“Chicago Party Aunt” is an adult animated comedy series. The storyline is told around the character Diane Dunbrowski, a Chicago Aunt who is always happy to party. Diane is like that aunt everyone avoids talking about during Thanksgiving dinner. Besides being the life of the party — every party actually — she models her nephew, Daniel, after the same lifestyle and she has an excuse for everyone who questions her way of life.
The show premiered September 17, 2021, and has aired eight episodes so far with a mixture of great and fair reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb. Rest assured, this is one series you could watch and have a hard laugh from start to finish.
Before you run off to watch the show, here’s a little info about its main characters and other relevant info you may want to know.
Who Are the Main Characters of “Chicago Party Aunt?”
In an interview with Time Out co-creator, Katie Rich, said, “To me, the best way to create a show is through a character, because if you have a rich character you have an infinite amount of stories to tell.” This is absolutely true. TV shows are as good as the characters that are portrayed in it — and of course the cast members. One of the reasons fans are hooked on this show is the characters.
Here’s a quick introduction to the main characters of the show.
Diane Dunbrowski:
The character, Diane Dunbrowski is a hair stylist and the main character in the series. She is called the Chicago party aunt because she is based in Wrigleyville, Chicago, loves to party and she has a gay nephew Daniel — whom you’ll meet next. The character is voiced by Lauren Ash who is renowned for playing Holly in “Lars and the Real Girl.”
Daniel:
Diane’s nephew, Daniel, is 18 years old and plans to attend Stanford. Daniel moved out of his birth home to stay with his aunt who became a major influence on his life. Living with Diane, Daniel learns to accept his sexuality and to love himself. Rory O’malley voices the character. He is best known for his role as Dave in “Dreamgirls.”
Gideon:
Diane and Gideon
RuPaul Charles voices Gideon, Diane’s boss. Gideon is gay, although his mum doesn’t know. He was once a Studio 54 party boy and a huge fan of reality TV. RuPaul’s resume is filled with a lot of TV shows and movie appearances like “But I’m a Cheerleader,” “Girlboss” and “AJ and the Queen,” just to mention a few.
Bonnie:
Bonnie is Diane’s sister and in every way quite different from Diane. Apart from being a big personality, Bonnie appears to have her act together — she is married, has a good job, and stays out of trouble, unlike Diane. “SpongeBob SquarePants” star Jill Talley is the voice behind the character.
Mark:
Daniel, Diane, Mark, and Bonnie
Mark is Diane’s brother-in-law who’s had his fair share of mid-life crises. Mark has good retention but lacks the personality to see things through to the end. Ike Barinholtz voiced the character. Barinholtz is best known for playing Ivan Dochenko in “Eastbound and Down.”
Tina:
Zuzana, Tina, Gideon, and Diane
Tina is Diane’s co-worker. Besides being a hairstylist, she runs a business by the side called InstaGlam. Tina is one of the few people who isn’t afraid to call Diane out for her questionable behavior. The character was voiced by Da’Vine Joy Randolph who you may have seen in “Office Christmas Party” as Carla or in “This Is Us” as Tanya.
Zuzana:
Tina, Gideon, and Zuzana
Zuzana is Diane’s mysterious co-worker. She seems to be from Eastern Europe or Russia. Katie Rich voiced the character. There is more to know about Katie Rich, Chris Witaske, and Jon Barinholtz — creators of “Chicago Party Aunt.” You’ll learn more about them as you read on.
Kurt:
Diane and Kurt
Kurt is Diane’s ex-husband. He’s moved on since the divorce and is now in a relationship with Heidi. However, he is still very much in Diane’s life because the two co-parent their child, Mikey. The character is voiced by Chris Witaske.
Mikey:
Diane and Mikey
Voiced by Jon Barinholtz, Mikey is Diane’s son. He works at the airport and is in love with a Mexican-American even though he knows next to nothing about preparing Mexican dishes.
Other characters and cast on the show include:
- Feather, voiced by Bob Odenkirk
- Mike Hagerty also voices himself
Where Can You Watch “Chicago Party Aunt?”
“Chicago Party Aunt” is not available on Amazon Prime Video — and similar services. The show is a Netflix original, hence, you can only stream it when you are subscribed to Netflix.
Who Made “Chicago Party Aunt?”
“Chicago Party Aunt” is created majorly by Chris Witaske — assisted by Katie Rich and Jon Barinholtz. The trio are also executive producers on the show alongside Matt Craig, Richard Schwartz, Ike Barinholtz, and others.
Here’s a quick highlight of the creators.
Chris Witaske
American actor, Chris Witaske is renowned for his role as Chris Czajkowski in the romantic comedy, “Love.” Witaske made his TV debut in 2014 featuring in “New Girl,” a Fox comedy-drama series. Since then he has featured on other TV shows and films like “Drunk History,” “What Men Want” and “Weird City.”
The journey to creating the TV show “Chicago Party Aunt” began when Witaske got homesick for Chicago after moving to Los Angeles. Witaske turned to Twitter to pen a series of stories about Chicago using a parody account by the name “Diane.” Witaske’s stories caught the eye of producer Richie Schwartz who felt it could be made into a TV show. Witaske and Schwartz ran the idea through Katie Rich, Jon Barinholtz, and Ike Barinholtz and they decided to pitch the idea to Netflix — and the rest is a story.
Recounting how it all began in an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Witaske said, “I started it in 2016. And for a long time, it was just a couple hundred followers. And then it started getting thousands. And then Wilco was retweeting it and Andy Richter was liking it and Stephen Colbert and Jane Lynch. As the account got bigger, I started to think that maybe this could be something. Maybe it could be a TV show. And we were even thinking about it being live-action. It was at this time Schwartz came into the picture.”
Katie Rich
Co-creator, Katie Rich is best known for writing for “Saturday Night Live” which earned her a Writers Guild of America Award nomination — Comedy/Variety – Sketch Series. The American comedian, actress, writer, and producer has featured in several films like “The Ice Harvest,” “Janie Jones,” “Bad Johnson,” among others — as well as in commercials for Walmart and Discover Card. She is married to Devlin Murdock.
Jon Barinholtz
Jon Barinholtz is famed for his role as Marcus White in NBC’s sitcom “Superstore.” Barinholtz has featured in several films like “Outsourced,” “Perfect Couples” and he is currently one of the main cast on NBC’s sitcom, “American Auto.”
Will There Be a Season 2 of “Chicago Party Aunt?”
It’s been crickets since the last episode of the show, “Emergency Contact” aired in September 2021. Consequently, there’s been so many questions around whether “Chicago Party Aunt” will continue or not given Netflix’s history when it comes to canceling shows — there have been one too many shows canceled by Netflix already in 2022.
However, it looks like “Chicago Party Aunt” will be around for a little longer. According to Variety, when the show was ordered in 2021 it was scheduled to have 16 episodes, but so far there’s been only eight episodes — “Chicago Party Aunt,” “Helicopter Aunt,” “Ribs for Her Pleasure,” “Tailgate Jailgate,” “Halloweener Circle,” “Twenty-Six Point Tattoo,” “The Beefys” and “Emergency Contact.”
There’s every chance that the other half is already underway. If this is true, that means there will be a second season. However, these are all speculations and nothing is sure until Netflix releases an official statement.
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Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
