Bret McKenzie co-created Flight of the Conchords and played a fictionalized version of himself named Bret McKenzie.
The HBO comedy series premiered in 2007 and follows a fictional New Zealand musical duo living in New York City. McKenzie and Jemaine Clement co-created the series and played the two members of the duo. Their songs, deadpan performances, and awkward attempts to manage everyday life form the central comic structure.
The television characters are based on the real musical-comedy group Flight of the Conchords, but the HBO story is fictional. Rhys Darby played the duo’s enthusiastic manager, Murray Hewitt, which is why his name is sometimes associated with the group’s television identity. McKenzie later won an Academy Award for co-writing “Man or Muppet” for The Muppets, a separate achievement from the HBO series.