DAVID Thorne is best known for his witty email exchanges that go viral worldwide and pop up in Facebook feeds every so often, but the former Adelaide man can now add TV writer to his list of credentials.

Thorne, who grew up in Modbury and now lives in Virginia, US is working on an eight-part TV series for the American cable and satellite network HBO, alongside Arrested Development’s Jim Vallely.

Named after Thorne’s blog, 27b/6, the comedy show is set in a small advertising/design agency and is pitched as a cross between The Office and Eastbound & Down.

“I signed a few contracts, sat uncomfortably in on a few meetings, and rewrote scripts written by writers they brought in,” Thorne says.

The 40-something has also been working with Australian comedian Chris Lilley on a mockumentary called Cold Feet; America’s Bunny Slopes, due for release around September.

“I’d been a fan of Chris Lilley since seeing Summer Heights High so when he emailed me to say he’d read an article I wrote (Missing Missy) and we should work on a project together sometime, I was fairly stoked,” Thorne says.

“We played with a couple of ideas but nothing progressed until Cold Feet; America’s Bunny Slopes.

“It’s a one-hour mockumentary about two individuals who embrace the snowboarding culture to the fullest extent but do not know how to snowboard.”

Thorne is also writing his third book, Cubicle Warfare; A Guide to Office Survival, though he says he has missed the publisher’s deadline twice.

The book will be a collection of insider knowledge, tips and “litigious anecdotes” from his 20 years working in the design industry.

It was while the UniSA alumnus was working nine to five at a design agency that he started writing as a creative distraction from laying out business cards.

His first viral email was in 2008, when he tried to dodge an overdue bill by sending a drawing of a seven legged spider. This threw the WA-born man into the spotlight and launched his reputation as a web joker and satirist.

Many other emails from past years go “re-viral” every three months or so — one doing the rounds at the moment is Thorne’s exchange with his son’s school chaplain over a pre-ticked permission slip to a Christian play. Go on, google it.

Thorne, who lives with his American-born wife Holly, says he returns to Adelaide two to three times a year when he misses Kitchener buns, Coopers Ale and house-boating on the Murray.

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