The Gaslight District

Not to be confused with Gaslight district.

The Gaslight District is an Australian adult independent-animated web series created, written, and directed by Nick Szopko^[a] and produced by Glitch Productions. The series centres around a family of undead gangsters living in a post-apocalyptic world following the genocide of humans.

The Gaslight District
Genre	Adult animation[1] Post-apocalyptic Action comedy[‡ 1] Crime drama[2] Supernatural[‡ 1] Gothic[1]
Created by	Nick Szopko[a]
Showrunner	Nick Szopko
Written by	Nick Szopko
Directed by	Nick Szopko
Voices of	Allanah Fitzgerald Jason Marnocha Gianni Matragrano John Whinfield
Narrated by	Taher Chy[‡ 2]
Composer	Oliver Buckland[‡ 3][‡ 4]
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of episodes	1
Production
Executive producers	Kevin Lerdwichagul Luke Lerdwichagul
Producer	Tom Dolan
Editors	David Fonti Abhignya Cavale
Running time	26 minutes
Production company	Glitch Productions
Original release
Network	YouTube
Release	18 April 2025 (2025-04-18) – present

The pilot premiered on Glitch's YouTube channel on 18 April 2025. It received critical acclaim from critics and audiences, with praise for its visuals, writing, characters, and voice acting.

Premise

The Smiling Dead, a family of undead gangsters, try to find their place and fight for control in a post-apocalyptic world.^{[1][3][‡ 5]}

Cast and characters

Main

• Allanah Fitzgerald as Melancholy "Mel" Hill,^{[‡ 6]} the Smiling Dead's mafia princess and sole human member, who is prophesied to bring destruction to the Gaslight District. She is passionate about joining the gang's activities at the risk of exposing her identity, which leads to disagreements with Ken.
• Jason Marnocha as Ken the Butcher,^{[‡ 2]} the homicidal leader of the Smiling Dead, proprietor of the Whale Belly Butcher Shop, and Mel's adoptive father, who conceals her human identity from the other Rotlings and shelters her from danger.
• Gianni Matragrano as Breadhead,^{[‡ 2][4]} Ken's loyal but dimwitted son and Mel's adoptive brother, who serves as the strongman of the Smiling Dead. He is a "yeast golem" whose head resembles a loaf of sliced bread.
• John Whinfield as Mud,^{[‡ 2][5]} Ken's greedy and opportunistic brother, and Mel's adoptive uncle.

Supporting

• Taher Chy as the narrator^{[citation needed]}
• Margaret Ashley as the Angel Mother^{[citation needed]}
• Michael Kovach as Diligence,^{[‡ 2]} the cold and merciless leader of the Virtue Corps.
• Belsheber Rusape Jr. as Temperance,^{[‡ 2][‡ 7]} a Virtue Corps doctor who delivered Mel from her egg.

Production

Series creator and showrunner Nick Szopko released a teaser of the pilot to his YouTube channel PartTimeSeagull on 29 November 2022.^{[‡ 8]} The trademark for the series was registered in July 2023.^[6]

On 9 November 2023, Szopko, along with Glitch Productions founders Kevin and Luke Lerdwichagul, announced on Glitch's live streaming event "GLITCHX" that the series was picked up after Szopko developed the show solely for a year back in 2022, in which they released a new teaser.^{[‡ 9]}

The first official trailer was released on 21 March 2025, and the pilot premiered on April 18.^[7] The trailer features music composed by The Amazing Digital Circus creator Gooseworx, while the soundtrack for the series was composed by Oliver Buckland.^{[‡ 4]}

Episodes

No.	Title	Storyboarded by	Original release date
1	"Pilot"	Robin French, AD Taeza, Neda Lay, and Nick Szopko	18 April 2025 (2025-04-18)
Ten thousand years after a world-ending calamity, humans have been corrupted into undead creatures called Rotlings, whose immortality is threatened by a prophesied black-blooded human born from an angel-laid egg. This human, Melancholy "Mel" Hill, lives in Earth's Gaslight District as the adopted daughter of the Smiling Dead crime family. Their patriarch, Ken the Butcher, hides Mel's identity from the others and disposes of anyone who discovers it. To divert suspicion from herself, Mel devises a scheme to steal an ordinary angel egg from Heaven, disguise it as the human egg, and destroy it in public. Ken begrudgingly agrees, but during their heist at the checkpoint into Heaven, Paradise Lost, Ken leaves Mel to dispose of one of Heaven's Virtue Corps, the doctor Temperance, who delivered Mel. Feeling betrayed, Mel enters Heaven alone and takes the egg from the Angel Mother, who forewarns that a legion of angels will eradicate the Gaslight District and return Mel to Heaven. Following their escape, Mel prepares to destroy the egg in a public ritual, which is interrupted when the egg suddenly hatches, exposing their deception.

Notes

1. Credited as his online alias PartTimeSeagull.