Why Wingnut From TMNT: Mutant Mayhem Sounds So Familiar
Since the original "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" debuted in 1984, there have been countless television series, video games, and films depicting the pizza-loving herptiles. With "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem," Paramount Pictures hopes to separate their film from the pack, especially following 2016's ill-received "Out of the Shadows."
For one, the studio brought in the "Superbad" and "Sausage Party" scribes Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to help pen the screenplay. "Mutant Mayhem" is also the first "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" project to have actual teenagers voice the core foursome, and early reviews of "Mutant Mayhem" have praised the film's distinct visual style that harkens back to the painterly scribbles of the original comics.
For Seth Rogen, who also voices a character in the film, there were plenty of characters and stories to explore, despite decades of previous adaptations. "We wanted there to be tons of mutants," Rogen said in a "Mutant Mayhem" promo. "There was this huge well of mutant villains that were kind of underutilized."
The primary mutant villain in "Mutant Mayhem" is Superfly (Ice Cube), the leader of a crew that includes Rocksteady (John Cena), Bebop (Rogen), Mondo Gecko (Paul Rudd), Ray Fillet (Post Malone), Genghis Frog (Hannibal Buress), Leatherhead (Rose Byrne), and Wingnut, the bat-like mutant. Wingnut is voiced by Natasia Demetriou, who is best known for playing Nadja in FX's "What We Do in the Shadows." Here's where you may have seen and heard the actress before.
Natasia Demetriou plays Sophie in Stath Lets Flats
Born in London, Natasia Demetriou got her start as a makeup artist on music video sets before transitioning to comedy full-time. In 2014, Demetriou's debut solo show, "You'll Never Have All of Me," won the Skinny Debutant Award for best newcomer. In the years following, Demetriou appeared in a number of British shows, including "Sick Note" and "Pls Like."
Demetriou fell in love with comedy at an early age, cutting her teeth on series like "French and Saunders," "Absolutely Fabulous," and "I'm Alan Partridge." It's an obsession she shared with her brother, Jamie Demetriou. In 2018, the pair teamed up to star in "Stath Lets Flats." The Channel 4 sitcom follows Stath Charalambos, an inept letting agent working for his father's company. Demetriou plays his sister, Sophie. The series borrows from the siblings' Anglo-Greek-Cypriot coming of age in North London. The series aired from 2018 to 2021 and earned three BAFTA awards.
"It's a dreamy, dreamy job," Demetriou told The Independent. "I get to work with my brother and all my friends, who I started out doing comedy with. We have an affinity and the same sense of humor."
She's a bloodsucker in What We Do in the Shadows
Natasia Demetriou is perhaps best known in the United States for playing centuries-old vampire Nadja on "What We Do in the Shadows." Based on Taika Waititi's 2014 mockumentary of the same name, the television adaptation moves the production from New Zealand to the vampire enclave of Staten Island, where Nadja, Laszlo (Matt Berry), and Nandor (Kayvan Novak) live in a dilapidated mansion.
Now in its fifth season, "What We Do in the Shadows" quickly emerged as one of the funniest shows on TV when it premiered in 2019 owing to the core cast's comedic chops and truly unprecedented line deliveries — who knew "New York City" could possibly be said like that? For Decider critic Meghan O'Keefe, Demetriou's performance as Nadja is a series highlight. "For my money, Nadja is what makes 'What We Do in the Shadows' the show better than the movie," O'Keefe wrote. "Natasia Demetriou plays the Romani vampire with an insane combination of wry wit and a powerful heart.
"What We Do in the Shadows" also gives Demetriou at least a little experience playing a zany bat — an animal she will revisit for "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem."
Demetriou did double duty in The Magician's Elephant
Though she is primarily known for her live-action roles, including a small part in 2020's "Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga," Natasia Demetriou has dabbled in voice acting and can be heard in two episodes of "The Cuphead Show." In 2023, she had her most prominent voice acting role to date in Netflix's fantasy adventure film "The Magician's Elephant."
In the film, Demetriou is joined by an impressive voice cast that includes Noah Jupe, Benedict Wong, Brian Tyree Henry, Aasif Mandvi, and Mandy Patinkin. Demetriou does double duty as the fortune teller that incites the action — an orphan's search for his long lost sister — as well as the narrator that guides audiences on the journey.
Critics were quick to compare Demetriou's lilting accent to her role on "What We Do in the Shadows." "The entire film almost feels like her 'WWDITS' character, Nadja, reading a bedtime story to Guillermo," wrote Courtney Lanning for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Paste's Tara Bennett praised Demetriou, who was tasked with providing the complex, dark backstory. "It's very clear that she's the crutch to sorta get the audience through the frequent sad moments," Bennett wrote, even if it seems like she may periodically dip into her vampire schtick.