Where does Sex Education take place? Is Moordale a real school?
Sex Education is needless to say one of Netflix’s best original series to date following its debut in 2019, and after Netflix forced fans of the British teen comedy — which follows the hilarious antics and teen dramas of Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield), Moordale’s student sex therapist — to wait nearly a year and a half for it’s returned to our screens, many fans have questions when it comes to the popular show.
These questions include whether the school attended by our heroes is real, and where exactly does Sex Education take place?
Read on below to find out all the details!
Where is Sex Education set?
The popular Netflix original series is set in the fictional town of Moordale, and although the school has a distinctly British feel, there are purposeful American qualities adopted by the executives of the show — such as the lack of uniform, school lockers, and wearing of letterman jackets, which isn’t typical for UK schools — to make its location more ambiguous, and relatable to a wider audience.
The Otis Milburn actor, Asa Butterfield, and on-screen-mom and sex therapist Jean Milburn actress, Gillian Anderson, once confirmed the intent to Variety, describing the fictional town as an “Everywhere-ville.”
However, if you want to get down to logistics, in the same interview, Butterfield revealed that the general location they used when shooting Sex Education was in “Wales, around Cardiff and Newport.”
Is Moordale High a real school?
Well, yes and no. As pointed out, Moordale is a fictional town and the school our heroes — Otis, Maeve, Eric, and so on — attend, is also fictional. However, according to a Traveller article, some of the Sex Education school scenes were filmed at the Caerleon campus in South Wales, which according to the article is “formerly one of the buildings of the University of Wales.” Other school scenes such as the ones in the gym were filmed in Penarth, south of Cardiff, in the Paget Rooms instead.
Sex Education season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.