Richard Gadd is already thinking about his next big collaboration after his series Baby Reindeer swept the individual acting honors at the 2025 Independent Spirits Awards on Saturday.
The 35-year-old creator and star of the hit series spoke with DailyMail.com about a surprise star he’s interested in working with after he won the award for the gender-neutral best lead performance in a new scripted series at the ceremony.
The ceremony, which was held in Santa Monica, California, and hosted by former SNL star Aidy Bryant, featured major wins in the film categories for Oscar-hopeful Anora, while Shōgun managed to beat out Baby Reindeer for the best new scripted series award.
Although he seemingly has a bevy of British and American stars looking to work with him, Gadd sounded excited about the possibility of teaming up with a major wrestler-turned-film star: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
‘I love The Rock. I’m waiting for his call currently,’ Gadd joked when asked if he’d consider working with the Jumanji star.
‘No, he hasn’t been in touch,’ Gadd clarified, but he wouldn’t mind a call, as he is a ‘big wrestling fan.’
Richard Gadd, 35, opened up to DailyMail.com about the A-list star he’d love to work with while chatting shortly after winning the gender-neutral best lead performance in a new scripted series at the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday in Santa Monica
Gadd won for his hit Netflix series Baby Reindeer (pictured), which he created, wrote and starred in
Even though that fact seems to surprise people, he admitted that one of his dreams would be a ‘road trip with me, The Rock, John Cena, and let’s just say Bret Hart.’
‘I don’t know what we’ll talk about, but we’ll do it,’ he continued. ‘They’ll be talking and I’ll just be there… ‘
Richard created, wrote and plays the lead role in Baby Reindeer, his hit dark dramedy thriller that was adapted from his autobiographical one-man show.
In the series, he plays a version of himself named Donny Dunn who works as a bartender and moonlights as an aspiring comedian.
One of his pub customer’s, Martha (fellow Indie Spirit winner Jessica Gunning), develops an unhealthy obsession with him that escalates to stalking.
The series also delves into his conflicted feelings about his relationship with his girlfriend Teri, a transgender American therapist (played by Nava Mau, who won the best supporting performance honor at the Independent Spirit Awards), and an abusive collaboration with a TV writer who takes him under his wing.
The series, which was released on Netflix, has been a hit with critics and fans alike.
Richard went on to share his advice to other stars who may be dealing with stalkers, including Piers Morgan, who recently revealed he was dealing with a situation that seemed to be straight out of the hit series.
Gadd’s series swept the individual acting awards at the ceremony, though it lost best new scripted series to Shōgun
Although he seemingly has a bevy of British and American stars looking to work with him, Gadd sounded excited about the possibility of teaming up with a major wrestler-turned-film star: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson; pictured January 5 in Beverly Hills
‘I love The Rock. I’m waiting for his call currently,’ Gadd joked, admitting he’s a huge wrestling fan. One of his dreams would be a ‘road trip with me, The Rock, John Cena, and let’s just say Bret Hart’; Johnson
Gadd stars in Baby Reindeer as a version of himself who is stalked by a woman who meets him in a bar (Jessica Gunning)
He urged anyone tormented by similar circumstances to ‘keep going’ and to not let it get in their way.
‘I think there’s times in my life where I felt like the pressure was so intolerable,’ he admitted. ‘I almost didn’t think there would be any sort of way out, but I think it’s almost cliché, the sort of time-is-the-greatest-healer type of thing, but it really is.
‘Every now and again in the darkness, there will be a crack of light, and then as the days go by, those cracks get bigger and ultimately suddenly you’re standing in sunlight,’ Richard continued.
‘It is strange, but I never thought it would end, but I think just the belief that one day it will was enough for me,’ he said on a hopeful note. ‘I think, no, nothing bad sustains forever. I do believe that, and I think that the simple two words would be, “Keep going…”‘
Gadd also weighed in on his Baby Reindeer followup, the upcoming HBO–BBC drama Half Man, which he created and will costar in with Jamie Bell.
The multi-hyphenate revealed he wants the new series to be a departure from the intensely personal and autobiographical Baby Reindeer.
After first joking that his next project would be a ‘musical,’ Richard called Half Man a ‘departure from the kind of autobiographical, semi-biographical stuff that I’ve done before, but it’s still dark.
‘It still explores the contradictions of the human condition, but it feels nice not to be turning in it all the time while I’m doing it,’ he explained. ‘So this one I wouldn’t say is a full departure.
Gunning won the breakthrough performance award at the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday. She
Nava Mau, who plays Gadd’s character’s girlfriend on the series, also was award best supporting performance
Richard Gadd, who created Baby Reindeer and starred in the lead role, went on to win the top television acting prize of the night
However, he suggested it was ‘still probably totally what you’d expect from me,’ though its ‘subject matter’ might surprise Baby Reindeer fans.
He added that he hoped that working on something that wasn’t based on his own life would ‘be a healthy thing to do.’
His upcoming series charts 40 tumultuous years in the lives of brothers who are now estranged.
The action begins in the present, when Gadd’s character Ruben crashes Bell’s character Niall’s wedding, setting of an exploration of their traumatic relationship from decades earlier.
Gadd emerged triumphant at the Indie Spirit Awards on Saturday, winning best lead performance in a new scripted series, while Jessica Gunning won best breakthrough performance and Nava Mau won best supporting performance.
The Baby Reindeer creator said he wrote a speech for the night but joked that Anora filmmaker Sean Baker had stolen it with his soaring acceptance speech for best director.
He also joked that he didn’t think his chances were very good after The Penguin came on the scene and started snatching up awards at earlier shows.
Although that show’s second lead Cristin Milioti was nominated in the same category as Richard, its star Colin Farrell wasn’t nominated this time around.
Independent Spirit Awards 2025 winners
MOVIES
Best Lead Performance
Amy Adams – Nightbitch
Ryan Destiny – The Fire Inside
Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
Keith Kupferer – Ghostlight
Mikey Madison – Anora — WINNER
Demi Moore – The Substance
Hunter Schafer – Cuckoo
Justice Smith – I Saw The TV Glow
June Squibb – Thelma
Sebastian Stan – The Apprentice
Demi Moore had a shock loss when Mikey Madison won best actress for Anora
Best Supporting Performance
Yura Borisov – Anora
Joan Chen – Dìdi
Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain — WINNER
Danielle Deadwyler – The Piano Lesson
Carol Kane – Between The Temples
Karren Karagulian – Anora
Kani Kusruti – Girls Will Be Girls
Jack Haven – I Saw The TV Glow
Clarence ‘Divine Eye’ Maclin – Sing Sing
Adam Pearson – A Different Man
Kieran Culkin won for his role in the dark comedy A Real Pain
Best Breakthrough Performance
Isaac Krasner – Big Boys
Katy O’brian – Love Lies Bleeding
Mason Alexander Park – National Anthem
René Pérez Joglar – In The Summers
Maisy Stella – My Old Ass — WINNER
Maisy Stella won Best Breakthrough Performance in a feature for her role in the coming-of-age dramedy My Old Ass
Best Feature
Anora – Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan — WINNER
I Saw The TV Glow – Ali Herting, Luca Intili, Dave Mccary, Emma Stone, Sarah Winshall
Nickel Boys – Joslyn Barnes, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Levine
Sing Sing – Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Monique Walton
The Substance – Tim Bevan, Coralie Fargeat, Eric Fellner
Anora, which follows a young sex worker from Brooklyn, won for Best Feature
Best Documentary
Gaucho Gaucho
Hummingbirds
No Other Land — WINNER
Patrice: The Movie
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Best Director
Ali Abbasi – The Apprentice
Sean Baker – Anora — WINNER
Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
Alonso Ruizpalacios – La Cocina
Jane Schoenbrun – I Saw The TV Glow
Sean Baker won best director for his film Anora
Best Screenplay
Scott Beck, Bryan Woods – Heretic
Jesse Eisenberg – A Real Pain — WINNER
Megan Park – My Old Ass
Aaron Schimberg – A Different Man
Jane Schoenbrun – I Saw The TV Glow
Actor and writer Jesse Eisenberg won Best Screenplay for A Real Pain
Best First Feature
Dìdi — WINNER
In the Summers
Janet Planet
The Piano Lesson
Problemista
Best International Film
All We Imagine as Light
Black Dog
Flow — WINNER
Green Border
Hard Truths
John Cassavetes Award
Big Boys
Ghostlight
Girls Will Be Girls — WINNER
Jazzy
The People’s Joker
Best Cinematography
Đinh Duy Hưng – Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
Jomo Fray – Nickel Boys — WINNER
Maria von Hausswolff – Janet Planet
Juan Pablo Ramírez – La Cocina
Rina Yang – The Fire Inside
Best Editing
Laura Colwell and Vanara Taing – Jazzy
Olivier Bugge Coutté and Olivia Neergaard-Holm – The Apprentice
Anne McCabe – Nightbitch
Hansjörg Weißbrich – September 5 — WINNER
Arielle Zakowski – Dìdi
Someone to Watch Award
Nicholas Colia – Griffin in Summer
Sarah Friedland – Familiar Touch — WINNER
Phan Thien An – Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
Truer than Fiction Award
Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie – Sugarcane
Carla Gutiérrez – Frida
Rachel Elizabeth Seed – A Photographic Memory — WINNER
Producers Award
Alex Coco – Anora
Sarah Winshall – I Saw The TV Glow — WINNER
Zoë Worth – Thelma
Robert Altman Award
His Three Daughters — WINNER
TELEVISION
Best Lead Performance In A New Scripted Series
Brian Jordan Alvarez – English Teacher
Richard Gadd – Baby Reindeer — WINNER
Lily Gladstone – Under The Bridge
Kathryn Hahn – Agatha All Along
Cristin Milioti – The Penguin
Julianne Moore – Mary & George
Hiroyuki Sanada – Shōgun
Anna Sawai – Shōgun
Andrew Scott – Ripley
Julio Torres – Fantasmas
Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd won for his lead role in the hit Netflix series
Best Supporting Performance In A New Scripted Series
Tadanobu Asano – Shōgun
Enrico Colantoni – English Teacher
Betty Gilpin – Three Women
Chloe Guidry – Under The Bridge
Moeka Hoshi – Shōgun
Stephanie Koenig – English Teacher
Patti Lupone – Agatha All Along
Nava Mau – Baby Reindeer — WINNER
Ruth Negga – Presumed Innocent
Brian Tee – Expats
Ruth Negga was nominated for her role in the Apple TV + series Presumed Innocent, but lost to Bay Reindeer’s Nava Mau
Best Breakthrough Performance In A New Scripted Series
Jessica Gunning – Baby Reindeer — WINNER
Diarra Kilpatrick – Diarra From Detroit
Joe Locke – Agatha All Along
Megan Stott – Penelope
Hoa Xuande – The Sympathizer
Jessica Gunning won Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series for her portrayal of a stalker in Netflix series Baby Reindeer
Best New Scripted Series
Baby Reindeer – Creator/Exec Producer: Richard Gadd. Exec Producers: Wim De Greef, Petra Fried, Matt Jarvis, Ed Macdonald
Diarra From Detroit – Creator/Exec Producer: Diarra Kilpatrick. Exec Producers: Kenya Barris, Miles Orion Feldsott, Darren Goldberg. Co-Exec Producers: Ester Lou, Mark Ganek
English Teacher – Creators/Exec Producer: Brian Jordan Alvarez. Exec Producers: Paul Simms, Jonathan Krisel, Dave King. Co-Exec Producers: Kathryn Dean, Jake Bender, Zach Dunn
Fantasmas – Creator/Exec Producer: Julio Torres. Exec Producers: Emma Stone, Dave Mccary, Olivia Gerke, Alex Bach, Daniel Powell. Co-Exec Producer: Ali Herting
Shōgun – Creators/Exec Producers: Rachel Kondo, Justin Marks. Exec Producers: Edward L. Mcdonnell, Michael De Luca, Michaela Clavell. Co-Exec Producers: Shannon Goss, Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich, Jamie Vega Wheeler — WINNER
Shōgun won for Best New Scripted Series
Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series
How To Die Alone — WINNER
Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series
Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color
Hollywood Black — WINNER
Photographer
Ren Faire
Social Studies