Boman Martinez-Reid on keeping up with ‘The Bodashians’, parodying reality TV, and pop star dreams

Boman Martinez-Reid always wanted his own TV series. So the Canadian actor and creator made one himself, and another one, and another one, on YouTube, on Instagram, on TikTok, then signed a TV deal and was cast in an A24 show. Each project will leave you in no doubt of one thing: You’ll be hard pressed to find someone who understands reality TV as well as Martinez-Reid.

With a combined 3 million followers on social media under the Britney Spears-inspired handle @bomanizer, Martinez-Reid has gone consistently viral online for his hilarious, precise parodies of reality TV — namely 2020’s “cough heard round the world” video. But you might have discovered Martinez-Reid’s work through his outstandingly accurate, Kardashian-inspired TikTok series The Bodashians, made with his best friend Eden Graham, which has even people who don’t watch The Kardashians locked in.

Now guest-starring in A24’s Overcompensating and the star of his own Crave TV show, quite literally titled Made For TV, Martinez-Reid embodies the new power players in entertainment, creators and actors blurring digital and traditional media and giving multiple formats a try. In Made For TV, he even plays an exaggerated version of himself, trying various reality television genres from dating to competitive drag, attempting to perfect them all.