Meet Jemma Durrant: The SA-born cast memeber of Netflix’s Calabasas Confidential

Jemma in episode 108 of CALABASAS CONFIDENTIAL. Picture: Netflix© 2026. South Africa doesn’t always make the credits, but it’s there.

Hidden somewhere behind the glossy, gate-guarded world of Netflix’sCalabasas Confidentialis a thread that leads straight back to Mzansi, in the form of 23-year-old Jemma Durrant. The series, which premiered on 29 May 2026, has drawn immediate comparisons to early-2000s reality benchmarksThe HillsandLaguna Beach. It follows a group of childhood friends, exes, and rivals who have just returned to their hillside mansions in Calabasas – the Los Angeles suburb synonymous with a certain reality TV dynasty – after four years apart at college.

Fresh out of university, they’re plunged right back into the drama they thought they left behind, forced to confront unfinished business and uncertain futures in the town that raised them. The eight-episode first season carries a tone that is equal parts nostalgic and combustible. Which makes for exactly the kind of social pressure cooker that made those MTV-era predecessors appointment viewing.

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Jemma, daughter of Brett and Athene Durrant, was born in South Africa before the family relocated to California, eventually settling in Calabasas. At 23, Jemma returns to Calabasas fresh out of college, having studied advertising at the University of Oregon. She now works as a marketing coordinator, but it’s her social presence (and personality/relationship drama) that has made her the season’s most discussed figure.

According to her own self-assessment, there are “too many rumours to keep up with” about her, though she is clear that loyalty is non-negotiable and that those who break it can expect consequences. “If you’ve done me wrong, stand on that for life,” she says in her “About Me.”

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