# Bad Behaviour
**Bad Behaviour** is a four-part Australian drama miniseries, first released on the streaming service Stan in February 2023, adapted from Rebecca Starford's 2015 memoir about bullying at an elite boarding school. It was produced by Matchbox Pictures, directed by Corrie Chen, written by Pip Karmel and Magda Wozniak, and produced by Amanda Higgs.[1](https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/screen-guide/bad-behaviour-38804/) • [2](https://vicscreen.vic.gov.au/news/making-bad-behaviour/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Format | Drama miniseries, 4 x 50 minute episodes, completed 2023[1](https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/screen-guide/bad-behaviour-38804/) |
| Source | Rebecca Starford's 2015 memoir *Bad Behaviour*, about bullying at an elite boarding school in the bush[2](https://vicscreen.vic.gov.au/news/making-bad-behaviour/) |
| Key creatives | Director Corrie Chen; writers Pip Karmel and Magda Wozniak; producer Amanda Higgs; composer Caitlin Yeo[1](https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/screen-guide/bad-behaviour-38804/) |
| Lead cast | Jana McKinnon (Jo), Markella Kavenagh (Portia), Yerin Ha (Alice)[1](https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/screen-guide/bad-behaviour-38804/) • [3](https://www.bellmedia.ca/the-lede/tv/starz/bad-behaviour/) |
| First release | Stan, 17 February 2023; international premiere at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/bad_behaviour) • [2](https://vicscreen.vic.gov.au/news/making-bad-behaviour) |
| Australian rating | MA 15+ (strong themes, sex scenes and coarse language); total duration 216 minutes[5](https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/bad-behaviour-1) |
| Recognition | Berlinale Series Award nomination (2023); Silver Logie nomination for Yerin Ha (2023); AACTA nominations for Best Miniseries and Best Original Score (2024)[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18273514/awards/) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and source material
The series is set at Silver Creek, an exclusive girls' boarding school in the Australian bush, and follows scholarship student Joanna "Jo" Mackenzie (Jana McKinnon), the dormitory's manipulative queen bee Portia (Markella Kavenagh), and the socially vulnerable musician Alice (Yerin Ha). The students are left largely unsupervised, and the story depicts the bullying dynamics that flourish as a result.[2](https://vicscreen.vic.gov.au/news/making-bad-behaviour/) • [7](https://www.filmink.com.au/jana-mckinnon-on-her-bad-behaviour/)
The story runs across two timelines, ten years apart. Ten years after her year at Silver Creek, the adult Jo, aged 25, runs into Alice, now a world-renowned cellist, and reconnects with Portia, discovering she is still desperate for Portia's acceptance.[2](https://vicscreen.vic.gov.au/news/making-bad-behaviour/) • [3](https://www.bellmedia.ca/the-lede/tv/starz/bad-behaviour/) The four episodes are titled "The Worst", "Exeat", "Wilderness", and "Moth to a Flame".[5](https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/bad-behaviour-1)
The adaptation is based on Starford's memoir, published in 2015, which recounts the year she spent, from age fourteen, at Silver Creek, where she endured and witnessed bullying and later examined her own complicities in it as an adult.[2](https://vicscreen.vic.gov.au/news/making-bad-behaviour/) • [8](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/23645681-bad-behaviour) Producer Amanda Higgs, co-creator of *The Secret Life of Us*, optioned the rights in 2015 and spent seven years assembling the creative team; director Corrie Chen, previously known for *New Gold Mountain*, joined in 2019 after the two had worked together on *Mustangs FC*.[2](https://vicscreen.vic.gov.au/news/making-bad-behaviour/) The creative team took some dramatic license, particularly in the adult storyline, while keeping the project rooted in Starford's own story.[2](https://vicscreen.vic.gov.au/news/making-bad-behaviour/)
## Production
The series was developed, produced, shot, and edited in Victoria. Chen built a pre-production visual bible around the idea that the show is "about what it means to feel", and described its tone as a heightened Gothic ghost story, a kind of psychological haunting, that still had to feel naturalistic. Locations manager Paul Walton presented only locations where he felt a response, and the team secured a property in Macedon, surrounded by dense bush, where the girls' dormitory set, designed by production designer Ben Bangay, was built as the key visual pillar.[2](https://vicscreen.vic.gov.au/news/making-bad-behaviour)
Casting was done largely from self-tapes: because Melbourne was in or just emerging from COVID-19 lockdown when Jana McKinnon auditioned in 2021, casting director Alison Telford, Higgs, and Chen cast the dormitory ensemble without meeting the actors in person; McKinnon, who grew up in Austria, secured the lead with her first Australian audition.[7](https://www.filmink.com.au/jana-mckinnon-on-her-bad-behaviour/)
Screen Australia provided production investment, and the Screen Australia drama report lists *Bad Behaviour* as a Matchbox Pictures production for Stan that received Screen Australia funding.[1](https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/screen-guide/bad-behaviour-38804/) • [9](https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/getmedia/3a8f3011-211c-4f93-bd41-3b4767585dec/SA-DramaReport.pdf?ext=.pdf) International sales were handled by NBC Universal International Television Distribution, and the series has also been carried internationally under the Starz brand.[1](https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/screen-guide/bad-behaviour-38804/) • [3](https://www.bellmedia.ca/the-lede/tv/starz/bad-behaviour/)
## Reception
The Australian Classification Board rated the series MA 15+ on 24 February 2023, citing strong themes, sex scenes, and coarse language, with content notes covering bullying-related violence, depictions of self-immolation, and material on mental illness and cruelty.[5](https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/bad-behaviour-1)
Reviewers responded to the show's treatment of everyday cruelty rather than overt horror. ScreenHub's Mel Campbell gave it 4 out of 5 stars, noting that director Chen shot the landscape to recall the Romantic sublime and framed Jo like a [Caspar David Friedrich](https://www.edgepedia.org/caspar-david-friedrich) painting, and praising the series for sitting with moral ambiguity, though she found the denouement, in which the adult Jo returns to Silver Creek, too literal and simplistic.[10](https://www.screenhub.com.au/news/reviews/bad-behaviour-review-stan-streaming-now-2607334/) On IMDb the series holds a user rating of 6.2/10 from 740 votes, with individual episodes rated between 6.8 and 7.3.[11](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18273514/ratings/)
The series was nominated for the Berlinale Series Award at the 2023 [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival) for episodes 1 and 2, Yerin Ha received a 2023 Silver Logie nomination for Most Outstanding Supporting Actress, and in 2024 the series was nominated for AACTA Awards for Best Miniseries (Amanda Higgs) and Best Original Score in [Television](https://www.edgepedia.org/television) (Caitlin Yeo).[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18273514/awards/) • [12](https://media.destinationnsw.com.au/sites/default/files/2023-06/MR_2023_63RD%20TV%20WEEK%20LOGIE%20AWARDS%20NOMINEES%20ANNOUNCED.pdf)
## Other works with the same title
A separate 2023 feature film also titled *Bad Behaviour*, written and directed by [Alice Englert](https://www.edgepedia.org/alice-englert) and starring [Jennifer Connelly](https://www.edgepedia.org/jennifer-connelly), Ben Whishaw, and Englert, premiered at Sundance in 2023 and was released in the United Kingdom in late 2023 and early 2024. It concerns a former child actor who checks into a spiritual retreat led by guru Elon Bello while navigating her relationship with her stunt-performer daughter Dylan; it is unrelated to the Australian miniseries.[13](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/bad-behaviour-2023-film-review-by-jennie-kermode) • [14](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/nov/29/bad-behaviour-review-jennifer-connelly-alice-englert) An album titled *Bad Behaviour* by the singer Elli Ingram was also released in May 2023.[15](https://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/632133-elli-ingram-bad-behaviour.php)
## References
1. [Bad Behaviour, Screen Australia Screen Guide](https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/screen-guide/bad-behaviour-38804/)
2. [Making Bad Behaviour, VicScreen (17 February 2023)](https://vicscreen.vic.gov.au/news/making-bad-behaviour/)
3. [Bad Behaviour, Bell Media / Starz](https://www.bellmedia.ca/the-lede/tv/starz/bad-behaviour/)
4. [Bad Behaviour, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/bad_behaviour)
5. [Bad Behaviour, Australian Classification](https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/bad-behaviour-1)
6. [Bad Behaviour (2023) awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18273514/awards/)
7. [Jana McKinnon: On Her Bad Behaviour, FilmInk](https://www.filmink.com.au/jana-mckinnon-on-her-bad-behaviour/)
8. [Bad Behaviour by Rebecca Starford, Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/23645681-bad-behaviour)
9. [Screen Australia Drama Report](https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/getmedia/3a8f3011-211c-4f93-bd41-3b4767585dec/SA-DramaReport.pdf?ext=.pdf)
10. [Bad Behaviour review: malice, manipulation and hope, ScreenHub (21 February 2023)](https://www.screenhub.com.au/news/reviews/bad-behaviour-review-stan-streaming-now-2607334/)
11. [Bad Behaviour (TV Mini Series 2023) ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18273514/ratings/)
12. [TV Week Logie Awards 2023 nominees](https://media.destinationnsw.com.au/sites/default/files/2023-06/MR_2023_63RD%20TV%20WEEK%20LOGIE%20AWARDS%20NOMINEES%20ANNOUNCED.pdf)
13. [Bad Behaviour (2023) film review, Eye For Film](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/bad-behaviour-2023-film-review-by-jennie-kermode)
14. [Bad Behaviour review, The Guardian (29 November 2023)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/nov/29/bad-behaviour-review-jennifer-connelly-alice-englert)
15. [Elli Ingram - Bad Behaviour, Album of The Year](https://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/632133-elli-ingram-bad-behaviour.php)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Drama and prestige series (individual series) › Teen and coming-of-age drama*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license