane Turner as Kath Day-Knight
Not only did Turner play Kath Day-Knight, she also co-created the show with Gina Riley. The comedian and Logie Award-winner got her start on the Australian soap opera Prisoner and then became well-known for her work on sketch comedy shows like Fast Forward.
Since Kath and Kim ended in 2007, Turner has continued dominating the Australian comedy scene. She appeared in the sketch comedy show Open Slather with Hamish Blake, Demi Lardner, Stephen Curry, Shane Jacobson and her Kath & Kim co-stars. She played Penny Evans in five episodes of Rake and has a recurring role in the French comedy series Parlement.
In 2010, Turner made her West End debut in a stage adaptation of Tim Conigrave’s memoir Holding the Man.
Gina Riley as Kim Craig
An accomplished singer (did you know she sings the Kath & Kim theme song?) Riley began on sketch comedy shows parodying performers like Bette Middler, Dannii Minogue and Sinéad O’Connor. Throughout her career, Riley has appeared in dozens of musical theatre productions — since the show ended, she’s done Chicago and Sweeney Todd, among others.
She had a voice role in an episode of Fisk and starred alongside Succession‘s Sarah Snook in the movie The Beautiful Lie.
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Magda Szubanski as Sharon Strzelecki
Let’s just instate a blanket rule: everyone on this list started on sketch comedy shows, Szubanski included.
In 2018, she had a recurring role on Neighbours as Jemima Davies-Smythe. Her character officiated the first same-sex wedding on Australian television, which is a very fitting role for the LGBTQ+ activist. Her memoir, Reckoning, came out in 2015, and in 2019 she was awarded the Order of Australia for her contribution to the performing arts and the campaign for marriage equality.
However, you might remember her more recently from her Uber Eats ad with Kim Kardashian (!!!) where she taught the reality TV star the correct way to pronounce “noice”. Funnily, Kim K had never heard of netball until filming the ad.
Glenn Robbins as Kel Knight
Before Kath & Kim, Robbins was known for playing the Russell Coight in the outback travel mockumentary All Aussie Adventures. The show became another national treasure thanks to its (intentional) continuity mistakes and Coight’s catch phrases — “It’s time to hit the road” — and memed-to-hell dancing skills.
He reprised the character in a 2018 reboot which attracted more than 1 million viewers for its premiere episode. Robbins-as-Coight also had a cameo in the 2021 season of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here. He shared survival tips with the hosts that, for their sake, we’re hoping the contestants didn’t follow.
Outside of Kath & Kim and All Aussie Adventures, Robbins also played a main character in Upper Middle Bogan. He had smaller roles in various Australian shows like Fisk and True Story with Hamish & Andy.
Peter Rowsthorn as Brett Craig
Rowsthorn competed in the 2018 season of I’m a Celebrity… alongside Shannon Noll, The Real Housewives of Melbourne‘s Jackie Gillies, and Fiona O’Loughlin. He lasted for 40 days and came 6th.
Most of his acting roles since Kath & Kim have been Australian movies or short films. He appeared in Paper Planes, an imaginative children’s movie about a young boy’s dream to compete in the World Paper Plane Championships; Looking For Grace, about the search for a missing teenage girl; Three Summers, starring Robert Sheehan, Michael Caton and
Deborah Mailman; and 2020’s I Met a Girl.
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