House of Anubis

Lore & Background

The series is set at Anubis House, a residence at an English boarding school built in the 1890s by Egyptologist Robert Frobisher-Smythe. The house serves as a boarding house for nine secondary school students under the watch of caretaker Victor Rodenmaar Jr and house-mother Trudy. The plot begins when a popular student, Joy Mercer, is withdrawn from school without warning, and a new American student, Nina Martin, arrives. Nina receives a locket shaped like the Eye of Horus from an elderly woman who claims to be Sarah Frobisher-Smythe, the daughter of Robert. The locket opens a secret panel in the attic containing antique phonograph cylinders and a portrait of Sarah, leading to a quest for Egyptian relics.

Reader's Guide

House of Anubis is significant as Nickelodeon's first series filmed outside the United States and its first telenovela-format series, marking a shift in the network's production approach. The show's three-season run, from 2011 to 2013, developed a dedicated fanbase through its serialized mystery plot involving Egyptian mythology, secret societies, and supernatural elements. The series explored themes of friendship, loyalty, and the pursuit of immortality, with each season introducing new artifacts and antagonists. Its legacy includes being a notable example of a children's mystery series that incorporated complex storylines and character arcs, influencing later Nickelodeon programming. The show's international origins, based on a Dutch–Belgian series, also highlight cross-cultural television adaptation.

Did You Know?

• The series aired from 1 January 2011 to 17 June 2013.
• The show was Nickelodeon's first telenovela-format series.

Origins & Production Milestones

House of Anubis arrived on Nickelodeon as a transatlantic adaptation of the Dutch–Belgian series Het Huis Anubis, developed by creators Hans Bourlon and Gert Verhulst. Its launch on 1 January 2011 in the United States (and 25 February 2011 in the United Kingdom) marked two network firsts: it was the inaugural Nickelodeon production shot entirely outside American borders, and the channel's first foray into the telenovela format. The series ran for three seasons, concluding on 17 June 2013. By importing a European production model and stretching its narrative across serialized, soap-operatic arcs, the show pushed Nickelodeon well beyond its traditional single-episode sitcom structure. This format shift, combined with the international production, positioned House of Anubis as a bold experiment in how a youth-oriented network could handle long-form serialized storytelling on a global scale, giving writers room to layer mysteries, romance, and cliffhangers across dozens of episodes rather than resolving everything within twenty-two minutes.

The Cup of Ankh & the Season One Mystery

At the heart of the first season lies a layered mystery set within Anubis House, a boarding residence on an English school estate constructed in the 1890s by the Egyptologist Robert Frobisher-Smythe. When popular student Joy Mercer vanishes without a trace, her replacement roommate Nina Martin stumbles upon a locket bearing the Eye of Horus, gifted by an elderly woman claiming to be Sarah Frobisher-Smythe. The locket unlocks a hidden attic panel containing phonograph cylinders—diary recordings from Sarah's parents' 1922 expedition to Tutankhamun's tomb. Nina, Fabian Rutter, and Amber Millington form the secret group Sibuna (Anubis spelled backwards), later joined by Alfie Lewis and Patricia Williamson. Together they hunt seven Egyptian relics that must be assembled into the Cup of Ankh, a mythic vessel producing an elixir of life. The twist: strict caretaker Victor Rodenmaar Jr and his secret society had conspired to force Joy into assembling the cup, but Nina—sharing Joy's July seventh birthday yet born at seven in the morning rather than the evening—proves to be the true chosen assembler, ultimately tricking the immortal-seeking Rufus Zeno.

The Mask of Anubis & Season Two Escalation

Season two escalates the mythology dramatically. While concealing the Cup of Ankh, Nina inadvertently releases Senkhara, an ancient Egyptian spirit who brands her with the Mark of Anubis and commands her to locate the Mask of Anubis—an artifact capable of weeping tears of gold, a crucial ingredient for the elixir of life. The quest leads Sibuna through a labyrinth of underground tunnels beneath Anubis House, where they face deadly puzzles including swinging scythe-like pendulums over a chasm and a game of Senet in which the players themselves serve as pieces. Senkhara grows impatient and spreads the Mark to the rest of the group and Nina's grandmother as leverage. Meanwhile, Victor Rodenmaar Jr pursues the mask for his own elixir recipe, aided by new housemother Vera, who is secretly a double agent working for Rufus Zeno—revealed to have faked his death after discovering his immortality was an illusion. The real mask, hidden in the school's Egyptian Exhibition, requires the Frobisher Gem to activate. When Senkhara briefly possesses Nina to enter the afterlife, Eddie recognizes his role as the Osirian protector, and the spirit is ultimately imprisoned in the Underworld alongside Rufus.

Sibuna's Evolution & the Frobisher Legacy

The group known as Sibuna undergoes significant transformation across the series. In season one, Nina, Fabian, and Amber form the core trio, later expanded by Alfie and Patricia. By season three, with Nina having departed to live with her grandmother and Amber off at fashion school, the group reconstitutes under Eddie's leadership, now including Fabian, K.T. Rush, Patricia, and Alfie. K.T. arrives at the school after Eddie receives a vision of her dying grandfather entrusting her with a key and directing her to Anubis House. The third season's central threat involves the reawakening of Robert Frobisher-Smythe, the 1890s Egyptologist who originally built the house, with new teacher Miss Denby serving as the Keeper in the ritual. This arc extends the Frobisher family legacy—Robert, Sarah, and the Frobisher Gem—into new territory, tying the school's entire history to the Egyptian mythology that drives every season. The show's three-season run from January 2011 to June 2013 allowed these serialized arcs to build and evolve, giving the ensemble cast room to grow while the mysteries deepened.

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