Abhiroop Das
Created by Bert Kreischer, Jarrad Paul, and Andrew Mogel, Netflix’s ‘Free Bert‘ traces the highs and lows of the Kreischers as they try to carve out their own place in their wealthy and somewhat disconnected Beverly Hills community. Bert, a star comedian, is frustrated with his brand of comedy, but fears switching things up and potentially losing his audience. However, given his eccentricities, adjusting to normal life proves to be a challenging task by itself. His wife, LeeAnn, doesn’t fare much better either and often finds herself lagging behind in the race to join the social clique. For their daughters, Georgia and Ila, fitting into the prestigious, but classist, Barklidge Academy proves to be nigh impossible, and it is only then that the family realizes that conformity means losing what makes them unique.
LeeAnn Shares Her Name and Likeness With Bert’s Real-Life Wife, But Not Much Else
In ‘Free Bert,’ the character of LeeAnn is a fictionalized version of Bert Kreischer’s wife in real life, LeeAnn Kreischer. While Bert plays himself in the show, his character is still dramatized to a great extent, and that is even more true for his on-screen partner. While the show’s rendition of LeeAnn shares her name, general appearance, and some vague personality traits with her real-life counterpart, the character is largely invented, especially when it comes to the plot beats surrounding her. The real LeeAnn, who is also one of the show’s producers, was closely involved in the development of the character, especially when it came to casting the right actor for the role. Given the nature of the story, she looked for someone who could bring a supportive edge to the character, and actor Arden Myrin brought exactly that to the table, thus earning her part.
During the making of the ‘Free Bert,’ LeeAnn reportedly gave Myrin a lot of freedom to create the character along the way, thus ensuring that the show’s version of LeeAnn is naturally distinct. This included Myrin dying her hair a slightly different shade of blonde, as well as adapting the character to the needs of the script. In real life, LeeAnn, who has been with Bert for almost 25 years as of writing, is deeply involved in the world of media, entertainment, and storytelling. She hosts a famous podcast named ‘Wife of the Party,’ and is the co-founder and COO of Berty Boy Productions. Her on-screen version does not share any of these attributes, which reiterates how LeeAnn in the show is mostly a fictional construct, who only shares superficial similarities with the LeeAnn from real life.
Georgia and Ila Are Creatively Rendered Versions of Bert’s Real-Life Daughters
In a similar fashion to LeeAnn, Bert’s two daughters, Georgia and Ila Kreischer, are both dramatized as characters in ‘Free Bert,’ with not many biographical elements translating from real life to screen. While both children are depicted as school students in the show, in real life, Georgia and Ila are both university students as of writing. Unlike LeeAnn, however, they weren’t as closely involved with the production and were, in fact, opposed to it initially. While conversing with The Hollywood Reporter, Bert revealed that his two daughters often vet his jokes and comedic routines before he performs them professionally, and a similar thing happened with the show.
Neither Georgia nor Ila originally wanted to share their names with their corresponding characters in the show, but that changed when Bert showed them portions of the first episode, particularly the father-daughter scenes, which went a long way in convincing them to greenlight the characters. While Georgia and Ila’s roles in the story are most likely invented from scratch, some of the real-life details do make it to the screen in a reimagined fashion. For instance, it is mentioned in the show that Ila is a person with a learning disability, which might be an intentional connection to the real-life Ila having sensory processing disorder.
Nonetheless, the show introduces enough creative additions to the characters to distance them from their real-life counterparts. One of the defining features of Georgia and Ila’s characters in the show is how freely they use foul language. When asked about this in his interview with CBS Mornings, Bert confirmed that this is a show-only feature and that his two kids weren’t allowed to swear until they turned 16. Both Georgia and Ila have featured in LeeAnn’s podcast numerous times and continue to be the shining lights of the Kreischer family.
Read More: Where is Free Bert Filmed? All Shooting Locations
