The insanity of being a parent helped Tali Babes add humour to new show

It’s been over three years, but SA's favourite Jewish princess Tali 'Tali Babes' Shapiro is back and ready to grace our screens with her heightened, and rather demanding, presence in Tali's Baby Diary.

The 10-part show is a follow-up to the local mockumentary series Tali’s Wedding Diary, which was released in 2017 and went on to become the most-awarded comedy at the 2019 SA Film and Television Awards, bagging five prizes including Best Comedy.

In Tali's Baby Diary, Tali — who is brilliantly played by Julia Anastasopoulos — is forced to abandon her Instagram-influencer aspirations to embracing life as a more wholesome momfluencer after unexpectedly finding out that she’s pregnant.  

“We were very excited for the next stage of Tali's life and to see her go on her next adventure,” says Anastasopoulos, who first became a household name through portraying the hilarious Suzelle DIY on social media.

She chalks up the years-long gap between the original show and the sequel to circumstances beyond control, but in hindsight says the delay turned out for the best.

Anastasopoulos is married to the co-creator and director of the show, Ari Kruger. After Tali's Wedding Diary the couple had their own baby, an experience that most certainly helped them write the sequel.

“When you become a parent you are put in such insane positions and circumstances. To be able to find the comedy in a situation is a way of coping with being a new parent. So going through that experience definitely inspired a lot of the comedy in the show,” the star says.

“For me, becoming a mother was a very inspiring process and to be able to write the show after having gone through that experience was such a wonderful experience for me as a creative, as a writer and as an actress.”

Anastasopoulos says she’s also used the platform to address issues around parenthood and motherhood that aren’t spoken about very often.

“It’s just been a creative relief and hopefully the audience will see that and see the comedy in becoming a parent, which we don’t often see - especially in a SA context,” she says.

Tali's Baby Diary will feature characters from the original series and introduce a number of new fun, famous faces including Coconut Kelz, Schalk Bezuidenhout, Siv Ngesi, Danny K and stand-up comics Kate Pinchuck and Nik Rabinowitz.

• The first four episodes of 'Tali's Baby Diary' are available to watch on Showmax from February 26. The remaining six episodes will be released on March 12.