Summer Heights High's Chris Lilley is back with a new show

Chris Lilley's face - or faces - make him one of the most recognisable figures in Australian pop culture.

The 36-year-old's youthful visage has already proved highly adaptable to playing characters of just about any age, race, or gender. He's already won a huge fanbase with his cult faux-doco series We Can Be Heroes and Summer Heights High.

While those series have remained firmly focused on Australian characters, they've built a following in Britain and the US.

And in his new series Angry Boys Lilley has gone international with the show being co-produced by US giant HBO (with ABC in Australia) and screening on the BBC.

"It is a bit ridiculous, Lilley muses on the phone from Melbourne, "but it's just as exciting as it used to be. I have to answer to a lot more people now, and it's harder because you have to see it all through, you can't just play around with it in your head, but it's pretty thrilling."

Looking back to his own adolescence, Lilley says he and his mates says were mild delinquents rather than "angry boys" themselves. They would act out scenes, or phone each other in character - those youthful pranks have now led to an international hit series.

The extra funding and international scope has meant Lilley has incorporated international characters for the first time to add to the Australian flavour, though the show revolves around teenage twins Daniel and Nathan Sims, who appeared in We Can Be Heroes, living on a run-down farm with their family.

The show is premiering in the U.S. on January 1, 2012 on HBO.

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