Heartbreak High reboot is Australia’s answer to Sex Education

Think Euphoria and Sex Education, but make it Australian — a major Netflix reboot of the iconic 90s teen drama is coming. See the trailer.

Beloved 90s teen drama Heartbreak High is back, and it’s been reimagined for the next generation.

Millennials and Generation X will recall the wildly successful original series delved into then-taboo topics including race, teen pregnancy and drug use.

The show, which ran for seven seasons and was broadcast in over 70 countries, pushed boundaries.

Its Netflix reboot, premiering on September 14, intends to do the same.

The new series will revolve around a new set of teens attending Sydney-based public school, Hartley High and was filmed at a real high school in Maroubra.

James Majoos (Darren), Ayesha Madon (Amerie), and Chloe Hayden (Quinni) are up-and-coming actors who star as three unlikely friends in Netflix’s Heartbreak High reboot. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

One student, Amerie (played by Ayesha Madon) is made a pariah when her popular best mate drops her as Year 11 starts.

The “brash, working class girl,” forms an unlikely friendship with outsiders Darren (James Majoos), “the snarky shit-stirrer”, and Quinni (Chloe Hayden), an outrageous “master of masking”.

James Majoos (Darren), Ayesha Madon (Amerie), and Chloe Hayden (Quinni), in Sydney. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Majoos’ character is non-binary, like them, and Hayden’s character is autistic, like her.

“It’s so cool to play a young queer person who is so self-assured,” Majoos told Confidential.

Hayden cried 20 times filming some scenes, she said, because the storylines felt as if they’d been ripped from her diary.

“It was such a healing thing for me, to put such a large part of myself into Quinni. Growing up, I didn’t exist in media, and it screwed me up. People will see Quinni is not just disabled, she’s also quirky, funny, and intelligent – a whole human being.”

All three actors drew inspiration from their own teenage experience, dealing with gender, race, sexuality, and neurological diversity in modern-day Australia. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Both actors, who are in their early 20s, were homeschooled.

Hayden had “a really awful school experience,” she said, so the show was a “beautiful chance to relive high school, as it should’ve been.”

“What makes this so special,” Majoos explained, “is it really focuses on what it’s like to be a teenager in a specific era. Some of the issues in the original are still discussed, but you can tell this wasn’t written by white men in 2022 going ‘oh the youths will relate to this’.”

Hayden added: “This is real Australians telling their own stories.”

Nor is it a reboot for a reboot’s sake. The original Heartbreak High hit small screens in 1994, almost three decades ago.

The original cast of TV show Heartbreak High.

Executive producer Carly Heaton said; “It was the first time (she) saw people like my friends and I, people from working class families and an array of backgrounds on screen. Their houses looked like our houses, they felt like us and their stories were really relatable.”

Aussie teens have evolved a lot since the 90s, but a TV series hasn’t been made for and about them since.

“Yes, the show is topical,” Madon adds. “But only because it reflects day to day life.”