Content warning: This article references sexual assault.

When cult psychology expert Christine Marie arrived in Short Creek, Utah with her videographer husband Tolga Katas, they had one objective: To bring down a sect of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) headed up by Samuel Bateman, whom they believed was sexually abusing children. Bateman had taken up the mantle from the imprisoned Warren Jeffs and declared himself a prophet, coercing more than 20 women and children to marry him.

Marie and Katas ingratiated themselves into the community under the guise of making a documentary—not entirely false, though the filmmakers's focus was to gather incriminating evidence rather than create propaganda on behalf of Bateman. By the end, they had successfully partnered with the FBI to bring Bateman to justice, and a 2025 trial put him and a few of his most devout followers behind bars.

The footage from Marie and Katas's time in Bateman's circle has become the April 2026 Netflix docuseries Trust Me: The False Prophet and features firsthand accounts from a few of the women who survived and escaped Bateman's polygamous sect. Ahead is a breakdown of where the key players of the true-crime docuseries are now.

Christine Marie and Tolga Katas

Even after successfully bringing down Bateman's enterprise and releasing this documentary, Marie and Katas don't feel like their work in the FLDS community is complete. They still live in Short Creek near the FLDS sect.

Marie does feel some closure, though, as she was able to accept Bateman's fate as a proxy for her own false prophet. “It was so validating for me to make sure that these girls and women were safe. Even the women who still believe in him are a hundred times safer with him not in the house,” she told Tudum. “He could never rape another girl again. There was a sense of closure for me.”

Julia Johnson

Julia had a front-row seat to the Bateman religious movement as the wife of Moroni Johnson, one of Bateman's biggest supporters, and mother to five of Bateman's wives (including Moretta). She played a pivotal role in bringing Bateman to justice when she began confiding in filmmakers Marie and Katas about what really happened behind closed doors in the Bateman compound, which helped aid the FBI investigation.

Following Bateman's arrest and the fallout in the FLDS community, Julia separated from her husband Moroni, who is currently serving time in jail for his involvement in the movement. Based on her appearances in the docuseries, she has not left the FLDS movement altogether, and two of her daughters remain followers of Bateman.

Moretta Johnson and Naomi “Nomz” Bistline

Two of Bateman's former wives and devout followers, Moretta Johnson and Naomi “Nomz” Bistline, served jail time for their roles in kidnapping the underage wives from a group home and shielding them from law enforcement. While in jail, both women found the isolation to be liberating, as they questioned the supreme authority and obedience that they had been taught. They ultimately became the only two adult wives to testify against Bateman in court.

Following their release, Moretta was reunited with her mother, Julia. “Her words are, ‘Prison set me free.’ It helped her get into a thought process of her own," Julia says in the documentary of her daughter's change of heart after a year of incarceration. According to Tudum, Moretta has entirely moved on from this chapter of her life: She left the community, got married, and started her own family.

Moretta also remains close to Nomz, who still lives in Short Creek but is hoping to start over. Trust Me: The False Prophet ends with images of her studying psychology in college in an effort to understand what happened to her. In this era of freedom, she's also exploring other hobbies like writing, art, fashion, and especially music. “Music helps me process things,” she told Tudum. “It helps me let it out.”

This experience has made Nomz question her faith, as she wonders how God could have let this happen to her. “I question everything now,” she said. But it's also brought her closer to Christine, whom she no longer views as Judas after realizing Christine's motivations. “The parallels of our stories were so similar," she told Tudum. "Since then, we’ve been really close friends. She’s a godmother to me, and Tolga’s a godfather. They’re the best people in my life sometimes.”

Samuel Bateman

In April 2024, Bateman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport a minor for criminal sexual activity and conspiracy to kidnap. At the conclusion of his trial in 2025, he was sentenced to 50 years in prison, where he remains today.

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that his power over the women in his community has gone away. “For whatever reason, the prison he’s in allows him to make as many calls as he wants,” docuseries director Dretzin told Tudum. “So he is in daily contact with his wives, which in some ways allows him to still have too much power because he’s now been ‘martyred.’ ”

Marie believes that cutting off this access is crucial for these women to begin thinking for themselves again—just like Moretta and Nomz did. “Once they break from him and from the other people who believe in him, then they can say, ‘Wait, maybe I'm not so certain. Maybe he did make all this up so that he could get money, power, and sex—like every other cult leader.’ ”

Moroni Johnson and brothers Torrance Bistline and LaDell Bistline

Bateman's most devout male followers, Moroni Johnson and brothers Torrance Bistline and LaDell Bistline, who all aided in handing over their wives and daughters for the "cause," are all currently serving time in jail. Johnson served three years of house arrest before beginning his 25-year sentence, while Torrance and LaDell are imprisoned for 35 years and life, respectively.

There’s only one thing more chilling than a series about a toe-curling crime: a series about a toe-curling crime that actually happened. Knowing that the horrific events playing out on your screen were part of someone’s real-life story ups the viewing stakes considerably.

Whether you remember the cases happening in real time or you’re just hearing about them, true crime series and documentaries have an uncanny way of heightening our senses. We feel the pinpricks of fear on behalf of the victims, the rush of adrenaline as police race to catch the perpetrators, and the pangs of doubt in complex cases, as well as the inevitable stabs of sympathy and rage on behalf of the victims’ families and loved ones.

The best true crime series and documentaries of 2026 will evoke all of the above and more as they examine some of the biggest cases in history from every possible angle. Whether these real-life capers are your comfort shows (no judgment!) or you’re a newbie to the genre, our top picks are sure to reel you in. A word of advice? You might want to leave the night light on as you work your way through this list of docuseries, dramatized shows about real-life cases, and feature-length docs coming soon on streamers like Netflix and HBO Max. (Psst—if you're looking for even more great true crime to consume, check out our book and podcast suggestions as well.)

The Best True Crime of 2026 to Watch Now

'Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart'

Release date: January 21 on Netflix

24 years after being taken from her Salt Lake City home by a man wielding a knife, an adult Elizabeth Smart is sharing, in her own words, the personal hell she endured as a 14-year-old girl being held captive against her will. Through archival footage and never-before-seen materials, she also shares the lengths she and her family have gone to find peace following her harrowing nine-month ordeal.

WATCH IT

'The Hillside Strangler'

Release date: January 18 on MGM+

Years before the Night Stalker was terrorizing the streets of L.A. and providing the blueprint for Mia Goth’s feisty Maxxxine, there was the Hillside Strangler, or rather, the Hillside Stranglers: two nightmarish cousins named Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono Jr., who kidnapped and tortured 10 young women between October 1977 and February 1978. Buono Jr. died in prison in 2002, but Bianchi is interviewed on-camera for the first time in this new, four-part docuseries—and he claims he’s innocent.

WATCH IT ON MGM+

'Handsome Devil: Charming Killer'

Release date: January 20 on Paramount+

Paramount+’s Handsome Devil holds a mirror up to our society’s dark obsession with vanity. Its subject? Wade Wilson (a.k.a. the Deadpool Killer), a convicted Florida murderer with Joker-like tattoos on his face, whose courtroom photos gained him legions of female fans around the world despite his heinous crimes.

WATCH IT

'The Investigation of Lucy Letby'

Release date: February 4 on Netflix

Was former neonatal nurse Lucy Letby a sinister serial killer or a victim of unfortunate circumstances? That’s the question at the heart of this Netflix documentary, which explores the untimely deaths of seven babies under her care. Showcasing new footage from Lucy’s arrest and an interview with the mother of one of the victims, it examines the doubt that has been cast on Letby’s seven murder convictions and seven attempted murder convictions in the wake of her 2023 case.

WATCH IT

'Murder in Glitterball City'

Release date: February 19 on HBO Max

This two-part HBO doc bookends a toxic relationship between two men with the murder of an unsuspecting guest in their home in a seemingly quaint area of Louisville, Kentucky. When both men blame each other for the killing that occurs during a one-night stand gone wrong, which one is really to blame?

WATCH IT

'Lost Women of Alaska'

Release date: February 25 on ID and HBO Max

Octavia Spencer takes another crack at crime with her newest Lost Women installment, the franchise for which kicked off in 2023 with Lost Women of Highway 20. This time around, the Oscar winner is delving into the 2018 and 2019 murders of Alaskans Veronica Abouchuk and Kathleen Jo Henry. As Spencer said in a press release: "Lost Women of Alaska confronts the devastating intersection of race and systemic failures that perpetuate violence against Indigenous women."

WATCH IT

'Twisted Yoga'

Release date: March 13 on Apple TV

Romanian yoga teacher Gregorian Bivolaru promised lectures on consciousness and sexuality in his yoga schools. Instead, his students claim they were subject to human trafficking, kidnapping, and rape. While Bivolaru, who denies all charges, remains in police custody awaiting trial, his alleged victims are speaking out about the horrors they say they endured at Bivolaru’s hands.

WATCH IT

'The Predator of Seville'

Release date: March 27 on Netflix

In a foreign country, Gabrielle Vega found herself in a terrifying position: drugged and raped by her travel guide, Manuel “Manu White” Blanco. When she came forward with her story four years later, she opened a floodgate of accusations against the man who fooled exchange students into believing he was a friendly face.

WATCH IT

'The Truth and Tragedy of Moriah Wilson'

Release date: April 3 on Netflix

Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson was a star in the world of cycling before she was murdered by Kaitlin Armstrong, the jealous girlfriend of Wilson’s ex. More than simply regurgitating her final days, Truth and Tragedy celebrates her life through the eyes of those who loved her most.

WATCH IT

'Should I Marry a Murderer?'

Release date: April 29 on Netflix

What would you do if you found out your fiancé was a murderer? That’s the dilemma at the center of this Netflix documentary about the death of 63-year-old cyclist Tony Parsons, who was struck by drunk driver Alexander "Sandy" McKellar and removed from the scene of the crime to die. When McKellar confesses his crimes to his future bride-to-be, Caroline Muirhead, she’s forced to choose between her loyalty to the love of her life and her moral compass.

WATCH IT

'The Crash'

Release date: May 15 on Netflix

Mackenzie Shirilla was convicted of double murder after crashing her car into the side of a brick building at 100 MPH and killing her two passengers. But what really happened that fateful day? Here, she publicly tells her story for the first time.

“It was extraordinary, after months of research…to finally sit down and put to Mackenzie all the questions everybody else has been asking," producer Angharad Scott told Tudum. As for whether she was a loving girlfriend with a medical issue that clouded her judgement at the worst possible time or a jilted lover on a kamikaze mission to destroy her would-be ex, director Gareth Johnson says: “We’ve given the audience everything they need to come to their own conclusions about what happened.”

WATCH IT

'The Yogurt Shop Murders'

Release date: May 22 on HBO

One month after The Yogurt Shop Murders debuted on HBO in August 2025, the Texas cold case that inspired it was reopened with new under-fingernail DNA evidence. HBO released a follow-up finale episode in May, revealing the perpetrator of the 34-year-old crimes against teenage yogurt shop employees Eliza Thompson, Jennifer Harbison, Harbison’s 15-year-old sister Sarah, and 13-year-old Amy Ayers, who were bound, sexually assaulted, shot, and set on fire in a local yogurt shop.

WATCH IT

'The Murder of Rachel Nickell'

Release date: June 4 on Netflix

23-year-old British model Rachel Nickell’s life ended on July 15, 1992, when she was publicly attacked in London’s Wimbledon Common while out for an afternoon stroll with her 2-year-old son and her dog. With her toddler as the only witness to the sexual assault and brutal stabbing that she endured, Nickell's case, which is examined in this new Netflix documentary, took 16 years to solve and involved a wrongful conviction before the dark truth was finally brought to light.

WATCH IT

'The Witness'

Release date: June 4 on Netflix

This dramatized version of Nickell’s murder explores the fallout that occurred when 2-year-old Alex witnessed his mother being violently stabbed to death 49 times in the park. Told from the perspective of both Alex and his father, André Hanscombe, the series consulted both men for its retelling, which focuses on their lives post-tragedy.

WATCH IT

'Maternal Instinct'

Release date: June 12 on Netflix

Maternal Instinct purposely avoids presenting the perspective of its main subject, Taylor Parker. In 2020, Parker faked her own pregnancy, then killed her pregnant friend Reagan Simmons-Hancock, cutting her unborn baby from her womb in an effort to maintain her lie. Explained director Jessica Dimmock, who focused her documentary on Parker's victims: “To give her any extra time to spin and lie just did not feel like the film I wanted to make. I wanted to hear from all of the people whose lives she damaged and broke forever, and not give her any more room to talk.”

WATCH IT

The Best True Crime Coming Soon in 2026

'Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story'

Release date: TBA on Netflix

If you binged Monster: The Ed Gein Story at lightning speeds, get the popcorn ready: Netflix has confirmed a fourth installment of Ryan Murphy's true-crime anthology is due out in 2026. The streaming service has also announced that Ella Beatty (Feud: Capote vs. The Swans) is poised to play the series’s first female "monster" when she steps into the shoes of Lizzie Borden, the famous prime suspect in the gruesome axe murders of her father and stepmother, Andrew and Abby Borden. The Ed Gein Story stars Charlie Hunnam and Vicky Krieps will return in new roles, along with frequent Ryan Murphy players like Rebecca Hall, Billie Lourd, and Sarah Paulson, as well as Jessica Barden, rounding out the cast.

In 2021, following the double murders of Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh and her son, Paul, journalist Mandy Matney launched a true-crime podcast delving into the case and their well-connected South Carolina family. Her “Murdaugh Murders Podcast” chronicled not just the investigation into the double homicide—including the trial and conviction of prominent lawyer Alex Murdaugh for killing his wife and son—but also the family’s legacy, criminal investigations into fraud and obstruction of justice, and connections to several mysterious deaths.

Now, the podcast is the inspiration for a Hulu limited series, in which Matney is both an executive producer and a character in the fictionalized story. Murdaugh: Death in the Family explores the case and what Mandy’s reporting uncovered, starring Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty) as Alex Murdaugh, Patricia Arquette (Severance) as Maggie, and Brittany Snow (The Hunting Wives) as Matney.

Read on to learn more about Matney and her reporting, including why she was already investigating the Murdaughs years before the murders, how involved she was with the true-crime TV adaptation, and what she’s doing now.

Who is Mandy Matney?

Mandy Matney is an investigative journalist originally from Kansas City, Kansas, who’s now based in South Carolina. A graduate of the journalism school at the University of Kansas, she held reporting jobs in Missouri and Illinois before heading to South Carolina to work for The Island Packet in Hilton Head Island, which is where she first began looking into the Murdaughs following a deadly 2019 boat crash that involved an allegedly intoxicated Paul.

After Maggie and Paul were killed in 2021, she launched the “Murdaugh Murders Podcast” to further delve into the family. Initially recording episodes from her kitchen table, she wasn’t recapping a finished case—she was covering the investigation in real time. The podcast quickly became a hit and eventually spanned 94 episodes.

“All of a sudden, it seemed like the whole world was watching the Murdaugh case, and we were the go-to podcast for it,” Matney told Kansas Alumni magazine in 2024. “Because I had been working on the case for so long and had a lot of sources on the ground who knew what was going on, the episode we put out after the shooting incident was questioning it—was saying, ‘This is why this is suspicious.’ It was way different from what the rest of the world was reporting. I was leading my audience in the correct direction, and because of that, I think people realized how good our sources were and that we were a voice they could trust in this, and they got really immersed in the story.”

How did Mandy Matney begin investigating the Murdaughs?

In 2019, authorities reported that 19-year-old Mallory Packet was killed after Paul Murdaugh drunkenly crashed his family’s boat in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Matney, then at The Island Packet, began investigating the case with her colleague Liz Farrell, marking her first exposure to the Murdaugh family.

“The boat crash happened when I was the breaking news editor there, and it changed everything,” she told Common Good in a recent interview.

Their story “absolutely consumed my life” from that time onward, even more so after the murders in 2021. “The Murdaughs were such a hard egg to crack, because at first—and a lot of people forget this—very, very few people would talk at all about the Murdaughs in 2019, and getting somebody to talk on the record was even harder,” she said in that same interview. “People were just very scared.”

What else did Mandy Matney uncover about the Murdaughs?

As detailed on the podcast and portrayed in Murdaugh: Death in the Family, Matney doesn’t stop digging. That unflinching work leads her to questions surrounding the investigation into the boat crash; years of Alex’s financial misdeeds; the still-unsolved death of another young man, Stephen Smith; and a fall suffered by the family’s longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, at the Murdaugh home.

One creative liberty the show took was having Paul’s boat crash occur before Gloria’s fall. In reality, the fall happened a year earlier, in 2018. “It was more helpful, emotionally, to see what does she mean to this family, what roles does she play, specifically with Paul,” series showrunner Michael D. Fuller explained to TV Insider of the change.

Where is Mandy Matney now?

Matney still lives in Hilton Head and continues to pursue investigative journalism through her production company, Lunashark Media. She also published a 2023 book, Blood on Their Hands: Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty, which detailed her work reporting on the case.

Matney concluded the “Murdaugh Murders” podcast in 2023 and relaunched it as “True Sunlight,” where she continues to cover Murdaugh updates while also exploring other cases. She also co-hosts the “Cup of Justice” podcast, which was spun off from bonus episodes of “Murdaugh Murders” and dives deeper into legal analysis. She’s also teaming up with Brittany Snow for a companion podcast for Death in the Family that will go behind the scenes with the cast and crew.

The double murders of Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh and her son, Paul Murdaugh, dominated headlines in 2021—because they were part of a wealthy and well-connected South Carolina family, and because the man convicted of killing them was Alex Murdaugh, Maggie’s husband and Paul’s father.

Now, the story is the subject of a new Hulu true crime series, Murdaugh: Death in the Family, which premieres on October 15. The series, which is inspired by the popular “Murdaugh Murders Podcast” from journalist Mandy Matney, delves into the events leading up to Maggie and Paul’s deaths, including hidden secrets and the family’s connections to several other investigations and mysterious deaths.

Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty) and Patricia Arquette (Severance) star as Alex and Maggie, but they’re just two members of the ensemble telling this story. Read on to get to know the key players in Death in the Family and the actors portraying them.

Jason Clark as Alex Murdaugh

Alex is an attorney who comes from one of South Carolina’s most powerful legal dynasties. On the surface, he lives a life of luxury with his wife, Maggie, and their sons, Buster and Paul. But he’s hiding personal and financial issues that can’t be covered up or ignored after Paul is involved in a deadly boat crash.

Jason Clarke, 56, has appeared in the crime drama Brotherhood, played L.A. Lakers executive Jerry West in the sports drama Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, and also starred in films like Zero Dark Thirty, White House Down, and Oppenheimer. You can also catch him in the upcoming Kathryn Bigelow-directed thriller A House of Dynamite.

Patricia Arquette as Maggie Murdaugh

Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh is Alex’s wife, who enjoys a life of privilege thanks to her husband and his family’s business—all of which begins to unravel after revelations about Alex and their sons come to light. (In the trailer, she demands of her husband, “What else is there that I don’t know about?”) The series opens with Alex calling 911 to report that Maggie and Paul had been shot, and then flashes back to the events leading up to their deaths.

Patricia Arquette, 57, has won an Academy Award (for Boyhood) and two Emmys (for the drama Medium and The Act, Hulu’s true-crime adaptation about Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her mother, Dee Dee). She currently plays the chilling Ms. Cobel on Severance and can be seen in iconic films and shows such as True Romance, Lost Highway, Ed Wood, Holes, and Escape at Dannemora.

Johnny Berchtold as Paul Murdaugh

The youngest member of the Murdaugh family, Paul is a hard-partyer whose recklessness leads to a drunken boating accident that tragically kills 19-year-old Mallory Beach (Madeline Popovich), bringing media attention and public scrutiny to the Murdaughs. Like his mother, Paul was shot and killed on the family’s South Carolina estate.

Johnny Berchtold, 31, has appeared in the series Reacher, Gaslit, and Tiny Beautiful Things. He also starred alongside Rob Lowe in the drama Dog Gone and has a role in the thriller The Passenger.

Will Harrison as Buster Murdaugh

The eldest son of Alex and Maggie Murdaugh, Buster is the seemingly golden child looking to continue the family legacy by attending law school. But even he becomes connected to revelations about the family that come to light.

Will Harrison, 29, played guitarist Graham Dunne in the TV adaptation of Daisy Jones and the Six, and also appeared in the historical drama Manhunt and the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. He’s currently starring in the play Punch, which is his Broadway debut.

Brittany Snow as Mandy Matney

Mandy is a reporter for the South Carolina newspaper The Island Packet, who begins looking into the Murdaughs in the aftermath of Paul’s boat crash.

Brittany Snow, 39, was most recently seen in the juicy Texas drama The Hunting Wives, which is due to return for a second season. She’s also known for her role in the Pitch Perfect movies, as well as Hairspray, Someone Great, X, Almost Family, and The Night Agent.

J. Smith-Cameron as Marian Proctor

Marian is Maggie Murdaugh’s sister, which also makes her Alex’s sister-in-law and aunt to Buster and Paul. She’s a confidante for her sister and looks out for Maggie as the events of the series unfold.

J. Smith-Cameron, 68, is a veteran actor best known for her roles in Rectify and, more recently, Succession, where she played Waystar RoyCo general counsel Gerri Kellman (and earned two Emmy nominations for her work). She’s known for her theater work and has also appeared in films and shows, including Harriet the Spy (as Harriet’s mother), The First Wives Club, Margaret (written and directed by her husband, Kenneth Lonergan), True Blood, Search Party, and Fleishman Is in Trouble.

Kathleen Wilhoite as Gloria Satterfield

Gloria is the longtime housekeeper for the Murdaughs, who helped raise Buster and Paul from infancy. She’s a kind woman who’s devoted to their family and has her own two adult sons.

Kathleen Wilhoite, 61, had a recurring role on Gilmore Girls as Liz Danes, the sister of Luke (Scott Evans) and mother of Jess Mariano (Milo Ventimiglia), and was the voice of Pepper Ann Pearson on the animated series Pepper Ann. She’s also appeared on ER, L.A. Law, Grey’s Anatomy, and in films like Murphy’s Law.

Gerald McRaney as Randolph Murdaugh

Randolph is the domineering father of Alex and Randy Murdaugh, a prominent South Carolina attorney well-known in their community, and runs the law firm where his sons work.

Gerard McRaney, 78, has starred in TV shows like Simon & Simon, Major Dad, House of Cards, and NCIS: Los Angeles. He’s also appeared on Castle, Longmire, and Deadwood, and won an Emmy for his guest role on This Is Us as the kindly Dr. Nathan Kowalsky.

Noah Emmerich as Randy Murdaugh

Randy is Alex’s brother, who works alongside him at the family’s law firm. More even-keeled than his wild-card brother, the two butt heads as they vie for their father’s affection and approval—and to be the one who takes over the firm after Randolph retires.

Noah Emmerich, 60, played FBI agent Stan Beeman on the acclaimed spy drama The Americans. He can also be seen in The Truman Show, Frequency, Miracle, Super 8, and in recurring roles on White Collar, Dark Winds, and The Walking Dead.

Mark Pellegrino as Curtis Edward Smith

Curtis Edward "Eddie" Smith was a longtime friend of Alex Murdaugh's and a key player allegedly involved in his criminal web. He was arrested in 2021 on multiple charges, including presenting a firearm, conspiracy, and assisted suicide, because Murdaugh allegedly hired him to kill him so his son Buster could receive his life insurance policy. He was also later indicted in 2022 on money laundering, forgery, and various drug trafficking charges.

Mark Pellegrino, 60, plays Eddie Smith. He's best known as a TV actor and has held major roles on several cult-loved series, including 2000s hits like playing Lucifer on Supernatural, Paul on Dexter, and Jacob on Lost, among other roles.

Madeline Popovich as Mallory Beach

Mallory Beach was the 19-year-old killed in a boating accident when an allegedly intoxicated Paul Murdaugh was at the wheel. Her family received a $15 million settlement from Parker's, the convenience store that sold alcohol to Paul while he was underage.

Madeline Popovich, 23, is a rising actress with several shorts and TV movies, including Hallmark's One Summer, on her résumé.

Jessi Case as Morgan Doughty

Morgan Doughty was a friend of the late Mallory Beach and the ex-girlfriend of Paul Murdaugh. She was on the boat the night Mallory died. In the years since the case against the Murdaughs unfolded, she has alleged that Paul was abusive during their relationship.

Jessi Case, 25, is an Atlanta-born rising actress who has held small TV roles in shows like 9-1-1: Lone Star and movies like Mother's Day.

In season 3 of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's anthology Monster, the series explores Ed Gein's influence on the cultural image of the serial killer. In addition to fictionalizing Gein's life, the eight-episode season also highlights the figure's impact on the horror genre—with a special focus on 1960's Psycho—and the infamous murderers who came after him. The finale even makes a connection between Gein and another bogeyman: Ted Bundy.

In the Monster: The Ed Gein Story finale, the true-crime drama takes a spin à la Mindhunter with a storyline about how the show's lead (played by Charlie Hunnam) was involved in the capture of Ted Bundy. After the season's debut on October 3, fans are wondering how much of this storyline is fact or fiction. Below, we break down the truth of the Monster: The Ed Gein Story finale.

Ed Gein was diagnosed with schizophrenia after his capture.

In both Monster and in real life, Ed Gein was arrested in 1957 for the murder of hardware-store owner Bernice Worden (played by Lesley Manville in Monster). Gein eventually confessed to murdering both Worden and tavern owner Mary Hogan, as well as exhuming several graves for his gruesome harvesting.

Shortly after his arrest, court-appointed psychiatrists diagnosed Gein with schizophrenia. He spent the rest of his life in mental hospitals receiving treatment. After initially being deemed mentally unfit to stand trial, in 1968, a judge found Gein guilty of Worden’s killing, but also not guilty by reason of insanity, according to A&E. In 1984, Gein died of respiratory failure at the age of 77.

Throughout its episodes, Monster blurs the line between imagination and reality for not only Gein, but also people who attempt to understand his crimes, including Psycho actor Anthony Perkins. In an interview with Tudum, Murphy and Brennan say that the Netflix series was leading towards Gein's diagnosis, suggesting that his life would have been different if he had received mental-health treatment at an earlier age. The piece also alludes to how the audience is meant to question which of Gein's scenes are reality and which are his own delusions, highlighting the question of whether the character of his girlfriend, Adeline Watkins, was a "fantasy" all along.

"He was this bizarre guy that lived in his own world, in his own reality, in total isolation with only one other point of contact," star Charlie Hunnam told the outlet. “And so everything in his life was sort of made up, was a work of his own creation."

"He really lived in that world, and the parameters and fantasies of that world were as real to him as anything else," he added. "It was just his reality. Those manic episodes were the experience he was having, just like anything else."

Ed Gein never met the FBI profilers who inspired 'Mindhunter.'

The final episode of Monster: The Ed Gein Story gives a fictionalized depiction of the killer's final years in a Wisconsin mental hospital. At the start of the episode, we follow FBI agents John Douglas and Robert Ressler as they interview serial killer Jerry Brudos as part of the newly-created Behavioral Science Unit. At the end of the talk, Brudos directs the pair to Gein, mentioning he could help with their investigation into Ted Bundy.

Douglas and Ressler did lead the Behavioral Science Unit in the latter half of the 1970s; their work profiling incarcerated serial killers is the inspiration behind Netflix's acclaimed series Mindhunter. This scene even has an Easter egg for fans of the David Fincher series; Jerry Brudos is played by Happy Anderson, the same actor who played the real-life killer in Mindhunter. Brennan admitted to Tudum that the reference was intentional.

"We wanted to underline the last thing tonally that through Silence of the Lambs, [Gein] really influenced Mindhunter as well," Brennan says. "That would be a fun way to put a cap on it, to use this other filmic vocabulary and then talk about the ways that he was part of those early days of FBI profiling."

Monster's scene of Gein's interview with the FBI agents, where he gives important tips that lead to the capture of Bundy, does look like it could slot into the long-rumored Mindhunter season 3. However, Ed Gein never appeared in Mindhunter, and in real life, there's no record that the FBI ever spoke with Gein. Douglas did analyze Gein as a case study in his 1998 book Obsession: The FBI's Legendary Profiler Probes the Psyches of Killers, Rapists and Stalkers and Their Victims and Tells How to Fight Back, but Ed Gein had no part in the work that inspired Mindhunter.

'Monster' hints that Ed Gein's involvement in the arrest of Ted Bundy was a delusion.

In the final episode of Monster: The Ed Gein Story, the veil between Gein's imagination and reality is paper-thin. The finale illustrates that Gein's involvement in Ted Bundy's capture was "a delusion that the hospital nurses take in stride," per Tudum. This imagining is the most realistic of the episode, in which Gein also meets Adeline one last time and communicates with his lifelong obsessions, Ilse Koch and Christine Jorgensen, via a ham radio.

The finale ends with two controversial scenes: one where Gein imagines himself being praised by the many killers his crimes inspired, and another where Gein, on his deathbed, ascends a staircase to be greeted by his mother. By leaning into his delusions, the Monster: The Ed Gein Story hammers in the show's argument, both leaning on Gein's legacy as the man who became one of the earliest true-crime obsessions and highlighting how his mental illness was integral to telling his story.

"It’s a really interesting sort of atonal note that we hit at the end, which I think in a way is right, because we’ve been with him for so long, but he’s also a ghoul," Brennan said of the episode. "He’s also this deeply strange man who did really, really dark things that changed our culture."

The problem with the creative liberties taken in 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'

In addition to drawing criticism that the show is glorifying murderers (which Monster has faced throughout its three seasons), the creative liberties it takes—be it in the finale’s final moments or in more minor details throughout—exemplify the show’s hazy relationship with the "true" portion of "true crime."

For instance, while Ilse Koch's trial was widely reported in the U.S., Gein never made any public statements about her, so it's unknown whether she actually influenced his crimes. Also, there's no historical evidence that Gein was ever obsessed with Jorgensen. Brennan told Tudum that he thought it was "cool" to have Jorgensen be the one to tell Gein that his obsession with the female body didn't make him trans, but in real life, there's no evidence that Gein ever crossdressed or questioned his gender. As queer critics have pointed out, the brief clarification comes after Monster spent most of its runtime indulging in transphobic tropes, which isn't great considering the current political climate.

It’s also worth noting that there is no widely known evidence that killers like Bundy or Ed Kemper ever made recorded statements about Gein. Instead, any later cases that had similarities, such as defiling human remains or a toxic relationship with one’s mother, were only "influenced by" Gein in the true-crime canon solely through similarity.

Monster’s habit of fictionalizing also lent to some of what was depicted between Gein and Psycho. As Monster shows, both Robert Bloch's 1959 novel and Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film drew inspiration from media coverage of Gein. However, Bloch has said that he was merely inspired by the circumstances of Gein—"the notion that the man next door may be a monster unsuspected even in the gossip-ridden microcosm of small-town life." A Hitchcock scholar also told Business Insider that most of the details of Monster's Psycho episodes, including Hitchcock making a replica of Gein's house and telling Perkins that he cast the actor because he was closeted, don't hew to the director's real-life practices at all.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story may be a “true-crime” series, but it constantly turns toward fiction, from leaning on flimsy connections between Gein and other historical figures to depicting the killers committing murders he was never found guilty of in real life. If telling the Ed Gein story requires playing fast and loose with true events, does it need to be told?

This article contains discussions of kidnapping, abuse, and murder.

The Ryan Murphy television universe has become known for two things: shocking stories that fictionalize real-life events, and unexpected castings with pop-culture buzziest stars. These traits come together in the newly released Monster: The Ed Gein Story, which features the character of Evelyn Hartley, played by former TikTok star and rising pop princess Addison Rae.

In the eight-episode Netflix series, Evelyn is a local babysitter who's killed by Gein when their professional paths cross. Though the real Ed Gein did babysit children, as one of his many odd jobs, Hartley's real-life connection to the serial killer is more conjecture than fact. Below, we break down what we know about Evelyn Hartley's true story, and how it differs from the true-crime drama.

Who was Evelyn Hartley, the young woman played by Addison Rae in 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story?'

Introduced in episode 3 of Monster: The Ed Gein Story, the fictional Evelyn Hartley is a young woman living in Wisconsin who leaves her babysitting gig as she struggles with a polio diagnosis. Her replacement is Ed Gein, after his girlfriend Adeline Watkins accepts his marriage proposal.

This goes as horribly as expected; Ed brings the kids to his barn of human horrors and is subsequently fired. But when the family rehires Evelyn, Ed deludes himself into thinking that she stole the job out from under him. Soon after, he kidnaps Evelyn and takes her to his barn, murdering her in a disturbing sequence that echoes the hammer scene from the classic 1974 horror movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

The real Evelyn Grace Hartley was born in 1937, the daughter of a biology professor. In October 1953, the 15-year-old disappeared from a home in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where she was babysitting the 20-month-old daughter of another professor, Viggo Rasmussen. Though over 2,000 people were involved in her search party, Hartley was never found.

Did Ed Gein kill Evelyn Hartley?

In late 1957, Ed Gein was arrested following the murder of hardware-store owner Bernice Worden (played by Lesley Manville in Monster). Gein eventually confessed to killing both Worden and tavern owner Mary Hogan, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, as well as digging up "nine or 10" graves to harvest body parts.

At that time, Gein was also reportedly questioned about the disappearances of more women and girls, including Evelyn Hartley and 8-year-old Georgia Weckler. Though Gein was visiting family near the Rasmussen home on the night Hartley vanished, Gein maintained his innocence, and none of Hartley's DNA was found at his barn. In November 1957, police announced that Gein was cleared of any connection to both Hartley and Weckler's cases. However, many still believed he could be involved (hence her inclusion in the fictional series).

The latest installment of Ryan Murphy’s Monster franchise might initially focus on the 1950s Wisconsin-based serial killer Ed Gein, but the Netflix series extends beyond Gein’s immediate atrocities and into the Hollywood horror stories he inspired. One of those films is the classic Alfred Hitchcock thriller Psycho, which borrows Gein’s obsession with his mother to fuel the main character Norman Bates, who was played by actor Anthony Perkins.

Fictionalized versions of Hitchcock and Perkins appear in Monster: The Ed Gein Story, and the series also contends with Perkins’s real life and how the role of Norman Bates affected both his career and his psyche. Ahead, we’ll unpack what the true-crime drama got right about Perkins and what liberties it took in its portrayal.

Anthony Perkins was likely queer in real life.

Perkins never officially came out of the closet, given the era’s conservatism, but was known to have homosexual lovers, including fellow actor Tab Hunter, who is depicted in the show’s second episode. Hunter and Perkins allegedly dated for four years before Perkins filmed Psycho. While Monster: The Ed Gein Story depicts an argument about whether or not Perkins should take the role as the demise of their relationship, it’s not clear whether that happened in real life. Hunter called Perkins a “special part of my journey” in his memoir Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star, which detailed his struggles with his sexuality during that time in Hollywood.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story shows Perkins with another homosexual lover as Psycho is released in theaters. In the series, his partner pleasures him in the theater, and after the movie is over, Perkins promptly breaks up with him by announcing that he’s going to marry a woman. While there is no record that Perkins was dating anyone during the filming of or immediately after the release of Psycho, it is believed that he dated dancer and choreographer Grover Dale through the 1960s.

Perkins later married a woman named Berry Berenson in 1973, with whom he had two kids—Longlegs director Oz Perkins and musician Elvis Perkins. In an interview with The Irish Times, Oz stated that his father’s sexuality was not something they discussed in their house. “The surprise about it was that it was no surprise. Right? The surprise was that we hadn’t been talked to about it,” he said in 2024. “I don’t know who would have that talk. Maybe, even today, I’m not sure how that conversation goes for people whose public lives don’t allow it. I don’t know how that conversation happens with children.”

Perkins did endure conversion therapy.

After filming a harrowing scene of Psycho, the Netflix series shows Perkins leaving the set for a therapy appointment. He meets with psychotherapist Mildred Newman and tells her that “the act of sodomy felt monstrous” and that he gets sick every time he sleeps with his boyfriend. Newman, a well-known proponent of conversion therapy, suggests he take care of this affliction with a lobotomy, electroshock, or conversion therapy.

Of course, we’ll never know the exact conversations that Perkins and Newman had, but it is reported that Perkins agreed to undergo conversion therapy. Soon after, he married Berenson.

Perkins felt typecast after acting in 'Psycho.'

The role of Norman Bates was a career-defining one for Perkins—for better or worse. Perkins allegedly felt that he was typecast as a villain in Hollywood. He even bought out the remainder of his Paramount contract to move to Europe and start his career afresh there. He made his European film debut in Goodbye Again in 1961, which earned him a Best Actor Bravo Otto nomination, a Bambi Award nomination, the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, and a David di Donatello Award for Best Actor.

Hitchcock cast Perkins because of his closeted homosexuality.

In the Monster series, Hitchcock (played by Tom Hollander) takes Perkins (Joey Pollari) on a tour of the Psycho set, which is fashioned after the gruesome house where Gein stashed his victim’s body parts. Hitchcock tells Perkins that he knows about his “secret,” and that he cast him in the role of Norman Bates precisely because he is like him.

While we don’t have access to the conversations or private moments between the actor and director, another fictionalized account of this time period suggests something similar. The 2012 film Hitchcock hints that the titular director knew of Perkins’s sexuality, and that this led Hitchcock to believe Perkins had the traits to play a character who must conceal large parts of himself. The 2012 film also mentions Perkins’s close relationship with his mother to be a driving force for his casting. In one scene, Hitchcock’s wife Alma says, “Anthony Perkins. Imagine the duality he could bring to the role of Norman. The rage lurking behind that little boy grin. The winsome charm he uses to keep from being found out.”

The recreation of the 'Psycho' shower scene is much more brutal than the original.

In Ryan Murphy and showrunner Ian Brennan’s version of Psycho’s famous shower scene—in which Norman Bates, dressed up as his mother, stabs Janet Leigh’s Marion Crane—there’s nudity and a much more explicit stabbing than Hitchcock’s original version. That was by design. Monster’s executive producer Max Winkler told Variety, “We tried to put our own spin on it. The shower scene is significantly more brutal because our perspective of it is via Hitchcock, the monster for bringing this into movies that were not like that before.”

Winkler added that Perkins’s view of himself also played into the performance. “He himself felt like a monster because he had these feelings of being a homosexual and didn’t know who to talk to about it, and his own therapist told him that he should get a lobotomy,” Winkler said.

'Monster: The Ed Gein Story' comments on pop culture’s obsession with true crime and horror.

The infamy of Ed Gein is crystallized in a moment of fourth-wall breaking during a scene with Anthony Perkins filming Psycho. Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein appears and speaks directly into the camera, saying, “You’re the one who can’t look away.”

“He’s turning it on the viewer and saying, 'Are we the monsters because we’re watching this?',” Winkler said of the moment. “I know we are because we’re making it. But our point of view is it’s the monetization and fetishization of these really fucked up people, and it’s really heady.”

A fascinating aspect of any serialized true crime story is the peek into the killer’s personal life—their interactions with romantic partners, friends, and family can provide an insightful angle into their psyche. Monster: The Ed Gein Story doesn’t disappoint in this area, as Ryan Murphy’s latest Netflix series portrays the titular murderer’s relationship with neighbor Adeline Watkins—and positions it front and center.

While it was initially reported to be a “top-secret role,” it’s now confirmed that rising actress Suzanna Son plays the serial killer’s reported 20-year love interest in the true crime drama. As the series follows Gein's life and his influence on the horror genre at large, Son's Adeline is depicted as a lifelong partner and confidant of the titular killer (who's played by Charlie Hunnam).

But Gein and Watkins’s relationship apparently wasn’t exactly what it was reported to be on the surface. With conflicting reports and words allegedly taken out of context, Watkins eventually refuted the alleged two-decade-long romance. Ahead, we break down the true story between Ed Gein and Adeline Watkins, including what was fact and fiction in Monster: The Ed Gein Story.

A 1957 report claimed Adeline Watkins was in a long-term relationship with Ed Gein.

In a 1957 Minneapolis Tribune interview (republished in the Wisconsin State Journal), Watkins admitted to dating Gein for over 20 years. She described the serial killer as “good and kind and sweet” and felt that she was “taking advantage of him” when he gave in to activities that she wanted to pursue.

In opening up about their relationship, Watkins said she and Gein regularly discussed books even though they rarely read the same ones. “Eddie liked books about lions and tigers and Africa and India,” she told the paper. They also frequented movies and taverns, though it was Watkins who liked beer while Gein preferred a milkshake.

Hauntingly, she also claimed that the couple regularly discussed murders in the news. “Eddie told how the murderer did wrong, what mistakes he had made. I thought it was interesting,” Watkins said.

The newspaper stated that Ed Gein proposed to Adeline Watkins during their courtship.

When asked about the last time they saw each other, Watkins told the reporter that their last date was in 1955—two years before the interview. “That night he proposed to me,” she said before clarifying. “Not in so many words, but I knew what he meant.”

Watkins continued, “I turned him down, but not because there was anything wrong with him. It was something wrong with me. I guess I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to live up to what he expected of me.” Even after his crimes came to light, Watkins said, “I loved him and I still do.” Watkins’s mother also played into her story, recalling Gein as a “sweet, polite man” who always had her daughter back home by her 10 p.m. curfew.

Soon after the report was published, Adeline Watkins declared the story an “exaggerated” rendition of the truth.

Approximately two weeks after the Wisconsin State Journal story was published, Watkins retracted her claims about a 20-year romance with Gein. In an article in the Stevens Point Journal, Watkins called the story about their relationship “exaggerated…blown up out of proportion to its importance and containing untrue statements.”

She clarified that, while they had known one another for 20 years, their romantic relationship lasted less than a year. “Actually, Miss Watkins declared, Gein had called on her for only seven months, and then only intermittently,” the report in the Stevens Point Journal stated. “She said Gein during this short period stopped at the Watkins home on some afternoons or evenings and that the couple had attended shows at the Plainfield Theater ‘a few times.’” Further, Watkins also refuted the claims that she and her mother thought of Gein as “sweet.”

Adeline Watkins maintained her distance from Ed Gein after his criminal activity was exposed.

In the new report, Watkins said she had never entered Gein’s home, where severed body parts from his victims and a shrine to his mother, Augusta Gein, were housed. While she called him “quiet and polite,” Watkins claimed she and Gein were not close.

Gein himself also never spoke publicly about Watkins.

Charlie Hunnam believes the 'Monster' version of Adeline Watkins is "a fantasy of Ed's."

In its fictionalized telling of Gein's life, Monster presents Watkins as a woman obsessed with disturbing media who eventually becomes Gein's accomplice over the course of their relationship. As Time points out, she seems to get off on Gein's most heinous acts and, in a brief period where she moves to N.Y.C. to meet crime-scene photographer Weegee, even becomes a murderer herself. Her storyline is a fictional invention of the show's writers, as all we know about the real-life Adeline is from her interviews.

Both in real life and in Monster, Gein was diagnosed with schizophrenia after his arrest. In an interview with Tudum, show co-creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan explained that the events in the series take place from Gein's perspective, and the audience is meant to question what is reality and what is just in Ed's head. This includes whether the faithful Adeline, who remains by his side, is just a figment of his imagination.

When posed the question, star Hunnam said, "My interpretation was that she’s in a large part a fantasy of Ed’s. He finds, whether in reality or in his mind, this sort of kindred spirit with Adeline, somebody who can relate and to understand these primal urges and instincts that he has."

This article contains discussions of kidnapping, abuse, and murder.

In the television landscape today, there’s no shortage of serialized true crime stories—many of them from creator and writer Ryan Murphy. Within his Netflix deal, Murphy has already covered the stories of Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers, and when his Monster franchise returns on October 3, it will explore the 1950s Wisconsin-based serial killer Ed Gein. Also known as the Butcher of Plainfield, the notorious “bodysnatcher” and murderer will be played by Charlie Hunnam.

Unlike previous Monster installments, the Ed Gein version will also explore the killer’s infamy and depiction in horror films, with fictionalized versions of filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock and Tobe Hooper included in the series. Read on to find out who will be embodying these famous names and the other major characters in Gein’s life in the cast of Monster: The Ed Gein Story.

Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein

Ed Gein was a convicted serial killer from Wisconsin, also known as the Butcher of Plainfield. Active during the 1950s, Gein’s heinous crimes inspired the novel and film adaptation Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Before leading Netflix's latest true crime series, Charlie Hunnam, 45, rose to fame for his main role in Sons of Anarchy. He has also appeared on TV shows like Queer as Folk, Undeclared, and the adaptation of Shantaram. His film roles include The Lost City of Z, Triple Frontier, and Pacific Rim.

Laurie Metcalf as Augusta Gein

Augusta was Ed Gein's mother, described as “controlling, puritanical, fervently religious, and domineering.” Ed eventually became obsessed with his mother, and their relationship was the crux of Psycho.

Laurie Metcalf, 70, is a decorated theater legend and known for her work on TV shows such as Roseanne, 3rd Rock From the Sun, and Getting On. She received acclaim and awards attention for her role in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, and appeared in other films, including JFK, Georgia Rule, and Scream 2.

Suzanna Son as Adelina

Adeline Watkins was a woman allegedly romantically involved with Gein for 20 years, who defended him even after his convictions. Watkins later refuted the articles, claiming her words were taken out of context.

Suzanna Son, 29, made her film debut in 2021 in the Sean Baker film Red Rocket. Following her breakout, she starred in the HBO series The Idol as well as the Netflix film Fear Street: Prom Queen.

Tom Hollander as Alfred Hitchcock

Tom Hollander plays Alfred Hitchcock, an acclaimed English film director who directed the horror film Psycho, which is based on Gein’s story. He was known as the “Master of Suspense” for his work on influential noirs and thrillers, from Rear Window to Vertigo to North by Northwest. He garnered a whopping 46 Oscar nominations throughout his career, taking home six trophies, but never won Best Director, even though he was nominated in the category five times.

You might recognize Hollander, 58, from his scene-stealing role on season 2 of The White Lotus, but the British actor’s career dates back to the 1980s. He began on stage before transitioning to the screen with roles in both TV and film, including Gosford Park, Pride & Prejudice, Pirates of the Caribbean, Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, in which he played the titular famed author Truman Capote, and more.

Vicky Krieps as Isle Koch

Ilse Koch was a Nazi war criminal nicknamed the “Witch of Buchenwald.” She and her husband, Karl-Otto Koch, made lampshades from human skin from the concentration camps. It is believed that Gein was influenced by the Kochs to make a lampshade from the skin of one of his victims.

Vicky Krieps, 41, broke out via the 2017 Paul Thomas Anderson film Phantom Thread. She has also appeared in films like Hanna, Old, and Corsage—the latter of which earned her a European Film Award for Best Actress. Later this year, she will appear in the ensemble cast of the Jim Jarmusch film Father Mother Sister Brother.

Olivia Williams as Alma Reville

Alma Reville was Hitchcock’s wife and a screenwriter and film editor in her own right. She was known for her attention to detail, famously noticing Janet Leigh swallowing after her character dies in Psycho, forcing an alteration to the negative.

Olivia Williams, 57, rose to fame in the 1997 British television film Emma. She has starred in films like The Postman, Rushmore, The Sixth Sense, An Education, Anna Karenina, and more. More recently, she played Camilla Parker Bowles in the final seasons of The Crown.

Lesley Manville as Bernice Worden

Bernice Worden was Ed Gein's final victim, whom he killed in November 1957. She was a local hardware store owner, and her son, a deputy, helped connect the dots to Gein.

Lesley Manville, 69, is an acclaimed British actress across stage and screen. She has a notable collaboration with director Mike Leigh, having appeared in eight of his films, including Secrets & Lies, Topsy-Turvy, and Vera Drake. Her performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread earned her Academy Award and British Academy Film Award nominations. Manville’s other film appearances include Queer, Maleficent, and Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, and she has also appeared on TV shows like The Crown, Citadel, and Disclaimer.

Joey Pollari as Anthony Perkins

Anthony Perkins was an actor best known for his role as Norman Bates in Psycho. He was a major star during the Old Hollywood era, acting opposite names like Audrey Hepburn, and held roles in films like The Trial and Murder on the Orient Express. He tragically was forced to hide his sexuality from his public life and died of AIDS-related complications in the ‘90s. His son, Osgood Perkins, carries on his legacy by writing/directing horror films today (many of which are inspired by his relationships with his family, including Longlegs, The Monkey, and The Blackcoat’s Daughter).

Joey Pollari, 31, is best known for his roles on American Crime and the film Love, Simon. Pollari has also appeared on the TV shows SEAL Team and Sugar, as well as LGBTQ+ films like The Obituary of Tunde Johnson and Things Like This.

Charlie Hall as Deputy Frank Worden

Deputy Worden was the son of Bernice Worden, who was Gein’s final victim. The Deputy became suspicious of Gein and played a key role in the investigation.

Charlie Hall, 28, has appeared in popular TV shows like Bel-Air, Single Drunk Female, Sex Lives of College Girls, and Love, Victor. This is his second collaboration with Ryan Murphy after appearing in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, in which he played Erik’s best friend Craig. The son of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall, he also briefly appeared in his mom’s hit comedy Veep.

Tyler Jacob Moore as Sheriff Schley

Not much is known about Sheriff Schley except that “he was infamously photographed with Gein after he confessed to murdering two women and robbing graves,” according to PEOPLE. In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Moore called the real Sheriff Schley “a very real, & genuinely good & decent man.”

Tyler Jacob Moore, 42, is best known for playing Tony Markovich on Shameless and Prince Hans in Once Upon a Time. He also appeared in Perry Mason, Ride, Paradise, and SEAL Team.

Addison Rae as Evelyn

Evelyn Hartley was a 14 year-old American teenager who mysteriously disappeared in 1953 in LaCrosse County, Wisconsin. Hartley’s disappearance was never solved.

Addison Rae, 24, rose to fame on TikTok before becoming an actress and musician. She starred in the films He’s All That and Thanksgiving, while her single “Diet Pepsi” went platinum. Earlier this year, she dropped her debut album, Addison, to acclaim and is now out on tour to support it.

Will Brill as Tobe Hooper

Tobe Hooper was an American filmmaker best known for directing and co-writing the original 1974 version of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, one of the first slasher films and most influential horror films in history, which was loosely inspired by Ed Gein.

Will Brill, 39, is best known for his stage career. On Broadway, he appeared in the reimagined 75th-anniversary revival of Oklahoma! and Stereophonic, for which he won a Tony Award. On TV, he acted on The OA, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Fellow Travelers, and he also recently appeared in the Darren Aronofsky film Caught Stealing.

Mimi Kennedy as Mildred Newman

Mildred Newman was a psychologist known for her controversial views on the extremely harmful practice of conversion therapy, which she performed on actor Anthony Perkins to “cure” his homosexuality.

Mimi Kennedy, 77, rose to fame on the sitcoms Dharma & Greg and Mom. Her film credits include Erin Brockovich, Midnight in Paris, and The Five-Year Engagement.

Robin Weigert as Enid Watkins

Not much is known about Enid Watkins, though her last name indicates that she will be a relative of Gein’s longtime girlfriend, Adeline Watkins.

Robin Weigert, 56, is best known for her starring roles on TV shows like Deadwood, Sons of Anarchy, Big Little Lies, Tracker, and the miniseries Angels in America. She also received acclaim for the 2013 film Concussion.

This article contains discussions of sexual assault and suicide. If you, or someone you know, has been a victim of sexual assault or harassment and would like help, visit RAINN.org.

Netflix's latest true-crime documentary Unknown Number: The High School Catfish follows an intense case of cyberbullying with an unbelievable culprit. In October 2020, 13-year-old Lauryn Licari and her then-boyfriend Owen McKenny began receiving anonymous text messages. The sender seemed to be a fellow preteen who wanted Owen for themselves, but after months of harassment, authorities couldn't find the guilty party in the small town of Beal City, Michigan. It took the FBI getting involved to find the person behind the texts: Lauryn's own mother, Kendra Licari.

Since Unknown Number's premiere on August 29, viewers have flooded social media with their shocked reactions to Kendra's actions. The wildest part of the true-crime film is the inclusion of Kendra herself, first appearing as a concerned parent before it's revealed that she was the one sending the wildly inappropriate texts to children. For anyone still trying to pick their jaws up off the floor, here's a primer on the events of Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, including what we know about Kendra's life after the documentary wrapped.

What happened to Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenny in 'Unknown Number'?

By October 2020 in Beal City, Michigan, Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenny had been dating for about a year. The couple started receiving anonymous text messages; the sender claimed that Owen was in love with them and was going to break up with Lauryn.

The initial harassment only lasted a few weeks, but in September 2021, it restarted, with the pair receiving 30 to 50 texts a day. The sender called Lauryn by her nickname, "Lo," and mentioned knowledge that only someone close could be privy to, such as specific conversations in their classes. The messages were sent from multiple different numbers and area codes, so the teens could not stop receiving them without changing their numbers, which the families chose not to do.

In the documentary, Lauryn describes losing her confidence due to cruel messages which criticized her looks and her clothes. Many of the texts also included vulgar sexual innuendo toward Owen.

Lauryn began to lose trust in Owen, after receiving texts claiming that the sender was spending time with him. After two years of dating, the pair broke up due to the strain, but the messages worsened after the split. The sender began sending Lauryn threats like "kill yourself now b****" and "his life would be better if you were dead." Meanwhile, when Owen began dating a girl in another town, the sender started texting his new girlfriend's parents, leading to another break-up. Both Lauryn and Owen's parents were afraid for their kids' mental health and the emotional toll of the harassment.

How was Kendra Licari caught in 'Unknown Number'?

Fifteen months after the messages started, school administration got the police involved. The cops investigated several students—including Owen's friend Khloe Wilson, who allegedly had a history of bullying—but no hard evidence came up. In April 2022, the cops brought in the FBI, who tracked down two IP addresses behind all of the anonymous numbers. None of Owen's friends' phone numbers matched with the IPs, but one adult's number did: Lauryn's mom.

Unknown Number shows the body cam footage from August 2022, when officers confronted Kendra at home, got a confession, and informed Lauryn that her mom was behind the texts. In the doc, law enforcement and the school's superintendent lay out all of Kendra's suspicious behavior over the 20-month period. She had allegedly tried to "interject herself in the investigation," checking in with police multiple times. She worked in IT. She helped coach Lauryn's basketball and baseball teams and could've been present at the school to hear details that were included in the messages.

It's also revealed that Kendra had been lying to her family for a long time about her career. Though she'd made it seem like she was still working, she had lost both her jobs over a year prior, which was how she had the time to send so many texts. The Licari family had been going through financial difficulties, even been evicted from one home, but Kendra was the one managing the household's money and had somehow covered up her lack of income. (At one point, Kendra's cousin accuses her of possible insurance fraud.)

Why did Kendra Licari catfish her daughter Lauryn in 'Unknown Number'?

After the doc's big reveal, Kendra gets a chance to defend herself in a talking-head interview. She claims that someone else sent the first messages in October 2020, and that she later continued the texts to help catch whoever it was. (None of the doc's subjects believe this.) Kendra claims that she was in an "awful place mentally" during that period, that everything spiraled, and she didn't know how to stop sending the texts. She also compares her "mistakes" to driving drunk, arguing, "Realistically, a lot of us have probably broken the law at some point or another and not gotten caught."

When asked about the suicide messages, Kendra says she was never worried about Lauryn killing herself, because of the bond they shared. At the end of the film, Kendra says that unresolved trauma from a sexual assault in her past may have led to the harassment.

"As [Lauryn] started getting older, I had things that were suppressed come forward. A lot of it was previous trauma starting to resurface that I didn't know how to handle. When I was 17, I was raped, and as my daughter was hitting those teenage years, I got scared," Kendra says in the film. "I wanted to try to control the outcome of her journey. I was afraid of letting her grow up. I was scared of what could happen to her."

Though no mental health experts are interviewed in the documentary, the school's superintendent and Kendra's cousin do theorize that Kendra could have been suffering from a sort of "cyber Munchausen's" syndrome by proxy, where she was bullying Lauryn so that she would require her mom's love and support, and Kendra could "play the hero." Owen and his mother also allege that Kendra was inappropriately attracted to Owen to the point of obsession, mentioning that Kendra would attend all of Owen's sporting events, even after he and Lauryn broke up. (Kendra does not address the Owen allegations in the film.)

Where is Kendra Licari now after the events of 'Unknown Number'?

Kendra Licari was arrested in December 2022 and charged with five counts, including stalking of a minor and obstruction of justice. She took a deal and pled guilty to two counts of stalking a minor, one for Lauryn and one for Owen. On April 16, 2023, Kendra was sentenced to a minimum of 19 months and a maximum of five years in prison. She was released on parole on August 8, 2024, and will be a parolee until February 2026, per Today.

Kendra, who is now 45, is reportedly living in Michigan. Per The Cut, she is now divorced from Lauryn's father, Shawn Licari, who won full custody of Lauryn. Kendra has not spoken publicly since the documentary's release.

Speaking to Tudum, Unknown Number director Skye Borgman confirmed that Kendra still wants to be part of her daughter's life, but the filmmaker shared her doubts on whether that's possible. "She’s remorseful that she has severely altered her relationship with her daughter in most likely a negative way. I mean, will they have a relationship? Will they get through this? I don’t know," Borgman said. "There will probably be some kind of relationship. Will it be the same? Absolutely not. There’s no way it can be the same."

Where is Lauryn Licari now after the events of 'Unknown Number'?

Lauryn Licari was 13 years old when the events of Unknown Number began; as of the documentary's release, she is now 18. She not spoken publicly about the film since its release. The documentary's ending title card reads, "Lauryn is planning to attend college and study criminology."

According to Borgman, Lauryn's thoughts on her mother's actions changed throughout the documentary's filming. When Lauryn's initial interview took place in the spring of 2023, the teen was adamant that she wanted to reconnect with her mother. Lauryn and Kendra's closeness had even become a concern during the trial, and the judge had banned Kendra from contacting her victims.

While Kendra was incarcerated, the mother and daughter communicated via email; by the time Kendra filmed her scenes following her release, it had been a year and a half since the pair had seen each other in person. In another interview following Kendra's release, Lauryn said that she would see her mother "when the time is right."

"I think I want to trust her now, but I don’t think I can," Lauryn says in the film. "Now that she’s out, I just want her to get the help she needs so then when we see each other, it doesn’t go back to the old ways and how it was before."

Recalling the change in Lauryn's mindset, Borgman explained that by 2024, the teen had started to process her mother’s actions and "wanted to approach the relationship with more caution in our second interview."

The director added of the now 18-year-old, "She is at the beginning of figuring out that she can be the one in charge, that she can make all the decisions for herself and for her relationship with her mother,” Borgman says. “I think that’s going to be a really interesting place for Lauryn to explore."

On March 20, 1974, a man attempted to abduct Princess Anne, injuring four people, including her chauffeur, Alex Callender, and a private detective named James Beaton. Now, Princess Anne's attempted kidnapper, Ian Ball, has spoken about the ordeal an interview, revealing he was "scared" during the incident.

As reported by the Daily Mail, a then-26-year-old Ball "was detained 'without limit of time' under the Mental Health Act after admitting attempted kidnap and two attempted murders." After being sent to a high-security psychiatric hospital, Ball was released in 2019, and has since claimed his innocence, per the outlet.

"I'm an innocent, sane man because I had good reason to believe the gunpowder had been taken out of the bullets and another girl had been substituted for Princess Anne," Ball told the Daily Mail in an interview.

Ball also shockingly discussed Princess Anne's supposed reaction during his attempted abduction, telling the publication, "She wasn't bothered on the night...I didn't scare her. I was more scared than she was."

Claiming that the entire incident was a "hoax," Ball told the Daily Mail in his new interview, "[Princess Anne] said, 'You just go away and nobody will think any more about it', which fueled the belief that I thought it was a hoax." He continued, "At the time I thought it wasn't Princess Anne in the car. She looked nothing like Princess Anne. The personality was nothing like Princess Anne."

The Guardian further reported, "In the attempt to drag Anne away, [Ball] shot her bodyguard, chauffeur, a police officer, and a journalist. The princess was said to have infamously retorted 'not bloody likely' [when Ball tried to kidnap her]."

According to the Daily Mail, "It was only by chance that no-one died" during the attack, when "a passing boxer helped police to subdue" Ball before he could allegedly cause any more injuries.

“I always write about what I know,” Kevin Williamson, creator of the new Netflix series The Waterfront, told Tudum in June 2025. That’s an ideology he employed while creating his hit 2000s series Dawson’s Creek and Vampire Diaries, and now extends to his latest North Carolina-set show. But this series, starring Holt McCallany, Maria Bello, and Melissa Benoist, is much more personal than just centering on the location of his childhood. The Waterfront follows a failing family fishing business that is forced to smuggle drugs illegally via their boats to save their company—a storyline that mirrors Williamson’s childhood.

While Harlan Buckley (played by McCallany) is part of a deeper crime syndicate on the show, Williamson maintains his father was “a very, very good man [who] got tempted to do some things that weren’t so legal and got in some trouble.”

Williamson has admitted that even beyond the crime at the center of the show, The Waterfront’s plot and characters draw from his childhood in coastal North Carolina. Below is a breakdown of the true story and inspirations behind The Waterfront, which is now streaming on Netflix.

What is the true story that inspired 'The Waterfront?'

Though much of The Waterfront is fictionalized, Williamson did grow up in a fishing community, surrounded by fishermen, and his father was arrested on drug charges in his childhood. “I come from a family of fishermen—not just my father, but the entire family,” he told TIME. “Everyone I knew was a fisherman.” But when the industry began drying up in the ‘80s due to overfishing and environmental regulations, his dad, Wade, became desperate to make ends meet and began using his boats to run drugs. “Someone came along and said, ‘If you do this one thing, you can make all this money.’ And it was hard to say no,” the showrunner recalled. Williamson’s father was arrested for “conspiracy to traffic marijuana—20,000 pounds,” an event that has stayed with the writer for years.

While Wade served less than a year in prison, Williamson said the effect reverberated throughout their small community. “They didn’t just arrest my dad. They arrested a whole bunch of people. It was part of a cartel. They were the low men in the operation,” he explained to TIME.

Still, Williamson accepts this as part of his family’s history and acknowledges how his father’s sacrifices ultimately gave him the life he has today. “It put food on the table, helped me go to college,” he recalled to Tudum.

This isn’t the first time Kevin Williamson has drawn inspiration from his dad’s life.

Close watchers may notice that Williamson has used this piece of family history in his work before. In the Dawson’s Creek pilot, Joey Potter (Katie Holmes) reveals that her dad is serving time for the same crime. “That was the beginning of me fictionalizing it, but I always knew I’d come back to it,” Williamson said.

Where was 'The Waterfront' filmed?

Williamson grew up in the oceanside town of Oriental, North Carolina, which served as the inspiration for The Waterfront’s fictional location, Havenport. The show was filmed in Southport, where Williamson filmed his classic slasher film, 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer.

To transform Southport, the production team rented fishing boats from Oriental and mirrored some of the restaurants to match the aesthetic of Williamson’s hometown. “Southport looks very much like how I grew up. It’s a seafood fresh-off-the-boat type of town,” he told TIME. “That’s where I got the idea for the Buckley fish house. It’s common in little port towns: restaurants attached to fish houses.”

Are the characters in 'The Waterfront' based on real people?

The gruff patriarch Harlan is largely lifted directly from Williamson’s father. “Holt [as Harlan] has the exact same straight John Wayne persona [as my dad],” Williamson told TIME. “That sense of humor, where he can just throw out a line, and it’s funny.”

Meanwhile, Belle, the matriarch portrayed by Bello, is “a testament to Williamson’s love for his mother,” according to Tudum.

The two adult children of the series, Bree (played by Melissa Benoist) and Cane (Jake Weary), are variations of Williamson himself. Bree speaks to the “extreme” addictive parts of himself, whereas Cane is how he imagines himself had he stayed in the small fishing town.

Kevin Williamson always planned to tell his father’s life story.

Though Williamson has dabbled in telling this story before, he has always wanted to tell the full, darker story eventually. “I wanted to wait until my dad died,” Williamson told TV Insider. “I told him, ‘When you die, I’m gonna tell your story.’ He was always like, ‘Okay.’”

But during the pandemic, the significant amount of alone time gave Williamson the itch to start writing this story earlier than planned. His father was on board, but now sad that he wouldn’t get to see his life story fictionalized for the screen. “He was like, ‘Oh, I wish you had told the story a lot sooner than now. I’m not gonna be around for it,’” Williamson recalled.

Unfortunately, his father was right—Wade died in October 2020. “A beautiful, gentle, wickedly funny, kind, call’s it like he sees it, fisherman,” Williamson’s tribute read. “He spent his life making sure I had a better one. A king, a superhero, and my Dad.”

This article contains discussions of sexual assault, abuse, and suicide. If you, or someone you know, has been a victim of sexual assault or harassment and would like help, visit RAINN.org.

Not all true crime is created equal, and the real story behind British serial killers Fred and Rose West is one of the most depraved in recent memory. The married couple was responsible for the deaths of at least 12 young women and girls from the 1960s to the 1990s, including multiple of their own children and step-children. A new Netflix limited docuseries that premiered on May 15, Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story, recounts the horrors committed by “two of the U.K.’s most prolific murderers” via recently discovered police reports and first-person accounts, and resurfaces the story of the deadly duo to new audiences.

The investigation into Fred and Rose’s crimes finally came to an end after one child’s assault was reported in May 1992, and their other children were placed in foster care, where they spoke about a disturbing “family joke” that they could end up like their missing sister Heather. Considering the true crime case is a lot to unpack, ahead, we’re breaking down the legal proceedings and providing an update on where Fred and Rose West are now. Please proceed with caution, as the details are upsetting.

How did Fred and Rose West get caught?

The Wests repeatedly assaulted their 13-year-old daughter Louise in May 1992, a fact that she confided in a close friend a few weeks later. Louise’s friend’s mom anonymously tipped off the police, which led to a search warrant for the West’s home for an alleged tape of Louise’s rape by Fred. Louise was instructed to make a statement where she detailed her parents’ behavior, after which she and her siblings were placed in foster care.

This search warrant kicked off a more thorough police investigation. Fred was arrested for rape and sodomy, while Rose was listed as an accomplice and charged with child cruelty, inciting her husband to engage in sex with their daughter, and obstructing the police.

During the investigation, Fred’s step-daughter, Anna Marie, provided her own statement about the abuse she had endured and alerted the police to three missing persons: her mother Rena and half-sisters Charmaine and Heather. But in 1993, Anna Marie and Louise declined to testify in court out of fear that Rose might retaliate against their siblings, allowing all of these initial charges to be dropped.

Still, the police looked into Heather’s sudden disappearance and obtained another search warrant to look for her remains on the family’s property at 25 Cromwell Street in winter 1994. After repeatedly denying being involved in her death and lying about what happened, Fred eventually confessed to murdering Heather, and the police found her body buried in the garden along with three other bodies. Fred admitted to nine killings, including Charmaine, Rena, and “others to be identified.” He initially claimed that Rose was not involved, but the investigators believed otherwise. He later changed his tune during the pretrial when she seemed repulsed by him.

Where is Fred West now?

After confessing to murdering his daughter Heather, Fred was arrested in February 1994. Rose followed shortly after that, with an arrest in April 1994. The couple appeared in a magistrates's court in Gloucester in June of that year, where Fred was formally charged with 12 murders and Rose with nine. In court, Rose allegedly visibly winced at Fred’s touch, which, along with her refusal to reply to his letters and her public stance of innocence, reportedly drove him into a depression in prison.

Fred died by suicide via asphyxiation while in police custody in January 1995. He left a suicide note addressed to Rose and two of their children, Stephen and Mae, though the contents read like a love letter to Rose.

Where is Rose West now?

Following Fred’s death, Rose stood trial alone from October to November 1995 and was convicted of all 10 murder charges. The presiding Justice sentenced her to life imprisonment, and in 1997, the Home Secretary increased this to a “whole life order,” which removes any possibility for parole or conditional release. Now 71, she is still in jail at HM Prison New Hall in West Yorkshire.

What happened during Rose West’s trial?

During pretrial proceedings, Rose pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of murder. However, the judge allowed the prosecution to utilize testimony related to the sexual assault of three women, which helped to establish a pattern of behavior. Prosecution also invited a wide array of witnesses—from relatives, like Rose’s mother, to sexual partners—to testify to Rose’s aggressive behavior.

Rose herself also took the stand against her attorney’s suggestion, telling the court of the abuse she had endured as a child at the hands of her father. Accounts of her appearance reveal that her demeanor varied greatly between upbeat and sullen during her testimony.

Her conviction eventually came at the hands of the final witness, Janet Leach, who was assigned to Fred as his appropriate adult due to his illiteracy. Leach stated that Fred confided in her, divulging that he and Rose had made a pact for him to take the fall for all of their crimes. In his secret confession to Leach, he referred to a few of the murders as “some of Rose's mistakes,” and pinpointed the deaths of Charmaine and Shirley Robinson on Rose.

How many total victims did Fred and Rose West have?

While the couple is connected to at least 12 deaths, they likely had more victims. In recorded interviews before his death, Fred made allusions towards more murders, and he told Leach that he and Rose had killed at least 20 more people, though investigators have not been able to confirm their identities.

Where are Fred and Rose West’s children now?

The surviving children who witnessed and experienced abuse and violence have tried to move on from their difficult childhood. According to the Daily Mail, the siblings no longer speak to each other, even though some reportedly live within minutes of each other. “Too much has gone on,” the eldest son, Stephen, told the site. “It’s probably too painful for us.”

Media attention, including the release of the Netflix documentary, stirs up difficult emotions for the family. “It’s the children who live with the pain of what happened on a daily basis,” Anna Maria’s husband, Philip, said to the Daily Mail. “It's the siblings who live with the misery and pain of what went on in that house.”

Of the 10 children who lived at 25 Cromwell St.—which the media dubbed the “House of Horrors”—only seven are still alive. Heather and Charmaine were killed by their parents; Barry died of an overdose in 2020 at age 40. Four siblings are believed to have assumed new identities and moved to other parts of the country.

Investigation Discovery's true crime docuseries The Bakersfield 3: A Tale of Murder and Motherhood premieres Sunday, May 11 and streams on Max.

The series, based on a 2022 feature in Marie Claire titled Of Murder and Motherhood, traces the stories of three mothers in Bakersfield, California, united by parallel tragedies.

In the space of weeks in 2018, Diane "Di" Byrne's son James Kulstad, 38, was shot to death; Cheryl Holsonbake's son Micah Holsonbake, 34, went missing and was later confirmed to have been murdered; and Jane Parrent's daughter Baylee Parrent Despot went missing. To this day, Baylee has still never been found.

The three mothers soon came to believe that their children's fates were connected—dubbing them the Bakersfield 3—and forged an unbreakable bond with one another through the most horrific circumstances.

But, in the words of local crime reporter Olivia LaVoice, Di, Cheryl, and Jane were not just grieving mothers, "these are mothers that are in the middle of a full-blown investigation."

Together, the women did everything in their power to raise awareness of the intertwined cases, bring about justice for their kids, and help with similar cases happening in their local area.

All three episodes of this fascinating, tragic saga air May 11. Below, we take a look at the biggest takeaways to expect from episode 1, titled "One Mystery—or Three?"

Bakersfield Is a "Sleepy Little 'Burb"

The Bakersfield 3's parents bring attention to the incongruity of these horrible things happening to their kids in this "sleepy little 'burb," as Micah's dad Lance puts it.

"You can make an argument about Bakersfield being a terrible place," Lance says in the documentary. "You can make a good argument for Bakersfield being a very nice place."

Meanwhile, Lance's wife Cheryl explains about the murders and disappearances, "This is not happening in the 'bad part of town' under the cover of night. These are people doing this stuff in their garages around the corner from people who are just normal families."

Micah Holsonbake Had a Bright Future

The series begins by taking a closer look at Micah's life and death, told through the eyes of his parents Cheryl and Lance, and of his close friends.

Micah worked as a stockbroker, which his father took as evidence that he was doing okay. "I never worried about Micah," Lance said. "I always thought that he'd be alright. Micah will be alright. He's resourceful. He's independent. I always thought he'd be fine."

But when Micah stopped answering phone calls for days on end in the spring of 2018, his parents and friends knew that something was seriously wrong.

Cheryl was eventually able to file a missing persons report for Micah. After that, she said, "We had so many phone calls because you know he knew everybody."

A friend of his reinforced the idea of his popularity, explaining, "Micah's motto is 'I only go where I'm the show.'"

James Kulstad Wanted Out of Bakersfield

James Kulstad had moved to San Diego years before he was murdered—he loved it there, especially the surfing. But after being hit by a car in 2007, he became addicted to opioids, leading him down a dark path. Eventually, in the summer before he was shot, he moved back in with his mom Di in Bakersfield, but his priority was always to get back to San Diego. Tragically, he never got to.

Baylee Despot's Story Is Still a Mystery

Seven years on from when she first disappeared, Baylee has still never been found.

In the documentary, her mom Jane takes the viewer with her to put up flyers about her missing daughter. Every time she puts one up, she says the prayer: "One more day to find Baylee, one more day not to go crazy."

Jane will never give up until she knows what happened to her daughter, but the search has been grueling. "I have nowhere to look for Baylee, but I have everywhere to look for her," she says.

Di Byrne Was the First to Make the Connection Between James and Micah's Cases

After learning that Micah was missing, Di called Cheryl and told her that James had been killed, and that he had known Micah. The two men had met working at Wells Fargo, and had spent some time together.

Di ended up bringing Cheryl and Lance with her to see James' detective, Sgt. Garrett, who agreed that there could be a link between their cases.

And then, Micah's brother found out through someone in his circle that his family needed to speak to Baylee to find Micah.

How the Moms Came Together

When Baylee stopped answering her phone (and posting on Snapchat), her friends and family became worried. Eventually, Jane filed a missing persons report and began making somewhere between 5 and 10k flyers to post around the county.

That's how Lance found and messaged her.

All three moms spoke on the phone after that, and all three were convinced that their children's cases were connected.

At this point, they also got the crime reporter Olivia LaVoice involved, who has been following the case ever since, even hosting a podcast about the case.

How the "Bakersfield 3" Came to Be

Di's ex-husband Will came up with the name the "Bakersfield 3," which the group then used to help with their investigation.

Will then set up two Facebook pages to create community and discussion around the case, which brought James, Micah and Baylee's stories in front of more eyes.

Who Is Behind It All?

Episode 1 teases some of the theories about what could have happened to the Bakersfield 3, put forward by the families as well as Sgt. Garrett and Olivia LaVoice.

It's at this point in the episode that Jane reveals that Baylee had sadly been sex trafficked at some point before her disappearance. "She just met the wrong people who took advantage," Jane explained. "Because Baylee was a little naive still at that time."

Other players also explain that the county surrounding Bakersfield has the highest rate of murder in the state of California, in part because of its location on the freeway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Drugs are put forth as a factor, and possible suspect groups such as the Hell's Angels or Mexican cartels are mentioned, too.

Cheryl tells the cameras, "Somebody's got a hold on Rosedale," a neighborhood that all three families have had ties to.

Meanwhile, Di speaks about how hard it has been to get information out of people, because of a general "snitches get stitches" attitude. People, she says, are "fearful for their lives."

What to Expect From Episodes 2 and 3

Episode 2, "The Boogieman of Bakersfield," follows the families as the county discovers body parts belonging to Micah, seemingly confirming that the three cases are in fact connected.

We see how Micah, Baylee and James became involved with "dangerous local characters," including the man Baylee was living with when she disappeared, Matthew Queen.

Episode 3, "Fights Like a Mother," shows the police's search for Micah's killer, a course-changing arrest, and a dramatic press conference that could tear the mothers apart.

When you're looking to get lost in a book, sometimes you need your reading material to match your mood. With Marie Claire's series "Buy the Book," we do the heavy lifting for you. We're offering curated, highly specific recommendations for whatever you're looking for—whether you're in your feels or hooked on a subgenre trending on #BookTok.

In this author-curated rendition, "Crime Junkie" podcast host and All Good People Here and The Missing Half novelist Ashley Flowers shares her recommendations of her favorite crime books.

Ashley Flowers’ true-crime podcast “Crime Junkie” has been the most popular pod in the genre for years, so it’s no wonder that her love for mysteries runs deep. But beyond her fascination with infamous crimes, digging through public records, and researching unsolved cases, much of the podcaster/mystery author’s obsession dates back to her childhood reading material. She cites Nancy Drew books, the work of Agatha Christie, and, as she got older, twisty mystery-thrillers like The Poet by Michael Connelly as what got her hooked.

“I pretty quickly realized that mysteries don’t just happen in books, and often the real-life ones are more unbelievable than fiction,” she tells Marie Claire via email. “I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been working on a real case and think to myself, I could never put this in a book. No one would believe it.”

Now, a genre veteran herself, Flowers releases her second novel, The Missing Half, on May 6. It follows her No. 1 best-selling debut, 2022’s All Good People Here; this time she teamed with a co-author, Alex Kiester (The Truth About Ben and June). For the new book, the two looked to the complexities between sisters to tell a story about two women, who had a sister disappear years ago, as they join forces when there’s a surprising development in the case.

Though Flowers admits she doesn’t write her books with any real cases in mind, she does leave Easter eggs. “I always find that when I am done and I take a step back, I see small pieces I recognize from real stories—a fact about the abandoned car, or the way a clue is uncovered,” she says. “Avid listeners of my podcasts ‘Crime Junkie’ and ‘The Deck’ will always find parallels because I think we write what we know. And what I know is mystery.”

Here, Flowers has curated a list of her favorite crime books for Marie Claire, from true-crime titles to best-selling works of fiction by genre faves like Lisa Jewell and Gillian Flynn to moving literary fiction.

Ashley Flower's Fiction Crime Novel Recommendations

Ashley Flower's Non-Fiction Crime Book Recommendations

This article contains discussions of sexual harassment and abuse towards children. For support, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at (800) 656-4673, or visit rainn.org.

In the new docuseries Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing, the unregulated world of child influencers gets a harrowing spotlight courtesy of Netflix. The new true-crime series features the former collaborators of YouTube star Piper Rockelle, who rose to fame and amassed millions of views from her challenge videos featuring her "Squad" of friends. While the performers appeared to be happy-go-lucky kids on-screen, the children allege that they faced verbal, emotional, and sexual abuse from Piper's momager, Tiffany Smith, who ran her daughter's empire. In the words of one of the former members, Claire RockSmith, "Tiffany took our innocence and just destroyed it."

Since Bad Influence premiered on Netflix on April 9, 2025, viewers have wondered whether the documentary's subjects are still following their dreams of stardom. Read on to see where the former Squad members from Bad Influence are today, including how they've reacted to the Netflix docuseries' release.

Claire RockSmith

Joined The Squad: In 2020, at age 12

Current age: 16

Claire RockSmith is Piper Rockvile's cousin by marriage, as her mom, Ashley RockSmith, is married to Piper's aunt, Patience RockSmith. According to the doc, both Claire and her younger sister, Reese, were fans of Piper's content first, as they were living in Georgia during the initial years of the Squad. In 2020, the RockSmith family moved from Georgia to Las Vegas, and the sisters became official members of the Squad when they went to L.A. to visit Piper.

In the doc, Claire accuses Tiffany of sexually harassing her. She also recalls standing up to Tiffany in 2021, after which Tiffany yelled and cursed at both Claire and another Squad member, Elliana. Ashley witnessed the fight and pulled Claire out of the Squad in June 2021. After leaving, Claire faced a hate campaign from Piper's fans; Ashley alleges that Tiffany was behind some accounts. Claire and 10 other former Squad members brought a lawsuit against Tiffany and her boyfriend, Hunter, who edited and creative-directed the Squad's videos.

Today, Claire is a YouTuber and actress, who is still friends with former Squad member Sophie Fergi. On the day of Bad Influence's premiere, Claire shared an emotional TikTok in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, captioned, "I am a survivor."

"To all of those who are afraid to speak out, don’t want to break apart their family, who are justifying it because it is family, minimizing it, who don’t want to be told that they’re lying, who don’t even realize it yet, who don’t know what to do, who don’t know who to tell or where to start, who are being told to forget about it, who are being told that’s not what’s going on, who are being manipulated, and who is still actively going through it, I see you," she wrote. "I just know that you are going to be ok and you are going to heal from this. You are not alone. I am so sorry for everyone who has experienced this and I love you all."

Corinne Joy

Joined the Squad: In 2018, at age 11

Current age: 17

Corrine Joy met Piper in 2017 when she auditioned to be her backup dancer on the short-lived reality show Dance Twins (which has seemingly been scrubbed from the internet). Per Corrine and her mother Steevy Areeco, Piper and Corrine became fast friends, and Corrine was an original member of The Squad, which formed in 2018.

The then 12-year-old was eventually one of the first Squad members to leave in 2019, after she told Steevy about some of Tiffany's escalating inappropriate behavior. Corrine alleges that she was "blacklisted" from her former friends after leaving; she immediately started losing a large amount of views, which also eventually happened to other members of the Squad when they left. In 2022, Corrine was named as one of the defendants in the lawsuit against Tiffany.

Corrine currently has over a million followers on TikTok, and according to her bio, she's training to become a professional wrestler.

Jentzen Ramirez

Joined the Squad: In 2019, at age 13 or 14

Current age: 18

Jentzen Ramirez does not appear in the documentary, but his mother, Johna Ramirez, does. According to her, Tiffany would always make up reasons for the Squad's parents not to be present while they were filming. When Johna pushed back against one of Tiffany's video concepts (a traumatizing prank where a kid was "arrested" by the police), she teamed up with another mother, Jenn Bryant, to have their sons Walker and Jentzen leave the Squad.

However, per the doc, Jentzen's father spoke with Tiffany and eventually decided to have Jentzen rejoin the Squad, despite Johna's objection. Johna claims that since then, Tiffany has driven a wedge between her and Jentzen. When Johna divorced her husband and tried to get custody of Jentzen to "protect him" from the Squad, Tiffany allegedly encouraged the teen to emancipate and stay in the Squad with the support of his father.

Today, Jentzen is still active on YouTube, with 2.85 million subscribers, and on TikTok, where he's amassed 2.9 million followers. He appears to have stepped back from making content with Piper, though he still collaborates with former Squad member Elliana Walmsley, 17. It is unknown whether Jentzen and Johna have reconciled.

Reese RockSmith

Joined the Squad: In 2020, at age 8 or 9

Current age: 13

Reese RockSmith, Piper's cousin by marriage and Claire's little sister, was the youngest member of the Squad. During her brief appearances in the series, Reese accuses Tiffany of sexually harassing her and touching her inappropriately.

Reese is now 13-years-old. She still has Instagram and TikTok accounts managed by her family, but she doesn't post often. On the day of Bad Influence's release, she posted a TikTok for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

"Thank you to everyone who has been there for me over these past couple of years, and thank you guys for all of the love and support," she wrote in the caption. "I don’t know what I’d do without you guys. Thank you."

Sawyer Sharbino

Joined the Squad: In 2018, at age 13

Current age: 19

Sawyer Sharbino joined YouTube when he was 8 or 9 and started making videos with Piper in 2018. In the doc, he says he handed over his channel login to Tiffany's boyfriend Hunter, who helped manage the Squad. Sawyer's mother, Angela Sharbino, claims that Sawyer was never paid for being in Piper's videos. His personal YouTube channel brought in an income of "up to $50,000 a month." In the doc, Sawyer describes filming as "work," saying, "Maybe one out of 50 videos you film you actually enjoyed and were yourself in."

In February 2021, Sawyer left the Squad and subsequently faced a hate campaign from Piper's fans. Sawyer alleges that Tiffany and Hunter used several tactics to tank the views on his account, including mass-reporting his videos and embedding them on adult websites. He also joined the 2022 lawsuit.

Today, Sawyer is a singer and influencer with over a million followers on his Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok accounts. He released his debut EP, manipulate, in late 2023. On the day of Bad Influence's release, Sawyer posted an Instagram clip with Sophie Fergi and Walker Bryant, with text reading, "Let it all go."

Sophie Fergi

Joined the Squad: In 2018, at age 11

Current age: 17

Sophie met Piper when they were both cast members on the Brat web series Mani. The kids became best friends and YouTube collaborators, and Sophie eventually became one of The Squad's most popular original members.

Upon moving to L.A. in 2019, Sophie and her mother, Heather Nichole, moved in with Piper, Tiffany, and Hunter, even though Sophie says in the doc that she was uncomfortable living with Tiffany. According to Sophie, The Squad members worked over 12 hours a day, filming 10 to 15 videos, every day of the week. Sophie also accuses Tiffany of discussing sexual acts with the then 12-year-old, and of unlocking her room when she was asleep and touching her inappropriately.

According to Sophie and Heather, Tiffany's abusive behavior continued to escalate, but they did not leave because of their love for Piper. After an explosive argument in September 2020, Tiffany demanded that Heather give up parental rights to Sophie in order for Sophie to remain in The Squad, and that was the final straw. Once they left, Tiffany allegedly ordered all the kids, including Piper and Sophie's boyfriend Jentzen, to cut off contact. Both Sophie and Heather also allege that Tiffany would message with fans under Piper's name, influencing them to start hate campaigns on her.

Today, Sophie has 2 million followers on Instagram and over 6 million on TikTok. She also co-hosts the podcast "Girl Talk." On the day following Bad Influence's release, she posted a Reel thanking fans for supporting her during the doc's release. She wrote in the caption, "I never knew if I would ever be able to talk on the situation and I am so proud of everyone who spoke up, little Sophie would be so happy to know that her story got out."

This article contains discussions of sexual harassment and abuse towards children. For support, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at (800) 656-4673, or visit rainn.org.

Netflix's new true-crime docuseries Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing unveils the hidden manipulation behind one of the Internet's most successful child influencers. Piper Rockelle, a now 17-year-old social media personality, grew up on the internet, as she and her momager, Tiffany Smith, amassed millions of followers and millions of dollars through their viral content, which featured other dedicated kid collaborators known as Piper's Squad.

Despite playing the parts of happy teenagers doing challenges and falling in love in videos, behind the scenes, the Squad was allegedly exploited and harassed by the adults in charge, leading to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. Now that Bad Influence has arrived on Netflix, highlighting the kids' ordeal, many viewers wonder what Piper has been up to since the docuseries' events. Read on to learn about Piper Rockelle and Tiffany Smith and where they are now after Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing.

Who is Piper Rockelle?

Piper Rockelle was born in Georgia in August 2007 to her then-26-year-old single mother, Tiffany Smith. Tiffany homeschooled Piper and began enrolling her in pageants at 3-years-old. At 8, Piper began posting social media content. She started out on Musical.ly, the short-form video app that eventually became TikTok. Within a few years, she also had successful accounts on YouTube and Instagram, with Tiffany managing her social media empire.

In 2017, Piper and Tiffany moved to L.A. as their success propelled them to more opportunities. At this time, Tiffany began working closely with Hunter Hill, a video editor and creative director. He was introduced on-camera as Piper's older brother, but, in reality, he was Tiffany's younger boyfriend. As is common with influencers, Piper began collaborating frequently with other YouTubers around her age. From 2017 to 2020, Tiffany formalized the frequent collabs into a content creation group called The Squad, which racked millions of views off their challenge and prank content.

Outside of social media, Piper pursued acting in the web series Mani and Chicken Girls, and she has released music since 2019. The influencer also appeared on the short-lived reality show Dance Twins, which appears to have been scrubbed from the internet. By 2022, Piper had 10 million YouTube subscribers and earned up to $625,000 per month from her channel, according to The Los Angeles Times.

What happened to Piper Rockelle's Squad?

From 2017 to 2020, Piper Rockelle's Squad featured nearly a dozen members. Some key members included Sophie Fergi, Hayden Haas, Symonne Harrison, Corinne Joy, Gavin Magnus, Jentzen Ramirez, Claire RockSmith, and Sawyer Sharbino.

According to Bad Influence, The Squad allegedly filmed multiple videos per day produced by Tiffany and Hunter, in which the kids participated in viral challenges, performed dances, and did over-the-top pranks. One of the content's consistent themes was dating and relationships, where the teens would be matched up in couples and staged romantic scenarios, including kissing.

In the docuseries, several former members of The Squad allege that they were manipulated and exploited by Tiffany and Hunter, including being pulled into uncomfortable sexual situations both on and off camera. Their parents also allege that they were not allowed to be around their kids during filming, and they only heard about the incidents after the fact. Eventually, several Squad families distanced themselves from Tiffany, at which point they were allegedly iced out by the rest of The Squad and retaliated against by Tiffany and Hunter.

Did Piper Rockelle's mother, Tiffany Smith, go to jail?

In January 2022, 11 former members of The Squad filed a lawsuit against Tiffany and Hunter, accusing them of "emotional, verbal, physical, and at times, sexual abuse." According to PEOPLE, the teens "also allege[d] they were unpaid for their contributions though it's unclear if they were ever promised payment." When the kids left The Squad, the complaint claims, Tiffany and Hunter allegedly "conspired to 'intentionally interfere with and sabotage' their 'individual YouTube channels' by using bots and false reporting/flagging to drive down their views 'thereby significantly diminishing' their own revenue."

The lawsuit also included several instances of "inappropriate, offensive and abusive treatment" mentioned in the documentary, including Tiffany asking the teens about their sex life, "shouting obscene and sexually graphic phrases" at them, making comments about their genitalia, and "encouraging" them to be "sexy" and "sexually aggressive" in videos. It also included the claim that Tiffany allegedly mailed "Piper's soiled training bras and panties" to a man who liked to "sniff" them.

Each former Squad member involved in the claim asked for around $2 million in damages (over $22 million total) from the defendants, including Tiffany and Hunter as individuals and Piper Rockwell Inc.

Speaking to NBC News, Ashley Anne-Rock Smith, mother of two plaintiffs, explained, "I just want peace back with my kids. I want all predators who hurt young kids to be brought to justice. I also hope we move the needle on these platforms that are allowing this."

Tiffany has steadfastly denied all allegations made by former members of The Squad since the initial lawsuit was filed. According to NBC News, she also countersued for $30 million in July 2022, claiming that the teens's mothers were trying to extort her, but she dropped her case the following October. Trial proceedings for the case began in April 2023.

In October 2024, the lawsuit was settled "without any admission of liability or the validity or lack thereof of any claims or defenses," per PEOPLE. The $1.85 million settlement was meant to be split among the 11 defendants.

Tiffany addressed the settlement in a statement to PEOPLE before the release of Bad Influence. "Obviously, we didn’t do anything that was alleged, but sadly, money is a big motivator for certain personalities in this world," she told the outlet. "We made the decision to put this behind us because honestly, prolonged litigation would be even more harmful and painful to everyone involved."

Speaking to Tudum, Bad Influence co-director Kief Davidson said of the fallout, "I think that, so far, Tiffany has gotten off the hook. She’s a very smart businesswoman in a lot of ways and knows how to work the system. I just hope at the end of the day that this documentary becomes a real conversation piece for families and their kids to at least know what to look out for. And there are ways to do this safely. [If kids and parents continue to do this,] we have to find a way to put safeguards in place."

Where is Piper Rockelle now?

Though Tiffany faced online backlash after the suit was filed, Piper's social media empire has largely gone unaffected. In February 2022, YouTube revealed that it had demonetized the Piper Rockwell channel and removed it from its Partner Program after Insider reached out to request comment on the allegations against Tiffany.

Piper is now 17-years-old and still works as a social media influencer. At the time of Bad Influence's April 2025 premiere, she has 6 million Instagram followers, 12.1 million YouTube subscribers, and 14.9 million TikTok followers. She is also involved with the subscription-style creator platform Brand Army, and she has recently received backlash for collaborating with adult creators at the influencer collective Bop House. Piper is still seemingly managed and directed by Tiffany and Hunter.

In a March 2025 statement to PEOPLE, Piper describes the legal ordeal as "extremely painful and, honestly, hard to understand. Not just because of the people making ridiculous claims about me and my family—but also how the media has been."

"It's been incredibly hard because the media and social media have been relentless and so hurtful, without understanding or even trying to understand the truth," she included. "It's become impossible to even look at my phone or do normal, day-to-day things. It's been so incredibly painful. Thank goodness for my family. And thank goodness this is finally behind us."

The trailer for Investigation Discovery's true crime docuseries The Bakersfield 3: A Tale of Murder and Motherhood—a three-part series based on Marie Claire's 2022 feature "Of Murder and Motherhood"—has finally landed.

The original story, written by Katya Cengel, profiled three mothers in Bakersfield, California, who were united in their search for their missing or murdered children. The first chapter of the docuseries will premiere on Sunday, May 11 on Max.

For her Marie Claire story, Cengel interviewed Diane "Di" Byrne, whose 38-year-old son James Kulstad was shot to death in April 2018; Jane Parrent, whose daughter Baylee Despot, then 20, disappeared in March 2018; and Cheryl Holsonbake, whose son Micah Holsonbake, then 34, went missing that same month and was later found to have been murdered. Together, James, Baylee, and Micah became known as the Bakersfield 3, or BK3.

In the wake of these tragedies and their conviction that the events were somehow connected, Byrne, Holsonbake, and Parrent came together to find answers about what exactly had happened to their children. They were "stronger together," Jane told Marie Claire.

In her story, Cengel introduced readers to each woman and her child. There was quiet, maternal Di and surf-obsessed James, who became addicted to drugs after being hit by a car in 2007 and prescribed opioids. There was "organized, nurturing, and angry" Cheryl and high-achieving Micah, who enlisted to serve his country in 2003, but eventually became addicted to drugs after a surgery. There was reserved, industrious Jane and girly, animal-loving Baylee, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 20 and survived an overdose.

Baylee was also charged in absentia for the murder of Micah, along with Matthew Queen, the man she was living with at the time.

The Marie Claire investigation told the story of the women's unbreakable bond forged in unthinkable circumstances, and the work they did not only to bring justice for their families but to help fight crime throughout the county through their Bakersfield 3 charity. The moms "[advocate] for so much more than just their own families," as James' daughter Camryn put it.

Now, the Investigation Discovery documentary promises to shed further light on this complicated case—three years on from Marie Claire's report, and following Di's sad passing from ovarian cancer in April 2024. The newly released trailer contains testimonies from all three mothers and follows them on their continued search for the truth.

"When your kid is missing, it doesn't come with a handbook on what to do," Jane says in the video.

"These aren't just three grieving mothers; these are mothers that are in the middle of a full-blown investigation," says local crime reporter Olivia LaVoice, who now hosts a podcast about the case.

Part one, titled "One Mystery—or Three?," premieres at 8/7c. Part two, titled "The Boogieman of Bakersfield," premieres at 9/8c. And part three, titled "Fights Like a Mother," premieres at 10/9c.

If you're the type to cope with daily anxieties and stress by burying your head in a pile of riveting true crime stories—the devil you know, as they say—then do we have just the reading list for you.

Women are more drawn to true crime stories than men, according to researchers Amanda M. Vicary and R. Chris Fraley. In their 2010 study, they looked at online book reviews and learned that men were more likely to choose books about gang violence or war, while women were drawn to gruesome stories of crime—even when those books involved women being kidnapped, raped, tortured, and/or killed.

One reason for this: By reading about these crimes and investigating the psychology of a criminal, we may hope that on some level we'll get clues on how to protect ourselves. The study by Vicary and Fraley concluded, "Women, more so than men, were drawn to the book that contained tips on how to defend oneself from an attacker. It appears that the potential to learn defense tactics from these stories is one factor that draws women, more so than men, to true crime books."

So, if immersing yourself in true crime stories makes you feel a little bit braver or a little bit more prepared, then have at it. From nonfiction books about shocking robberies and serial killers to moving memoirs about survival, below, we rounded up the best true-crime books from the past decade that are worth reading.

Netflix's new true-crime documentary Con Man follows a story that initially feels like a dream: A 45-year-old man is contacted out of the blue by his biological mother, and they share an instant bond. However, renowned British pastry chef Graham Hornigold's miraculous reunion slowly turned into a nightmare, with his mother, known only as Dionne, leaving him on the hook for £300,000 ($388,000) in debt from five-star hotels, pricey dinners, and expensive cars.

The film from Nick Green unfolds this heartbreaking con of familial love turned misery, with Hornigold, his loved ones, and Dionne's other victims telling their stories. With the doc landing on Netflix on March 25, here's what to know about Graham Hornigold and where the chef is following the events of Con Mum.

Who is Graham Hornigold?

Graham Hornigold, 50, is a former Michelin-starred pastry chef and renowned pastry consultant based in the U.K. After starting his food career at age fourteen, Hornigold worked his way up to becoming executive pastry chef at The Lanesborough Hotel, Hyde Park Corner, at age 28, and winning UK Pastry Chef of the Year in 2007. He later served as the executive pastry chef for Hakkasan restaurant group from 2011 to 2017, supervising "120 pastry chefs working in twenty different kitchens", per his Great British Chefs bio.

Since leaving Hakkasan, Hornigold has run his own pastry consultancy, while making appearances on famed cooking shows including Masterchef: The Professionals and Junior Bake Off. He has spent the past several years developing and founding the gourmet doughnut brand Longboys, which currently has three locations in London.

We learn in Con Mum that Graham had a rough upbringing. The chef was born on a British army base in West Germany, and was "fostered at the age of two for two years," per the doc. He then moved in with his father and stepmother in the town of St. Albans, 20 miles northwest of London. Graham, who describes his father as abusive, never knew his biological mother... until he was contacted out of the blue in 2020, by an Asian woman in her 80s named Dionne. Dionne knew facts about the chef that only his biological mother would know, so after months of emails, he agreed to meet her. In Con Mum, Graham describes feeling an "instantaneous" mother-child bond upon meeting Dionne, saying, "It felt like I was somebody's baby."

What happened to Graham Hornigold in 'Con Mum'?

When she met Graham, Dionne, who is only identified by her first name in the documentary, claimed that he was taken away from her after his birth. She also told him that she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and only had six months to live, which was the impetus for her to search for her son.

Dionne also claimed that she was a multilingual businesswoman with several global enterprises, including fruit farms in Indonesia and Malaysia. She added that she was also wealthy as the "illegitimate child of the former sultan of Brunei." As they spent time together, Graham saw her extravagant lifestyle as a regular patron of five-star hotels like The Dorchester, which is owned by the Brunei royal family.

Per the doc, Dionne also started buying Graham and his partner Heather Kaniuk extravagant gifts, including designer handbags and luxury clothing. At one point, she took him to a Rolls-Royce dealership to buy him a car, where the "head sales honcho" told Graham that Dionne had previously bought two Phantoms from him. She ended up buying him a £75,000 ($97K) Land Rover, and got Heather a car as well "so she didn't feel left out."

Two months after Graham first met Dionne, and immediately after Heather gave birth to their son, Dionne told Graham that she'd had a health scare. Graham, not wanting Dionne to be in a hotel alone, moved her into his and Heather's home. Two months later, Graham and Dionne traveled to Switzerland, to do the alleged paperwork necessary to have Graham inherit her wealth, according to her. Once there, the pair attended an after-hours meeting with the manager of a private bank in Zurich where clients are required to have a minimum of 20 million euros ($21.6 million) to open an account. Graham said in the doc that this meeting is what made him believe that Dionne was legit, and that he'd "won the jackpot."

Even before they went to Switzerland, Dionne had begun asking Graham to help pay some of her bills, because "she had difficulty transferring money because of COVID." Heather discovered later that Graham had set up credit cards in his own name to help pay for her lavish lifestyle. Dionne ended up extending her and Graham's four-day trip to Switzerland to ultimately be two months, with Graham covering the bills throughout and not telling Heather, who was back at home with their newborn. Dionne later followed Graham back to England, and convinced him to stay there as Heather and their son traveled to New Zealand to visit her family.

Eventually, Graham cut ties with Dionne after discovering that she was faking her terminal disease, using red food coloring as blood, and that her medicine wasn't for cancer, but for diabetes. In the aftermath, Heather did more research on Dionne and discovered that the woman, who was originally from Singapore, had a criminal record going back to the 1980s, and multiple marriage certificates citing different dates of birth and parental names. All in all, Graham was left on the hook for around £300,000 ($388,000) total, including £200,000 in car payments.

When Heather went to the police, they told her that Dionne wouldn't be held liable for the fraud. In an interview with The Guardian, Graham explained, "Essentially they call it a bad business decision, because you know where the money is going and who to."

Is Dionne really Graham Hornigold's mother?

The end of Con Mum reveals, via a DNA test, that there was a 99.9 percent certainty that Dionne was really his birth mother. Dionne—who has gone by many names, including Dionne Marie Hannah and Theresa Haton Mahmud—declined to speak to Netflix for the documentary. Though she will likely not be held liable for the fraud against Graham, as she is his biological family, Con Mum also features some of her other victims, including start-up founders Junyan and Markus and medical rep Peng, whom she left on the hook for tens of thousands of pounds. Dionne also attempted to get money from Graham's friend Juan, but he refused to give her any. As of Con Mum's release, Dionne "has never faced criminal charges for the allegations made in this documentary," per the film.

Graham cut ties with Dionne in 2021, and he has only spoken to her once since. In the doc, Graham reveals that Dionne called him out of the blue, over a year after the last time he saw her. During the call, she said she loved him and apologized, adding, "I’ve done what I’ve done, son. I cannot change, son." Despite the DNA test, Graham no longer considers Dionne his mother. As for her grandiose claims of being an entrepreneur and the daughter of former royalty, according to Graham, "We’ll never know." (According to one of Dionne's victims, Peng, Brunei's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no record of Dionne being related to the royal family.)

Speaking to The Guardian, Graham admits to being "blinded", not by Dionne's "wealth," but "by the fact that my mum had come into my life and she was going to be leaving again." He added that his need for maternal love "was my downfall. If you don’t receive it when you’re a kid, you have this wound you carry around … Can you honestly tell me the bond between you and your mother you haven’t seen in 45 years and who is dying wouldn’t be stronger than anything else?"

Today, Graham says that he sought mental health treatment after the ordeal, and that he did the documentary partly to encourage people with similar trauma to seek help. "I’ve done the head work, sorted out the inner demons," he told the outlet. He also explained of his mindset during the tumultuous year, "One minute you’ve got everything; the next you’ve got nothing, and on the spin of a knife you’re deciding whether you’re going to stay alive or not. And if you don’t seek help, you’ll keep attracting this cycle."

Are Graham Hornigold and Heather Kaniuk still together?

At the time when he first met Dionne, Hornigold was happily coupled with his then-partner Heather Kaniuk, a fellow award-winning pastry chef. According to the doc, Graham and Heather met at work and were colleagues before eventually beginning a romantic relationship. They later started a pastry consultancy together, and in 2020, they found out that they were expecting a child together.

Though Dionne and Heather initially got along, Heather eventually recognized that the manipulative scammer was trying to drive a wedge between herself and Graham. In addition to those two months that she was left alone with her and Graham's newborn, Heather says in the doc, "That sense of ‘I’ve just become a mum’ was robbed from me, because there’s Dionne." When she tried to warn Graham about Dionne before the scam was uncovered, he did not believe her, since he thought he needed to be there for his mother's final days.

Unfortunately, the saga ended with Graham and Heather going their separate ways. Heather and their son have permanently relocated to New Zealand; they have not returned to England since 2021. In the Guardian interview, Graham revealed that he stays in touch with his son through video-chatting, and that he plans to visit New Zealand as soon as he can afford to with his ongoing debt. He said, "I won’t let it affect him, in the sense that he won’t see his dad. I’m going to be a big part of his life."

This article contains discussions of child abuse and abandonment. For support, please contact Child Protective Services.

The story of Hulu’s new limited series, Good American Family, might sound like the beginning of a horror movie: a family adopts a girl from Ukraine, only to find out she’s actually an adult posing as a child. However, while the stranger-than-fiction series may resemble the plot of 2009’s Orphan, the Ellen Pompeo vehicle is based on the true story of Michael and Kristine Barnett, who adopted a Ukrainian orphan named Natalia Grace in 2010 and later claimed that she was lying about her age.

In reality, Natalia Grace has maintained her innocence, even after the Barnetts convinced the courts to legally change her birth year. She told her story in a two-part true-crime docuseries titled The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, now streaming on Max. Meanwhile, Hulu’s Good American Story, claims it was inspired by “multiple stories, perspectives, threats, interpretations, and accusations.”

So what really happened between the Barnetts and Natalia Grace, and where are they now? Here’s what you need to know about the true story behind Good American Family.

Michael and Kristine Barnetts claimed their adopted daughter Natalia Grace was an adult.

Natalia Grace was born in 2003 and raised in a Ukrainian orphanage until she was adopted by an American family in New Hampshire, Dyan and Gary Ciccone, in 2008. According to PEOPLE, the Ciccones eventually relinquished parental rights due to alleged “disruptive behavior,” putting her back up for adoption.

She was then adopted by Michael and Kristine Barnett—already parents to three sons and living in Indiana—who believed she was a 6-year-old child with dwarfism. But the family alleged they began noticing things about her that didn’t support this claim: According to the Barnetts, Natalia Grace was menstruating and had pubic hair, and they concluded she was lying about her age. They also deemed Natalia Grace a danger to the family, accusing her of making violent threats and even poisoning Kristine. The Barnetts claim they even consulted a doctor who confirmed their suspicions that their adopted daughter was actually an adult and used this evidence in 2012 to petition the courts to officially change Natalia Grace’s birth year from 2003 to 1989.

The Barnett family abandoned Natalia Grace two years after adopting her.

Following the court’s declaration that Natalia Grace was 22-years-old, the Barnetts moved their adopted child into a rented apartment in Westfield and later Lafayette, Indiana before fleeing to Canada in July 2013. The adoptive family, including their three biological kids, cut off all contact with Natalia Grace, and she was forced to fend for herself.

Did the Barnetts face charges or go to jail?

The story was back in the spotlight in 2019 when the state of Indiana charged Kristine and Michael Barnett, now divorced, with neglect of a dependent. The former couple’s defense relied upon their argument that Natalia Grace was not a child and therefore they could not be guilty.

However, prosecutors tracked down Natalia Grace’s birth records in Ukraine, which supported the claim that she was born in 2003 and was in fact a child. Still, Michael’s charges were dropped in 2022 and Kristine’s in 2023 and they never faced jailtime.

Natalia Grace was later adopted by the Mans family, who were also allegedly abusive.

Shortly after the Barnetts left her in Lafayette, Natalia Grace met the Mans family—Cynthia and Antwon Mans and their 10 children—who took her into their home in Indiana and later Tennessee. (The family couldn’t legally adopt her until June 2023 because the court documents previously stated she was a legal adult in her 20s.) However, according to PEOPLE, the young orphan ran away from the Mans's home six months later and accused them of “controlling her and forbidding her from contacting outsiders.”

This portion of Natalia Grace’s life likely won’t be featured in Good American Family, but was the subject of the ID docuseries The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter. In the docuseries, witnesses attest to having seen the Manses “whip Natalia with a belt, slap her in the face, lock her in a room, and assault her,” though neither the Manses nor Natalia Grace herself have corroborated those claims.

Where is Natalia Grace now?

With the help of her boyfriend Neil, whom she met on Facebook, Natalia Grace escaped to Nicole and Vince DePaul’s home in New York, where she lives now. The DePauls, who are also little people, previously tried to adopt her in 2009 but were turned down at the time. After months of planning, Nicole and her daughter Mackenzie drove to Nashville where they picked Natalia Grace up in the middle of the night. She’s been living with the DePauls since then.

The now-21-year-old has also since been diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder, a rare but serious condition characterized as “unexplained withdrawal, fear, sadness or irritability” and “behavior problems,” among other symptoms, according to the Mayo Clinic. Reactive attachment disorder is common among children who have spent time in orphanages, as it develops when young children don’t form healthy attachments to caregivers.

Still, Natalia Grace is optimistic about her future: She is studying for her GED, hopes to be a school teacher, and is planning to get surgeries required for her disabilities. She told PEOPLE, "It's a blessing to be alive today because looking back at my 7-year-old self, I should have been dead."

Where are Michael and Kristine Barnett now?

According to Journal & Courier, Michael filed for divorce in February 2014—not long after he and Kristine left Natalia Grace alone in Indiana. The family no longer lives in Canada, as Kristine’s address was updated to Bradenton, Florida and Michael’s reverted to Indianapolis. In 2014, Kristine also published a book centered on her son’s autism, titled The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing, Genius, and Autism.

While the former couple has primarily lived their lives in private, Michael appeared on the first season of Natalia Grace’s ID docuseries The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks in which he called Kristine a “monster” and did not deny Natalia Grace’s allegations that Kristine pepper sprayed her and hit her with a belt. Kristine responded via a now-deleted Facebook post saying the accusations were “just plain false” and doubling down on her claims that Natalia Grace is “a sociopath.”

In 2015, two young Australian reporters named Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano broke the story that would become Netflix's latest true-crime series Apple Cider Vinegar: Belle Gibson, a successful wellness influencer who claimed to have survived terminal brain cancer, was lying the whole time.

The new Australian miniseries, based on Donelly and Toscano's book The Woman Who Fooled the World, is the fictionalized story of Gibson's rise and fall, including the investigation that eventually brought her down. While a pair of fictional reporters are a major part of the show, creator Samantha Strauss also pulled from Gibson's real-life victims to raise the subplot's emotional stakes. Below, read on for everything you need to know about how Donelly and Toscano brought down Gibson in real life, including the woman who inspired one of the show's main characters, Lucy Guthrie.

Who are Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano?

Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano were both early-career journalists working for the daily Melbourne newspaper The Age at the time of Belle Gibson's rise. During a recent appearance on Sydney Morning Herald and The Age's daily podcast "The Morning Edition," the pair recall being unaware of Gibson and the wellness guru community before receiving a tip about the then-successful scammer in 2015.

According to Donelly, the tip on Gibson came from the pair's editor at the time, who passed along the contact for Chanelle McAuliffe, a friend of Gibson's. As shown on Apple Cider Vinegar, McAuliffe doubted Gibson's cancer after seeing how Gibson would often drink and frequent tanning salons. After Gibson faked a seizure at her son's fourth birthday party, McAuliffe confronted Gibson at her home and asked her to produce evidence that she had cancer. Gibson couldn't give any proof, so McAuliffe decided to go to the police and the press. (While the fictional Chanelle, played by Aisha Dee in the series, was Belle's manager and Milla Blake's childhood friend, in real life, McAuliffe was just Belle's close friend and not connected to Jessica Ainscough.)

On the podcast, Donelly recalls being initially "critical and almost dismissive" when he got on the phone with McAuliffe. However, after an hour of conversation, the reporter "came away fascinated." Upon reviewing Gibson's Instagram, he found that the scammer's claims were "really vague, totally inconsistent, or just seemingly implausible."

Per Donelly and Toscano, their reporting process was similar to how it's depicted on the show: Unable to initially report on her false health claims, the pair first published an exposé on The Whole Pantry's missing charitable donations before releasing another article casting doubt on her cancer claims soon after. After Belle's story went viral, the pair collaborated on The Woman Who Fooled the World, which later became the source material for Apple Cider Vinegar.

According to his LinkedIn, Donelly relocated from Australia to Europe in late 2017, eventually becoming a reporter for The Times. He now works as an editor for the Netherlands-based investigative journalism group Bellingcat. Meanwhile, Toscano is still based in Australia, working as a business reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

Is Lucy from 'Apple Cider Vinegar' based on a real person?

In the series Lucy Guthrie, played by Tilda Cobham-Hervey, is a woman diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer, who begins to admire influencers like Milla and Belle. Lucy faithfully follows Belle's meal plans and even begins researching alternate therapy, eventually giving up chemotherapy and traveling to an ayahuasca retreat in Peru.

This causes a major rift with her husband, Justin (Mark Coles Smith), a journalist at a local Melbourne paper. In a bit of television kismet, Justin is one of the reporters who speaks with Chanelle, and his investigation and exposé of Belle is fueled by his desire to stop her misinformation from hurting actual cancer patients like Lucy.

Though the fictional journalists Justin and Sean (Richard Davies) are heavily inspired by Donelly and Toscano's investigation into Belle, neither of the real-life writers had a wife battling cancer at the time of their Gibson investigation. According to creator Samantha Strauss, the character of Lucy is meant to represent how the average person could have fallen for Belle's grift.

“Lucy’s us. Lucy is the people who could suffer because of people like Belle,” Strauss told TODAY.

Who is Kate Thomas?

For The Woman Who Fooled the World, Toscano and Donelly interviewed multiple people directly affected by Gibson's lies, whether they interacted with her in person or through social media. One of these subjects, Kate Thomas, has a similar story to the fictional Lucy.

Thomas was a newlywed and a manager at a Melbourne café when she was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in February 2014. Per Donelly and Toscano, speaking with "The Morning Edition," Thomas reached out to the journalists in the wake of their exposé, since she had been one of Gibson's fans. Thomas had discovered the scammer while amid chemotherapy; like in the show, Gibson was also a regular at Thomas's café.

"She was really hooked on Belle Gibson's story because here was a woman who had terminal cancer who was traveling the world [and] successful in business... It just couldn't be further from the truth for Kate's reality," the reporters explained on the podcast. "Kate had gone through chemotherapy. She'd had a mastectomy. She felt like crap...and so she was really drawn in by this."

Eventually, Thomas decided she also wanted to stop conventional treatment and manage her cancer through nutrition and healthy eating. However, Thomas's husband Nik Donaldson was adamant that his wife stick with conventional medicine. Donaldson's mother was a nurse, and she traveled to Melbourne to help him talk Thomas out of alternative treatment, which "wasn't an easy thing to do," per Donelly. Thomas decided to continue with conventional therapy and had just ended radiation when the news about Gibson came out.

In a passage from the book, per TODAY, Thomas told Donelly and Toscano that she felt "betrayed, duped, taken advantage of" by the scammer, while also recognizing her luck that she hadn't forgone conventional treatment.

“I just don’t know how she can live with herself,” Thomas told the authors. “People would be saying, ‘You’re such an inspiration, I’ve decided not to do chemo, I don’t want to put that toxic stuff in my body, I’m just going to eat healthy and do a juicing fast-type diet.’ Belle would have been reading those comments and knowing that people were stopping treatment. That is not okay. People are vulnerable—you would do anything to survive longer or to not have to deal with that horrible toxic stuff going through your body.”

In the series and real life, Thomas's story had a happy ending. Per TODAY, Thomas revealed in a May 2024 report that she was "clear of cancer."

Netflix's latest true-crime series Apple Cider Vinegar dramatizes a story from the dark side of the wellness influencer community. The Australian limited series fictionalizes the real-life scammer Belle Gibson (played by Kaitlyn Dever), who became famous for healing her brain cancer through natural eating and alternative medicine—only she never had cancer.

In addition to Belle's rise and fall, Apple Cider Vinegar includes narrative threads about others affected by Belle's actions, including actual cancer patients who were harmed by her grift. Viewers also follow Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey), a woman diagnosed with a sarcoma at age 22 who attempts to use holistic remedies to cure her illness. With all six episodes out on February 6, 2025, fans wonder if Milla is also based on a real-life influencer. Read on for everything you need to know about Milla Blake from Apple Cider Vinegar and the real women who inspired the character.

Is Milla Blake based on a real person?

In Apple Cider Vinegar, Milla Blake is another influencer Belle counts as an inspiration, nearing the point of parasocial obsession. Milla's diagnosed with a rare soft tissue sarcoma in her arm; rather than have the arm amputated, she elects to treat herself through holistic means including juices and coffee enemas. Sadly, her cancer gets worse, and by the time she seeks out traditional medicine, it is too late. She dies around five years after her original diagnosis.

Speaking with Tudum, series creator Samantha Strauss describes Milla as "a portrait of influencers at the time." The writer adds, "She’s someone who is desperately trying to save her own life and becomes blind to the truth because of it."

Actor Alycia Debnam-Carey also discussed Milla's purpose as a character in an interview with TODAY, saying that Milla was someone who could go "toe-to-toe" with Belle. "That parallel dynamic of the two of them was such an interesting story. Belle is someone who’s lying to the world, but Milla is sort of lying to herself, but also convinced that she’s done this to herself, that she’s caused the cancer that’s in her," she said.

Both Strauss and Alycia Debnam-Carey also revealed to TODAY that Milla was "inspired in part" by Jessica Ainscough, a former editor of an Australian teen magazine who was diagnosed with epithelioid sarcoma in her early 20s. The character of Milla shares many similarities with Ainscough, including the real-life influencer's shallow connection to Belle Gibson.

Who is Jessica Ainscough?

According to The Guardian, Jessica Ainscough was an online editor for Dolly in 2008 when she was diagnosed with epithelioid sarcoma, a rare soft-tissue cancer that most often affects teenagers and young adults. Doctors recommended amputating her arm at the shoulder as her "best chance at survival," but she instead initially tried chemotherapy.

Once chemo stopped working, Ainscough sought to treat her cancer using "Gerson therapy," which is represented in Apple Cider Vinegar via the fictional Hirsch Institute. Gerson therapy works under the theory that disease can be cured by "removing toxins from the body," per the National Cancer Institute. The intense regime involves an organic, high-potassium vegetarian diet; several dietary supplements; and regular coffee enemas. Per Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Gerson therapy "does not treat or prevent cancer" and the American Cancer Society warns that it can be "very harmful to the body," especially the repeated use of coffee enemas.

Ainscough eventually left her job and began documenting her experiences with alternative medicine through a blog, which is no longer online. The self-nicknamed "wellness warrior" also hosted events with other wellness figures, and published the book Make Peace with Your Plate: Change Your Life One Meal at a Time in October 2013.

Like with Milla, cancer also affected another member of Ainscough's family. Her mother, Sharyn, was diagnosed with breast cancer and also underwent Gerson therapy. Per The Guardian, Sharyn died from cancer in 2013.

A year after her mother's death, Jessica revealed that her illness had flared up since Sharyn became ill, writing, "For the first time in my almost seven year journey with cancer, this year I’ve been really unwell."

According to a statement released by her family, Jessica Ainscough died on February 26, 2015, at the age of 29. She was survived by her fiancé, Tallon Pamenter, whom she had been set to marry that September.

Did Jessica Ainscough and Belle Gibson know each other in real life?

According to the book on which Apple Cider Vinegar is based, Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano's The Woman Who Fooled the World, Gibson and Ainscough were "not friends" in real life. Per TODAY, they met at a conference two years before Ainscough's death, and she later said "something was off" about Gibson. According to Time, their acquaintanceship didn't go any deeper than "occasionally commenting on each other’s social media profiles."

One outrageous incident from the Apple Cider Vinegar finale actually happened in real life: Gibson really did attend Ainscough's funeral. According to Donelly and Toscano's book, Gibson "hysterically sobbed" at the service, entered Ainscough's childhood bedroom, and cried on Pamenter's shoulder. As seen in the series, this incident happened just after the reporters sent Gibson 21 questions for the article, marking the beginning of her downfall.

Nowadays, you can’t blink without a brand-new true crime story premiering on your streamer of choice. The true crime boom doesn’t show any sign of slowing down in 2025, but amid the high-profile serial killer stories, audiences can look forward to learning about some lesser-known criminal cases.

Whether you prefer to learn about scammers or historical murders, true crime has something for everyone in the new year, whether they be star-studded Netflix shows or incisive new documentaries slated to play at prestigious film festivals. To prepare you for a new year of the genre, here are the best true crime documentaries and scripted series of 2025, including what’s coming soon and on the horizon. (If you’re looking for something to binge now, check out our round-up of the best true-crime docs and shows of 2024.)

'Lockerbie: A Search for Truth'

Release date: January 2 on Peacock

Jim Swire’s 2021 true-crime book and memoir was adapted for the screen (and it's a total tearjerker). Colin Firth plays Swire as he sets out to discover the truth behind a bombing aboard a transatlantic flight, just over 30 minutes after takeoff, that killed his daughter and 242 other passengers, as well as 16 crew members. The December 1988 incident that took place over Lockerbie, Scotland remains the largest terrorist in U.K. history.

WATCH IT ON PEACOCK

'Sons of Ecstasy'

Release date: January 9 on HBO Max

If mob stories are your thing, you'll want to check out Sons of Ecstasy. The documentary marks the first time members of the notorious New York crime family the Gravanos are telling their side of the story about their involvement in the ecstasy drug trade at the peak of its popularity in the '90s. They share inside accounts of what went on and how the trade culminated into a dangerous rivalry between them and Shaun Attwood, an English stockbroker, another major ecstasy kingpin.

WATCH IT ON HBO MAX

'An Update on Our Family'

Release date: January 15 on HBO Max

Family vloggers Myka and James Stauffer's shocking, controversial story, in which they re-homed their adopted son on the autism spectrum, was one that many of us couldn't look away from in 2024. The incident then became the catalyst to question the ethics behind YouTubers/TikTokers who make (often monetized) content featuring their children. All that and more, including just how unregulated this booming online industry is, is the focus of this three-part HBO doc.

WATCH IT ON HBO MAX

'Scam Goddess'

Release date: January 15 on Hulu

With Laci Mosley’s sense of humor and dedication to finding the wildest stories about scammers, we’ll tune into anything she produces. Based on her podcast and book of the same name, this Freeform series looks into bonkers cases of cons and frauds, from a man posing as a prince to a fake Silicon Valley tech star.

WATCH IT ON HULU

'Apple Cider Vinegar'

Release date: February 6 on Netflix

In 2022, there was an era where streamers really wanted you to care about scammer stories, whether they be “SoHo grifter” Anna Delvey or Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Netflix is betting you’re still riveted enough by pesky con artists to tune into Apple Cider Vinegar, their latest entry into the scammer subgenre. Kaitlyn Dever stars here as Australian wellness influencer Belle Gibson, who falsely claimed to have cured herself of cancer using alternative medicine.

WATCH IT ON NETFLIX

'American Murder: Gabby Petito'

Release date: February 17 on Netflix

The tragic story of travel vlogger Gabby Petito took social media by storm as it unfolded in real time in 2021. At the time, her followers and family started to suspect something was wrong when her and fiancé Brian Christopher Laundrie’s coverage of their four-month-long stint living and road-tripping out of a van wasn’t going as planned. If you followed along to the rampant coverage of this domestic abuse case, little new information is presented in this three-parter, though it does offer added context and serves as a harrowing warning.

WATCH IT ON NETFLIX

'Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke'

Release date: February 27 on Hulu

Devil in the Family is another recent docuseries about the ethics of parent-child vlogging—and how much can be left offscreen of sunny YouTube videos. In the case of mother Ruby Franke, who ran a channel called 8 Passengers about her six children, her, and her husband in Utah, she took to extremist forms of punishment and eventually child abuse when she brought parenting counselor Jodi Hildebrandt into their home. This three-part miniseries details the case and sees the eldest children, Shari and Chad, speak out for the first time, along with their father and Ruby’s ex-husband.

WATCH IT ON HULU

'Toxic Town'

Release date: February 27 on Netflix

There’s plenty of true crime across the pond, too. Doctor Who alum Jodie Whittaker leads the cast of Netflix’s Toxic Town. The series dramatizes the Corby toxic waste case, in which the Corby Borough Council was found guilty of allowing toxic atmospheric waste from a nearby steel manufacturer to impact local townspeople, leading to more than 30 cases of birth defects. The show’s star-studded British cast also includes The White Lotus’s Aimee Lou Wood and Bridgerton’s Claudia Jessie.

WATCH IT ON NETFLIX

'Good American Family'

Release date: March 19 on Hulu

The case of Natalia Grace is one of the most mindboggling in recent memory, considering it sounds like it’s stripped from the horror movie Orphan. In reality, the now-21-year-old was in fact a child adopted from Ukraine, but her mental and physical health concerns led her adoptive mother, Kristine Barnett, to suspect she was older than she said she was, resulting in child abuse and abandonment. Hulu’s Good American Family dramatizes the story, with Ellen Pompeo as Barnett, in her first leading role since Grey’s Anatomy, and newcomer Imogen Faith Reid playing Natalia Grace.

WATCH IT ON HULU

'Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer'

Release date: March 31 on Netflix

For her latest subject, the renowned documentarian Liz Garbus (What Happened, Miss Simone?, I'll Be Gone in the Dark) pieced together an exhaustive look at the Gilgo Beach serial killings. The three-episode docuseries follows Lost Girls, a feature Garbus made about the case in 2020 before the killer was caught and arrested. With her knowledge and sensitive lens, Garbus pointedly centers the story on the victims’s families and their stories.

WATCH IT ON NETFLIX

'Spy High'

Release date: April 8 on Prime Video

Some of the most gripping documentaries make us believe something entirely different about their subjects by the end. That’s the case of Spy High, which first presents Blake Robbins as an obnoxious suburbanite cliche but comes to empathize with his story. In 2010, then-high-schooler Robbins was accused in 2010 by his Philadelphia area school of selling drugs—all because of a video the administration surveilled of him at home from his district-possessed laptop. With its wild cast of characters and sweeping ethical questions, it’s an entertaining look at private information and the surveillance state (and another reminder to cover your webcam).

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing'

Release date: April 9 on Netflix

Can’t get enough of the harrowing, true stories about influencers? Watch (and be devastated by) Bad Influence. This Netflix three-parter focuses on Piper Rockelle and her YouTuber circle The Squad, who began making videos at 8-years-old. The entire operation amassed millions and was allegedly orchestrated by Piper’s mom, Tiffany, in an abusive environment.

WATCH IT ON NETFLIX

'The Mortician'

Release date: June 1

Across three episodes, this truly unsettling HBO docuseries charts the goings-on at the family-run Lamb Funeral Home in California circa the 1980s. In 1987, it was discovered that the members of the family who were running the home at the time had been performing mass cremations, mutilating and stealing from corpses, calling for hits on competitors, and embezzling from prepaid funeral accounts—resulting in an initial batch of 41 criminal counts for the trio.

WATCH IT ON HBO MAX

'Smoke'

Release date: June 27

Taron Egerton and Jurnee Smollett lead this Apple TV+ miniseries inspired by true events. They play an arson investigator and a rising detective who team up to try to solve a series of arson cases in the Pacific Northwest. If you’re dying to learn more about the case, a podcast about it was released in 2021.

WATCH IT ON APPLE TV+

'One Night in Idaho: The College Murders'

Release date: July 11

This four-part Amazon Prime docuseries delves into the horrific and mysterious killings of four college students in Idaho in 2022. Unlike many other true crime shows, however, this one places a heavy focus not on the perpetrator, but on the victims and their families—even featuring the first public interviews from two of the victims’s parents—making for an especially heart-wrenching take on the genre.

WATCH IT ON AMAZON PRIME

'Amy Bradley Is Missing'

Release date: July 16 on Netflix

Amy Bradley went missing from a cruise ship at the age of 23 in 1998 and still has never been found. After this three-episode Netflix docuseries resurfaced the tragic case, it sparked renewed global interest in solving the mystery and even dredged up hundreds of new leads in the case, including three that investigators have described as “very significant.”

WATCH IT ON NETFLIX

'The Yogurt Shop Murders'

Release date: August 3 on HBO

The "yogurt shop murders” is the name given to the long-unsolved 1991 brutal homicides of four teenage girls in a frozen yogurt shop in Austin. HBO’s four-episode series—with counts Emma Stone and her husband Dave McCary among its executive producers—is more concerned with hearing from the families and friends of the four girls about their grieving processes and exploring the concept of memory rather than solving the case. However, it just so happened to premiere only a month before Austin police announced they'd finally found a match for DNA evidence gathered at the scene, naming as the perpetrator a serial killer who died in 1999.

WATCH IT ON HBO MAX

'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'

Release date: August 20

Based on Amanda Knox’s own memoir—and with Knox listed as an executive producer—this Hulu series dramatizes the story of her wrongful conviction for the murder of her roommate while studying abroad in Italy. Grace Van Patten stars in the titular role, playing up the quirkiness that bewildered the Italian police and the public alike throughout Knox’s frustrating trial and imprisonment.

WATCH IT ON HULU

'Blood & Myth'

Release date: September 4 on Hulu

Hulu adapted the popular audiobook Midnight Son into this documentary. It recounts the tale of Teddy Kyle Smith, an actor who went on a bloody crime spree in the remote Northern Alaska village where he grew up. He then claimed he’d been guided by sinister beings all too familiar to his Native community, pitting folklore against the U.S. justice system.

WATCH IT ON HULU

'Murdaugh: Death in the Family'

Release date: October 15 on Hulu

This ripped-from-the-headlines Hulu series dramatizes the shocking story of Alex Murdaugh, who was found guilty in 2023 of killing his wife and son in 2021. Jason Clarke plays Murdaugh, while Patricia Arquette and Johnny Berchtold play Maggie and Paul, and, because the series is technically based on Mandy Matney’s "Murdaugh Murders Podcast" tracking the then-unfolding investigation, Brittany Snow appears as Matney herself.

WATCH IT ON HULU

'The Perfect Neighbor'

Release date: October 17 on Netflix

Under Florida’s “stand your ground” law, residents can use deadly force in self-defense without initially trying to retreat from the situation. That law played a role in an unexpected criminal case in which a local “Karen’s” dispute with her neighbor unexpectedly turned deadly. In The Perfect Neighbor, director Geeta Gandbhir uses police body cam footage to question how lax state gun laws can turn neighbors into life-threatening forces and whether justice will be served.

WATCH IT ON NETFLIX

'Don't Date Brandon'

Release date: October 28 on Paramount+

Paramount+ is putting out this three-part true crime series, in which a woman connects with her boyfriend’s ex-wife and soon realizes that he’s not as perfect as he seems. When the duo start a podcast talking openly about the red flags they'd missed about him, even more of Brandon’s romantic victims begin coming forward to share their own experiences.

WATCH THE TRAILER

'Death By Lightning'

Release date: November 6 on Netflix

Contrary to how it might feel these days, deranged political intrigue is nothing new in America. Case in point: Mike Makowsky’s upcoming Netflix historical drama Death By Lightning, which follows lesser-known U.S. president James A. Garfield (Michael Shannon) and his eventual assassin, his admirer-turned-adversary Charles Guiteau (Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen). Here’s hoping Macfadyen brings peak “Tom Wambsgans throwing water bottles” energy to his performance!

WATCH THE TRAILER

'Predators'

Release date: In theaters Sept. 19

True crime is enticing, but at what point does our fascination with headline-making perpetrators and their victims’s stories cross the line into exploitation? In an attempt to answer that question, David Osit’s documentary Predators casts an eye back to one of the genre’s earlier entries: NBC’s early aughts reality TV hit To Catch A Predator. In each episode, child predators were lured to a film set, interviewed, and eventually arrested. By examining the series’s legacy, Osit asks viewers to consider their relationship to the contemporary true crime boom and how we can avoid being complicit in the pain that lesser entries into the genre can bring upon real people.

WATCH THE TRAILER

From buzzy superhero stories to the return of Paddington, 2025 has been filled with exciting new movie releases. But here’s some advice: Don’t count out real-life stories in the meantime. Documentaries can be just as gripping as fictional movies, and this year's slate of nonfiction releases has been no exception.

In 2025, documentary fans have been spoiled for choice, from exciting new music docs with exclusive footage of iconic bands and subgenres to timely films that provide intimate looks at modern topics, including inmate abuse and the fight for LGBTQ+ rights. There’s even a tearjerker about hummingbirds! Below, we’re rounding up the best documentaries of 2025 so far, as well as the films that are on the horizon. (If you want even more recommendations, check out our lists of the best true crime documentaries and docuseries of 2025 and the best documentaries of 2024.)

'Avicii – I'm Tim'

Release date: December 31 on Netflix

This music doc is said to be the most personal and closest examination yet of who Tim Bergling, the Swedish artist behind his star EDM persona Avicii, was throughout his life before his death by suicide in 2018. Featuring home footage and clips from his private archive, Avicii – I'm Tim, which was made with his family and closest friends and colleagues involved, paints a never-before-seen portrait of the hitmaker and his inner world.

WATCH IT

'Don't Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever'

Release date: January 1 on Netflix

Filmmaker Chris Smith has released several buzzy documentaries in the past few years, from Netflix titles like Fyre and the true-crime hit The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann to HBO’s 100 Foot Wave. His latest rattled viewers, as well. Don’t Die’s subject is Bryan Johnson, a tech entrepreneur who has committed his life's work to defy aging through questionable and controversial practices, including plasma transfusions.

WATCH IT

'Every Little Thing'

Release date: January 10

In the hills of L.A.’s Beverly Hills, Terry Masear spends her days tending to injured hummingbirds. Masear knows that her winged charges aren’t on Earth for long, but the joy she takes in caring for her home’s little cast of characters soon moves past typical cute animal content into something more profound. Weaving together tales of Masear’s avian rehab with her history of overcoming an abusive rural upbringing and finding her place within L.A., Every Little Thing is a lovely reminder that everyday resilience and magic can be found in your own backyard, even amid hardships and loss.

WATCH IT

'SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night'

Release date: January 16 on Peacock

Saturday Night Live celebrates its whopping 50th anniversary in 2025, and the NBC late-night staple pulled out all the stops to celebrate. In addition to running various specials, the iconic comedy sketch show released a four-part docuseries about the untold stories behind all your favorite skits and infamous moments. If you at all have a soft spot for any number of the memorable casts, this will warm your heart and fill you with laughter.

WATCH IT

'No Other Land'

Release date: January 31

Although No Other Land officially became an Academy Award-winning documentary during the 2025 Oscars, the searing documentary on the occupation of Palestinian villages in the West Bank struggled to find wide distribution in the U.S. Thankfully, one of the most important films in recent years is now available to stream.

WATCH IT

'Becoming Led Zeppelin'

Release date: February 7

Rock music lovers, this one's for you. As its title suggests, Becoming Led Zeppelin isn’t your typical career-spanning music documentary. Instead, it uses a “hybrid docu-concert” format to track the iconic British band’s rise to fame in the 1960s. The biggest draw? The film’s bounty of never-before-seen early concert footage and recordings was released for fans to watch in IMAX.

WATCH IT

'Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius)'

Release date: February 13 on Hulu

Questlove's follow-up to the 2021 Oscar-winning doc Summer of Soul is another examination of a cultural phenomenon. Another music doc where the title hints at the film's scope, Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius) reintroduces the genre-bending musician Sly Stone, not by charting his rise and fall, but by examining whether his later career struggles were the effect of the burdens the culture places on Black trailblazers.

WATCH IT

'One on One: John and Yoko'

Release date: April 11 in theaters; November 14 on HBO Max

Beatlemania has never really gone away, but it's set to ramp up over the next few years. First up is this documentary, centered on the first 18 months of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's life together in N.Y.C. While chronicling the pair's adventures in 1972 Greenwich Village, the doc also looks back at a turbulent era in American history through the lens of 1970s television. The film's highlight is newly-restored footage of the duo's titular benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden, with the concert audio remixed by their son, musician Sean Ono Lennon.

WATCH IT

'Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey'

Release date: April 21 on Netflix

My Octopus Teacher filmmaker Pippa Ehrlich returned this year with her follow-up to the Oscar-winning doc: a new project about one of the "most poached and trafficked animals on the planet." The film follows Kulu, a baby pangolin (a.k.a. scaly mammals native to Africa and Asia), and the man who "finds new purpose" when he rescues Kulu "in a sting operation in South Africa." According to the description, the man "embarks on a heartfelt mission to rehabilitate and prepare the vulnerable animal for a life of freedom in the wild."

WATCH IT

'Titan: The OceanGate Disaster'

Release date: June 11 on Netflix

It seems we're in an age where monoculture news events are immediately turned into documentary features. (Consider the many Luigi Mangione docs already in the works.) This year, Netflix and filmmaker Mark Monroe were quick to explore the 2023 Titan submersible incident, in which a tourist expedition to the Titanic wreck notoriously went missing and left the world waiting four days for news of the vessel. In addition to the doomed expedition, the film examines the "price of ambition," regarding OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.

WATCH IT

'Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore'

Release date: June 20

In 1987, Marlee Matlin shot into the spotlight when she became the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award at just 21-years-old for her performance in Children of a Lesser God. Her win, in turn, helped give Weeds and Grey’s Anatomy star Shoshannah Stern the confidence to pursue an acting career as a Deaf woman. Now, Stern is bringing things full circle in her directorial debut, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, in which the two women trace Matlin’s career and how navigating Hollywood has (and hasn’t) changed for the Deaf community.

WATCH IT

'My Mom Jayne'

Release date: June 27 on HBO Max

When Mariska Hargitay was 3-years-old, she was in a car accident that claimed the life of her mother, classic Hollywood star Jayne Mansfield. In her feature directorial debut, the Law & Order: SVU star reconciles the public image of her mother—the sex symbol known as Hollywood's "smartest dumb blonde"—with the woman behind the persona, via archival footage and intimate conversations with Hargitay's siblings.

WATCH IT

'Orwell: 2+2=5'

Release date: October 3

Nine years after Raoul Peck's I Am Not Your Negro explored modern-day racism via a survey of James Baldwin's life and career, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker is back with a prescient dive into another literary legend. The new documentary links the anti-totalitarian beliefs that inspired Orwell's writing, including the novels Animal Farm and 1984, to the recent historical events. Also, like Samuel L. Jackson in Negro, Damian Lewis gives stirring performances of Orwell's prose throughout the examination of the author's life.

WATCH THE TRAILER

'The Alabama Solution'

Release date: October 10 on HBO Max

Alabama is home to one of the deadliest, most overcrowded, and most understaffed prison systems in America, but very few know what happens inside its walls. In this jaw-dropping doc, Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman compile six years of contraband cellphone footage, captured by a group of inmate activists, to illuminate horrific abuse and brutality in one Alabama prison.

WATCH IT

'The Perfect Neighbor'

Release date: October 17 on Netflix

In 2023, Ocala, Florida resident Ajike "A.J." Owens, 35, was fatally shot by her 60-year-old neighbor during a dispute, with the subsequent case renewing discourse around the state's controversial "stand your ground" laws. This Sundance Award-winning doc examines the tragic incident and its aftermath as an intimate case study—told through body-cam footage and CCTV—of how these laws are unevenly upheld in a society that has not yet fully reckoned with systemic racism.

WATCH IT

'Heightened Scrutiny'

Release date: TBA; Premiered at Sundance

In 2024, a whopping 669 anti-trans bills threatening trans people’s basic access to healthcare, legal protections, and more were introduced in the United States, more than any other year on record. Now, director Sam Feder—who previously made the groundbreaking 2020 Netflix LGBTQ+ documentary Disclosure—takes on this precarious moment for trans rights in his new film Heightened Scrutiny. The doc follows ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio as he contends with not only political scapegoating but also biased media narratives in his mission to protect transgender Americans’ freedoms.

WATCH THE TRAILER

'Twiggy'

Release date: March 7 in the U.K., TBD in the U.S.

You could recognize those big eyes and eyelashes anywhere, but do you know her story? After telling the story of British fashion designer Mary Quant, filmmaker Sadie Frost's latest subject is another mod icon: Twiggy. The fashion documentary is a full-fledged look at her life, going from a working-class background to becoming an internationally renowned model to quitting her career in the industry at age 22 in pursuit of other opportunities, as well as the lesser-known setbacks she faced along the way.

WATCH THE TRAILER

FX's latest show Say Nothing, available to stream on Hulu, is a harrowing, expertly told story of extremist violence's effect on countless lives. Based on Patrick Radden Keefe's 2018 bestseller Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, the nine-episode true-crime series chronicles the Troubles, the decades-long conflict between Catholic republicans and Protestant loyalists in Northern Ireland. The must-watch series tells the stories of several members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), with two of the standout subjects being Dolours and Marian Price, siblings and IRA fighters who were once dubbed "The Sisters of Terror."

Say Nothing follows both Dolours (played by both Lola Petticrew and Maxine Peake in the series) and Marian (played by both Hazel Doupe and Helen Behan) throughout their lives, from their childhoods learning the methods of the IRA to their adulthoods, as Dolours takes part in the Belfast Project, an oral history, which also served as her anonymous confession. Through this, it examines the toll that the IRA’s quest—to end British rule in Northern Ireland and reunite Ireland by any means necessary—took on its members. Below, read on for everything you need to know about the true story of the Price sisters, including which of the pair is still alive today.

Dolours and Marian Price learned about the IRA from their parent's involvement.

Since long before The Troubles began, Irish Catholics and U.K. protestants have been at odds. Here's the essential history to know before the events of Say Nothing: Between 1919 and 1921, the Irish Republican Army fought for independence from the U.K. The conflict ended with the division of Ireland into northern and southern regions in 1922. The U.K. retained control of Northern Ireland, which was majority Protestant with a small population of Catholics who faced political, economic, and social discrimination. Over the 1960s, there was a rise in activity from young Catholic nationalists, who either embraced non-violent protest inspired by the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. or violent paramilitary action against loyalists. One of the latter groups, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, broke off from the Irish Republican Army due to differing views: The official group sought independence through peace, while the provisional group chose violence.

Per Keefe's book, Dolours Price was born on December 16, 1950, followed by her younger sister Marian's birth in 1954 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The pair—along with their two other siblings, Damian and Clare—were the children of Albert and Chrissie Price, who were both members of the Irish Republican Army. As seen in the series, Albert would regale his kids with stories of his teenage years with the group in the '40s, which included eight years spent in jail. Dolours and Marian's aunt Birdie, one of Chrissie's sisters, was also a former fighter, who had lost both of her hands and her eyesight in 1938 from a bomb-making error, at age 27. (Birdie is less of a notable figure in Keefe's book than in the FX series.)

As teenagers, Dolours and Marian initially got involved through non-violent means, but they were radicalized during one of the tragic events that marked the start of the Troubles. During a civil rights march on New Year's Day 1969, 100 peaceful protestors were ambushed by nearly 300 Protestant loyalists on Derry's Burntollet Bridge. Per Keefe, the British military raided the Prices' home "repeatedly" in the early '70s, suspicious of Albert Price’s alleged extremist ties. Both Dolours and Marian eventually later joined the IRA in 1971, at ages 20 and 16, respectively.

Dolours and Marian Price were some of the first women to obtain full IRA membership.

Dolours and Marian were familiar with the gender stratification in the IRA long before they joined. Their mother Chrissie had been a member of Cumann na mBan, the women's auxiliary group that often served as nurses or administered first aid to the male IRA members. However, as shown in the series, Dolours and Marian wanted to be "doing what the boys were doing."

The sisters became the first full-time female members of the IRA in the organization’s history, serving in the Belfast Brigade and taking part in different tasks traditionally done by men. They started as couriers, transporting money and explosive materials north across the border at their own risk, before escalating to robbing banks to spring fellow members out of captivity. Per the documentary I, Dolours, the sisters once dressed as nuns during one of these robberies.

Dolours and Marian Price went on a hunger strike after being imprisoned for their role in the 1973 London bombings.

The IRA escalated their efforts in 1972, following the Bloody Sunday massacre in which military soldiers opened fire on a crowd of civil rights protesters, killing 13 and injuring at least 15 others. In 1973, Dolours and Marian took part in a mission to plant four car bombs in significant areas in London. Two of the bombs went off, outside the Old Bailey Courthouse and the Ministry of Agriculture near Whitehall, around the same time on March 8, 1973. The other two bombs were diffused. At least 200 were injured, and one person died of a heart attack, though per Keefe the autopsy found that the cardiac event began before the bombings.

Though Dolours and Marian are presented as the architects of the plan in the FX series, the planning was more of a group effort in real life, with Keefe writing that the idea was "at least in part Dolours Price’s." However, Keefe confirmed that she was chosen to run the mission. Both sisters were among the members of the Belfast Brigade arrested at Heathrow Airport following the bombings, and they were sentenced to serve 20 years in the all-male Brixton Prison in South London.

However, as soon as they arrived, Dolours and Marian began a hunger strike, to force the British government to grant their request to be moved to a prison in Northern Ireland to serve as political prisoners. With the strike, the pair followed a long tradition of republican prisoners, dating back to 1923. The sisters' strike lasted 205 days; as seen in Say Nothing's sixth episode, they were force-fed for 167 of those days.

Dolours and Marian were eventually successful and sent to Armagh Prison in Northern Ireland, where they served their remaining time in a women’s prison an hour outside of Belfast. Marian was released from jail in 1980 due to health concerns, having lost so much weight that she was considered in "imminent danger of death," with Dolours being let out for the same reason a year later, at age 30.

Dolours married actor Stephen Rea after her release from prison in 1980.

After their release from prison, Marion lived out of the public eye and rarely spoke publicly about her past. Due to this, much more is known about Dolours' years after prison, including her surprising love story.

On the night before the 1973 London bombings, Dolours and Marian had seen a play called The Freedom of the City, starring a young Irish actor called Stephen Rea. Rea was born in Belfast to a Protestant family who was sympathetic to Irish nationalism; he is now best known for his Oscar-nominated performance as an IRA officer in 1992's The Crying Game. He and Dolours had met during the civil rights protests in the '60s, and when their paths crossed for the third time after her 1980 release, they fell in love and were married in 1983, later welcoming two children. The marriage did not last, with Dolours and Rea divorcing in 2003.

Recently, Rea has spoken publicly about their marriage and Dolours’s struggles with alcoholism in 2021, explaining that she experienced mental health issues after leaving jail. "For a sensitive person like her, it was very tough," Rea said in a 2021 interview. "She came out of prison after eight years, how could she be anything but destroyed?"

Per Keefe, Dolours also struggled with disordered eating, drug addiction, and PTSD in her final years, as she also reckoned with her past violent acts. On January 24, 2013, Dolours died after accidentally ingesting a toxic mix of sedatives and anti-depressants.

Dolours later confessed to being involved in Jean McConville's death, but Marian has denied any involvement.

In the first scene of Say Nothing, Jean McConville (played by Judith Roddy), a 37-year-old widowed mother of 10, is dragged out of her home never to be seen again, until her corpse was spotted in 2003, by a random passerby walking their dog. McConville was one of the Disappeared, over a dozen people who the IRA abducted, killed, and buried in complete secrecy across the 1970s and '80s. McConville was born Protestant and converted to Catholicism for her late husband; before the December 1972 disappearance, she and her children had moved into Divis Flats, a massive public housing complex whose inhabitants were mostly Catholic nationalists. According to her children (and as seen throughout the show), many of McConville's abductors were her own neighbors.

In 2001, Boston College launched The Belfast Project, an oral history of the Troubles consisting of anonymous interviews with former Republicans and Loyalists, with the subjects only revealed after their deaths. Two years after Doloures died in 2013, her account of her involvement in McConville's death was included in Keefe's New Yorker article "Where The Bodies Are Buried," the predecessor to his later novel. By the time of the Belfast Project interviews, Dolours had reportedly become disillusioned with her time in the I.R.A. following the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, the peace accord that ended the Troubles without achieving Ireland's unification.

In her interviews, Dolours revealed that she had been part of the "Unknowns," a secret IRA unit that conducted clandestine missions including disappearances. Though she did not participate in the raid, Dolours admitted that she drove McConville across the border into the Republic of Ireland, where the mother was executed. Dolours claimed that McConville had been acting as an informant for the British Army while living Divis Flats, but as of 2015, no official records could be found of McConville being an informant.

Per Say Nothing (both the book and the series), both Dolours and Marian were involved in McConville's execution with Marian eventually dealing the fatal shot. In the documentary I, Dolours, the titular subject discussed her direct involvement in the shooting, explaining that she and two other IRA members "each fired a shot so that no one would say that they for certain had been the person to kill [McConville]."

However, Marian Price released a statement through her lawyer denying any involvement in McConville's death upon the release of Say Nothing in the book. Marian is still living, and she has not given any recent interviews.

Jaylen Barron already knew of Shayanna Jenkins before she signed on to the FX series American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez. After watching one of the several unscripted projects documenting Hernandez’s rise to NFL fame and subsequent incarceration, Barron, like most people who followed the highly-publicized trial in 2015, thought she knew the kind of people the notorious couple were. Hernandez was convicted of killing Jenkins’s sister’s boyfriend, Odin Lloyd; Jenkins remained his loyal partner throughout the trial. “I was like, Couldn't be me,” Barron tells Marie Claire of her first impression of Jenkins. “That's a real rider, and that's not me. So it was really interesting that it literally ended up being me [playing her]."

But now that she’s spent 10 episodes in Jenkins’ shoes on the Ryan Murphy-produced true-crime series, Barron feels much more compassion for her real-life counterpart. Over light bites at SoHo House Hollywood in early October, the former Blindspotting and Free Rein star speaks fondly of Shayanna, defending the former NFL fiancé as she would an old friend but still making sure to choose her words carefully as any media-trained actress would. Barron, 27, grew up near Los Angeles in the Inland Empire, and the self-professed lover girl knows that there’s a world of difference between her upbringing as a child actor and Jenkins’ in the town of Bristol, Connecticut, that shaped Jenkins’ decisions in her early 20s. [Ed note: Jenkins, who’s now an insurance broker and mother of two, was not involved in American Sports Story’s production, and has not publicly commented on the series.] In addition to watching Jenkins’ media interviews following Hernandez’s death, and Hernandez’s games with the Florida Gators and New England Patriots, Barron based her performance on universal feelings: the urge to give a cute boy the answers in English class, the discomfort at not knowing what a crush is thinking. “I really feel like she did the best that she could with her knowledge and what she had going for her,” she says of the woman she used to criticize.

Barron calls American Sports Story her “first big girl role,” and she acknowledges the toll and the pressure of bringing such a troubled and ultimately tragic story to life. “For the next job I get, I'll have a better practice of separating myself from the characters,” she says, ahead of the series’ final two episodes. “Before I used to judge actors for getting so wrapped up in their characters. I'm like, It's so not that deep. Until you get a role that you deeply connect with, and you feel like you owe it to these real-life people and yourself to tell a story right.”

Here, Barron speaks with Marie Claire about adding levity and authenticity to her performance, the difficulty in Jenkins’ choices, and why she hopes viewers will leave the series with more compassion for celebrities.

Marie Claire: Were you familiar with the true story of Aaron Hernandez’s trial before hearing about the role of Shayanna?

Jaylen Barron: The Netflix documentary dropped when I was 18, and that's when I really was introduced to Aaron… What [playing Shayanna] taught me was that people make choices for their own reasons. We see people and then we judge them, but they have a whole life that affects who they are and the choices that they make. So for Shayanna, every choice she made, in my eyes, made sense, and she stood on it. What I really respect about her is that she was so loyal to him and loved him so much. Not only as just a partner, but as a friend. You're there for your friends, and she stayed there with him. I no longer have that [feeling of] Couldn't be me, because I get it. She loved him. That was the father of her child. Also, she was a 22-year-old Black girl. Everybody was looking at her like she should make these really wise decisions at her age, when she was just doing what she knows how to do.

The choice that she made with her sister, I couldn't imagine having to do that. I feel like she truly looked at Aaron as her husband, and in my values and the way I was raised, your husband comes before everybody, except your children. I know some people might think that sounds crazy, but you guys are locked in. This is literally a vow and a bond. It would make sense why she would make that choice to stick beside him over everyone else. Controversial take, but that's what I feel.

MC: What was your process in preparing and researching the role?

JB: I don't have a really extensive process of what I did, except just the preparation of watching all of Aaron's interviews, all of Shay's interviews, looking at her Instagram. I also watched a lot of his football tapes because I'm unfamiliar with football. I know a little bit more now than I did before, but I just wanted to see how good he was and have an understanding of why he was so admired, and why she loved him so much. With how charming he was in his interviews and how handsome he was, I was like, 'I get it. I do. I understand.' And I had to.

I had to feel like Shayanna. I had to develop a crush on him, so that way when I would go on set, it felt authentic. I was excited to talk to Aaron (played by Josh Rivera in the series) and be around Aaron, because Aaron is the coolest guy in school, and Aaron is the football player and he's the man. I needed to have that.

MC: Were you able to actually talk to Shayanna herself?

JB: The show did such a good job with finding out research and having their own investigative team to figure out what was going on. I was only familiar with her through interviews, so I did not get the chance to talk to her. I wish I did.

MC: We don’t get to see a lot of Shayanna as a high schooler. How did you approach building her character as a teenager, and then as someone who's going to community college when she reconnects with him?

JB: With the high school scenes, the nostalgia of the clothes helped a lot. When you get your hair done a certain way and you put on those outfits—like in that first scene with this big belt on and a swoop bang in my face—it just brings you back to that time. Then in episode 5, [Aaron] goes to see her and invites her to a Patriots party, and she's in her T-Mobile clothing, because she's working up at the cell phone store. I feel like that allowed me to have a little layer of insecurity, because she is a bit insecure talking to this almost-millionaire football-player boy she went to high school with. I think just being in that mode of like, Oh, does he like me? He's here, but I'm still that bitch. I'm still that girl. You have to work hard to get me.

Shayanna had such depth and layers to her. There's like an undertone of her just not getting it, and not feeling herself in that environment. She's just trying to figure it out, and I'm still in real life trying to figure it out. She's taught me to be more comfortable with myself and my imperfections. It was a lot of fun going to set, and being able to lean into that insecurity that I'm carrying around with me every day and put it on camera for people to see. I would just think about any time that a man made me feel nervous, and I would do my thing.

MC: The show depicts Shayanna and Aaron growing up in that environment where a wife or girlfriend has to be a ride or die. When you were playing those scenes where Shayanna’s marriage came into conflict with her family, were you able to relate to how she was torn between them?

JB: I relate to her one-hundred percent in the aspect of how loyal she is, being a good girl, and too good of a woman that somebody could walk all over you and take advantage of your loyalty to them. I went through a breakup, and you have the whole world telling you these different things about your person. You're like, No, but I know this person. But then you could also see exactly what they're saying, and then your person's telling you something different. It's all of these different voices, but the one thing that you do know at the end of the day is, I can't leave. I don't want to leave because this is the person that I see. You guys don't see what I see in him. She was loyal to a fault because there were certain things that she could have walked away from but she didn't. I don't have any children so I can't imagine how difficult it's to walk away from the father of your child like that. I just related to her in the aspect of how much she loved and how hard she loved.

MC: Though the series is a drama, there are also naturally comedic moments in your performance. How did you balance those moments of levity in such a serious story?

JB: Aaron was really goofy and silly and literally labeled as the class clown. He was very charismatic. For him to fall in love with a woman, I feel like she had to be able to handle it and bounce off of it, because he was joking with her all the time. It was important to highlight the fact that they had a common understanding of who one another was. They had a high-school sweetheart bond. It wasn't so serious all the time because he wasn't serious. It would just be little light moments of hanging out with your boyfriend. Your best friend. A little kiki here and there.

I wanted the audience to be able to see that, and some of the things were not scripted. I would add that in there. I would talk to the director and say, ‘I feel like there should be something funny between them. They have to like each other.’ I wanted to get across why they fell in love and why they clicked, because nobody was able to see that from the trial. Everybody just looked at her like, ‘Why would you be with him?’ I didn't want it to just be about sex and just because he's the football player. No, she appreciated him and he appreciated her for who they were. It was a partnership.

MC: Do you ever feel like, if Aaron wasn’t arrested, that there would've been a point where Shayanna eventually confronted Aaron?

JB: I feel like she wouldn't have. I don't know her in real life and the choices that she would make. Again, I'm going off of who I played. For me, if my goal is to marry this man and have this life, and have my daughter have a present father the way I did not, I'm not saying anything. As hard as that might be for some people to understand, we all know that in this industry, men of a certain stature do certain things, some of them. And sometimes their wives turn a blind eye because they feel like they see a bigger picture. In this specific circumstance, she wanted a father for her child and to not have a broken home. She's going to deal with things for her daughter. People want to keep their families together every day. So I wouldn't say anything if that was my goal, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay. I think that a man can really warp your mind, and really take you to a dark place of self-doubt, thinking that you're not going to find anybody better than him. Just a place of not realizing who you are and what you're capable of. It's hard. Men have made me doubt myself.

MC: Shayanna is the last person we see when American Sports Story ends. What do you hope that viewers take away from watching this entire saga?

JB: To have mercy on people that they don't know. To have empathy towards this woman who was 22 years old and trying to make the right choices. I also hope we no longer look at, not only athletes, but celebrities in almost a godly way and [put them] on this impossible pedestal, when they still struggle with mental illness, and they still struggle with figuring out who they are, especially Black and Brown men. I feel like during that time, there wasn't a lot of access to therapy, and this was only 2010, 2013? All of this stuff that we're talking about with mental health awareness and health is very new. So during that time, being a Black and Brown man and struggling with your sexuality, and also having CTE could not be easy. It is not easy even to this day.

I really hope they take away the fact that Odin was not lost in this story, and that his story is the biggest and most important one of all, because he's not here due to the lack of mental health awareness within our community and society, with football players especially. We all expect men to stand up and just get over something. We never take the time to ask them if they're okay. So hopefully this will make people a little bit more aware of the people in their lives, and not to judge everybody, and not to judge a woman for staying with a man.

I feel like, especially women amongst women, it's so easy to look at someone and be like, 'Bitch, you are crazy as hell. Couldn't be me.' But you can't say that because you never know when it is going to be you. It could very easily be you. There's a lot of lessons you can take from here, from everybody's point of view. These are real people and I just don't want them to be judged for society only seeing one color of them, one side of them. I love Shayanna genuinely. She doesn't know me at all, but she has no idea how much I love her. I care about her a lot. I wish that it was different for her, and I wish that she didn't have this experience, and I wish Aaron's story didn't end up like this, because I love him too. It sounds a little off, but it's real.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

HBO's latest true crime docuseries Breath of Fire is another saga of a spiritual community accused of cult-like behaviors. Based on Hayley Phelan's Vanity Fair article "The Second Coming of Guru Jagat," the four-part series—which premiered on October 23, 2024, and airs new episodes every Wednesday—centers on Guru Jagat, a practitioner of kundalini yoga who doc directors Hayley Pappas and Smiley Stevens have dubbed "the Elizabeth Holmes of Yoga." Throughout the 2010s, Jagat built her L.A.-based studio into an international empire that boasted several locations, adjacent e-commerce businesses, and celebrity followers including Kate Hudson, Alicia Keys, Orlando Bloom, and Russell Brand. She also allegedly fostered a cult-like, abusive environment within the organization, and eventually platformed right-wing, anti-vax, and QAnon conspiracies by the onset of the COVID pandemic.

The well-rounded cult docuseries also explores the legacy of Jagat's controversial mentor, Yogi Bhajan, the complicated culture of modern spirituality, and the "dangers of self-proclaimed gurus," per the doc's description. At the center of it all is Guru Jagat, the charismatic and controversial leader whose public profile has altered from guru girlboss to alleged cult leader, in the wake of her untimely death. Read on for a brief primer on everything to know about Guru Jagat.

She was an internationally known kundalini yoga guru.

Guru Jagat, real name Katie Griggs, was born in Colorado in 1979. According to Vanity Fair, Griggs dreamed of acting or performing onstage as a kid, and she "drifted in her early 20s, dropping out of school due to partying, then eventually getting a degree from Antioch College in Ohio." Eventually, the one-time YouTube astrologer founded the RA MA Institute for Applied Yogic Sciences and Technology, an L.A.-based studio established in 2013 that focused on spreading the practice of kundalini yoga. According to the outlet, kundalini is "characterized by intense breath work, repetitive poses, and alternative lifestyle choices, such as wearing white and eating mostly vegetarian."

The first episode of the HBO docuseries introduces some elements of Jagat's practice, including "breath of fire," an energizing breath work that one doc subject describes as a feeling similar to "taking poppers." As stated in the doc, Jagat would end her sessions with a 45-minute talk that sometimes included a "prosperity meditation," where the attendants would credit their successes, such as getting a dream job or a dream house to the yoga practice.

By the late 2010s, Jagat became a popular yoga guru and business owner thanks in part to her active Instagram presence. She hosted online classes through a subscription service, where 20,000 subscribers paid at least $19 monthly. She also started several other ventures out of RA MA, including two clothing lines: a streetwear brand and a line of "ethereal white dresses." The physical RA MA studio also expanded into multiple locations including Venice (the L.A. flagship); New York; Boulder, Colorado; and Mallorca, Spain.

Guru Jagat presented herself as a direct disciple of the controversial spiritual teacher Yogi Bhajan. She claimed that she was able to meet him in the final years of his life and that she received her spiritual name from him. However, this claim has been questioned because Bhajan died in 2004, and Guru Jagat did not start going by that name until 2013. Before then, she ran a website called Kundalini Katie, and at various points, she went by the monikers Athena Day and Katie Day, per the doc.

She's a student of Yogi Bhajan, the spiritual leader who founded Yogi Tea.

Yogi Bhajan, real name, Harbhajan Singh Khalsa, is a spiritual guru who's credited with popularizing kundalini yoga. The former customs inspector immigrated from India to the United States in the late 1960s, when, as Amanda Montell points out in Breath of Fire, "people were feeling, existentially, high and dry." He established the 3HO Foundation in L.A. and gathered hundreds of followers who lived by his teachings. Critics have accused Bhajan of inventing kundalini by pulling from other spiritual practices and Sikh teachings.

Bhajan was also a businessman who ran multiple multimillion-dollar businesses, including Yogi Tea and a private security firm. According to the doc, Bhajan's teachings were similar to the prosperity gospel, a belief that a higher power rewards the faithful with financial wealth. Over the years, his followers created businesses for "shoes, body scrubs, granola bars, essential oils," and more, per the doc. Cameron Healy, the founder of Kettle Foods, reportedly became involved in kundalini yoga in the early 1970s, investing in a successful bakery called The Golden Temple, before eventually founding the eventual kettle-chip brand in 1978.

Bhajan faced accusations of "rape, sexual misconduct, and financial malfeasance" before and after his death, per Vanity Fair. In 2020, after his former employee and lover Pamela Dyson released a memoir including several new allegations, Guru Jagat expressed support for Bhajan and promoted a video that "sought to discredit Dyson and defend Bhajan." Her stance led to a backlash that prompted her fall from grace.

Guru Jagat was accused of running a toxic workplace.

In mid-2020, Jagat's former employees Becky Lovell and Nicole Norton started the anonymous Instagram page @ramawrong, which posted evidence of Jagat instilling a culture of abuse among her employees. Per Vanity Fair, "Jagat could be abusive, irrational, and was prone to lying; she spent money like water and often came up short when it was time to pay her employees—many of whom, despite being full-time staffers with 'director' in their titles, made far below minimum wage and were asked to file as independent contractors, depriving them of benefits like health care." Anonymous employees also told Vanity Fair that Jagat allegedly supported QAnon conspiracy theories, with some accusing her husband Teg Nam—real name Austin Dunbar, a former student who was almost two decades younger—of "radicalizing" her.

Guru Jagat died in August 2021 under mysterious circumstances.

As reported by Vanity Fair, Guru Jagat died in August 2021 at the age of 41. The RA MA Institute said at the time that she had died of a pulmonary embolism following ankle surgery. Though the outlet confirmed her cause of death via her death certificate, several rumors were swirling at the time regarding what led to her death, ranging from her facing COVID complications after refusing to get vaccinated and holding maskless classes during the pandemic, to her faking her death in the wake of growing criticism against her.

This story includes mentions of assault and heavy spoilers for the movie Woman of the Hour. Woman of the Hour is the latest release to continue the true-crime trend of centering victims’ stories over the killer’s or even the authorities’ investigations. The film marks Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut—and it's an impressive debut at that, as it hauntingly brings to life the stranger-than-fiction true crime story of how a serial killer went so unnoticed and his victims were so ignored that he was able to appear on the reality show The Dating Game in 1978.

The eerie, ‘70s-set thriller, which hit streaming on Netflix on October 18, 2024, primarily focuses on a fictionalized version of the woman (played by Kendrick) who appeared on a dating reality show with—and picked—a man eventually dubbed “The Dating Game Killer” (Daniel Zovatto). However, its tight hour-and-a-half runtime also illustrates the misfortunes of several women murdered by the serial killer, who was named Rodney Alcala, and how he was caught.

The serial killer movie directed by Kendrick and written by Ian McDonald was largely based on fact but features fictionalized details, so below, find a breakdown of the true story behind Woman of the Hour.

Who was Rodney Alcala from 'Women of the Hour' and was he a real serial killer?

Rodney Alcala was a real serial killer and rapist who was confirmed to have murdered seven women and girls and sexually assaulted two girls across three states throughout the ‘70s but is believed to have killed upwards of over 100. Throughout much of his killing spree, he evaded law enforcement and wasn’t convicted of much of his crimes until 2010.

According to Biography, Alcala was born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala-Buquor in 1943 in San Antonio, and after spending a portion of his childhood in Mexico, relocated to L.A. In Woman of the Hour, Alcala tells various details about himself to his victims before viciously assaulting and murdering them, like how he graduated from New York University, studied with filmmaker Roman Polanski, and had plans to work at a summer camp. These details were somewhat lifted from his real life. In reality, he earned a fine arts degree in 1968 from the University of California, Los Angeles and, while living under the alias John Berger, he took classes at NYU, including a class with Polanski, but did not graduate, per Biography.

The bit about summer camp is also inspired by reality. Alcala’s first victim was Tali Shapiro, an 8-year-old girl who he raped and beat with a steel bar in 1968, and although a witness saw them in a car together, police were unable to catch him and he fled the scene. He moved east after the attack and in 1971 began working at a New Hampshire summer camp as a counselor under his alias, despite being on the FBI’s Most Wanted List at the time. There, several campers recognized him, leading to his arrest. For his first offense, he pled guilty to child molestation, serving only 34 months before getting released on parole in 1974. Shortly after his release, he was caught with marijuana possession while with a 13-year-old girl and went back to prison until 1977.

Once released in 1977, he got a job at The Los Angeles Times, despite his record as a sex offender. In Woman of the Hour, he’s portrayed as working there as a photographer, although in reality, he was a typesetter. The scene in which his colleagues say police want to question him is also dramatized but inspired by real events; he was brought in as a possible Hill Side Stranger suspect, but let go, and officers didn’t realize they were speaking to another dangerous criminal.

His record went unnoticed on The Dating Game, as well. The producers didn't run a background check, so he appeared on the show in 1978 and won after displaying playful innuendos in his responses. According to PEOPLE, the charisma and conventional good looks he displayed on the show were what helped him to lure victims outside of it, in addition to him telling them that he was a professional fashion photographer.

Just one year after his appearance on The Dating Game, Alcala was arrested for the murder of Robin Samsoe, a 12-year-old girl, and he was sentenced to death in 1980. With the span of 1971 to 1979, though, he brutally raped and murdered several women across New York, Wyoming, and California—including Cornelia Michael Crilley, a flight attendant while moving into her N.Y.C. apartment, like the one depicted in Kendrick’s film (played by Kathryn Gallagher). Though Alcala appealed his conviction in 1984 and was retried in 1986, resulting in another guilty sentence, it was overturned on a technical in 2001—but within that time DNA connected him to more unsolved cases. Since then, and upon another retrial in 2010, more DNA evidence and the public release of the photographs he took have connected him to many other murders and assaults.

While he was sentenced to death, Alcala died in 2021 of natural causes at age 77 while in prison.

How was Rodney Alcala caught?

The murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe in Huntington Beach, California led to the arrest that put Alcala in prison for good. According to Biography, he abducted the girl while she was biking to ballet class and her remains were found in the Angeles National Forest days later. When a police sketch of a potential suspect was available, Alcala’s parole officer saw it and recognized his likeness, leading authorities to investigate and arrest him, after discovering earrings that belonged to Samsoe in his storage locker.

Alternatively, Woman of the Hour illustrates a teenage runaway named Amy (played by Autumn Best) as the survivor who got Alcala arrested. In reality, this character is based on the real woman Monique Hoyt, who was 15 when Alcala picked her up hitchhiking, took her photo, and raped her in 1979, according to Slate. As depicted in the film, she escaped by saying she wanted to further her relationship with Alcala and keep what had happened a secret. Ultimately, authorities did not come in time to arrest the perpetrator. Though her report helped the case against him, it wasn’t until 2010 that she was able to testify, per ABC News.

Who was Cheryl Bradshaw?

In addition to the horrific scale of Alcala’s killing spree, he also came to notoriety due to his appearance on The Dating Game, the dating show that began airing in 1965 and featured a bachelorette interviewing three anonymous bachelors behind a concealed wall. Woman of the Hour recreates the show’s midcentury set based in an L.A. studio and sees Tony Hale playing a host inspired by Jim Lang, named Ed Burke.

Kendrick also portrays a fictionalized version of Cheryl Bradshaw—spelled Sheryl in the film—the real contestant who chose Alcala as her winning date. As reported by Slate, little is known about the real Cheryl, aside from how she was described in The Dating Game: a former masseuse “with a wealth of experience,” who was also a Phoenix, Arizona-based drama teacher. The Netflix film, rather, adds to her persona by making her a struggling actress encouraged to go on the show for exposure.

Bradshaw’s interactions with the bachelors were also exaggerated in the film. The movie’s screenwriter told Netflix’s Tudum he was inspired by another episode of The Dating Game he watched for research to inform the way Sheryl goes off script. “I saw one … where there was a woman who was asking questions that were clearly combative,” McDonald said. “She was trying to pick a fight with the host, saw the show as sexist, and she really disapproved of it, and she was making that disapproval known by the questions she was asking.”

On the real episode, as Variety reports, the host introduced Alcala as a “successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at the age of 13, fully developed.” Bradshaw asked him several questions, including, “I’m serving you for dinner. What are you called and what do you look like?” to which he responded, “I’m called the banana and I look good.” After she replied, “Can you be a little more descriptive?” he added, “Peel me.”

Like the film, though, Bradshaw expressed concern once she met Alcala and did not want to carry out the prize with him (passes to an amusement park and tennis lessons, as opposed to a trip to Carmel). The show’s contestant coordinator Ellen Metzger later told ABC News about how Bradshaw confided in her. “She said, ‘Ellen, I can’t go out with this guy. There’s weird vibes that are coming off of him. He’s very strange. I am not comfortable. Is that going to be a problem?’” Metzger recalled. “And of course, I said, ‘No.’”

Because of that, the two did not get together for drinks after filming, as they did in Woman of the Hour.

Was there really a woman in the audience on 'The Dating Game' trying to catch Rodney Alcana, like in 'Woman of the Hour?'

Woman of the Hour depicts a woman in the audience of The Dating Game (played by Nicolette Robinson) who instantly recognizes Alcala and becomes uncomfortable with his presence, remembering him to be the man who raped and murdered her friend without getting caught. As the show shoots, she gets up from her seat and attempts to talk to security about her concern, demanding she speak with a producer, but is completely ignored and ridiculed.

That did not happen in actuality, but Kendrick and McDonald inserted the fictionalized, composite character, named Laura, to represent other women who attempted to come forward and were ignored. Kendrick opened up about the thought behind this decision in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum, saying, “Laura really functions as kind of a representation of all the people that tried to raise the alarm and were ignored… There are so many heroes in this story, but the heroes were outnumbered and outgunned by incompetence and negligence and a culture that did not prioritize victims.”

If you, or someone you know, has been a victim of sexual assault or harassment and would like help, visit RAINN.org.

The popcorn's been popped, the sweatpants are on, and the evening is your oyster. Your next challenge: Figuring out exactly which of the best movies available to you is the one you're going to watch tonight. No matter what you're looking for—a rom-com, a murder mystery, a sad film, a great musical movie—there are plenty of must-watch films in your chosen genre to settle in with for the first (but probably not the last) time.

We movie lovers at Marie Claire know how time-consuming picking a great movie can be, so we did the work for you. We combed through movie rankings, critical reviews, and award nominations, and spoke to fellow pop culture fans to bring you this list of crucial must-watch films. Of course, you can expect to see well-known classic dramas and romance films like Casablanca and The Sound of Music on this list, in addition to movies from iconic directors like Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, and Alfred Hitchcock. But modern masterpieces like Everything Everywhere All At Once and Get Out stand up just as well and are on this list, too.

The must-watch movies below are modern classics, the best of the best, the essential films that millions of people are probably jealous that you're getting to see for the first time. They span multiple countries, languages, and decades. And because pulling these movies was a hard enough task, we left this list unranked. Feel free to decide for yourself how your favorites stack up to the rest on this list, and if we've left a title off, don't yell at us too harshly. A list as subjective as this is meant to be debated, after all. Without further ado, in no particular order: The best movies of all time.

The Best Romance Movies of All Time

There are a few things you can (almost) always expect from a romance movie: a love story (duh!); attractive protagonists; and a happy ending—usually. Maybe you need to be reminded that true love is out there. Or maybe you need to show your partner what real romance looks like. Some of the movies on this list are funny, and some are the ultimate in sad romance films, but there’s one thing all of these romantic films have in common: They're sure to pull on your heartstrings and make you believe in love all over again.

'Before Sunrise' (1995)

In this swooningly romantic movie from Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke play a pair of travelers—she French, he American—who have a chance meeting in Vienna and decide to spend the evening before his departing flight walking around the city and talking to one another. In 2005, the sequel Before Sunset continues the story, and then in 2015 the trilogy is wrapped up with Before Midnight. All of them are worth watching over and over.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Casablanca' (1942)

Set in the early years of World War II in Casablanca, Rick Blaine's (Humphrey Bogart) nightclub is an oasis for refugees despite the warnings he gets from local authorities. But things get rocky when an ex-lover (Ingrid Bergman) and her boyfriend (Paul Henreid) show up, bringing with them a challenge that Rick has to face. One of the most famous classic Hollywood romance films of all time, Casablanca is a love story you won't forget.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge' (1995)

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, the highest-grossing Indian film in 1995, is an absolute delight. The Bollywood rom-com about two young star-crossed lovers (Kajol and Shah Rukh Khan)who fall in love despite their parents' critiques won 10 Filmfare Awards—India’s Academy Award equivalent—and changed the game forever.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'In the Mood for Love' (2000)

The elaborate costumes, the stunning visuals, and the beautiful art direction are all key features of the art-house movie In the Mood for Love, by Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai. And though there's sparse dialogue, sit back and prepare to be enchanted by the slow but captivating scenes of two married neighbors (Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung) falling in love.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Like Water for Chocolate' (1992)

This sumptuous story follows the life of a Mexican girl (Lumi Cavazos) subjected to a family custom that demands she stay unmarried and take care of her mother through old age. She ends up pouring her lifetime of unfulfilled passion into her cooking, where her family literally feels her emotions while eating, thanks to a helping of magical realism.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Love Jones' (1997)

A photographer (Nia Long) and a poet (Larenz Tate) fall in love—and then fall out of love and back in love—in this charming romance. Set against the Chicago arts scene and pulsating with the city's jazz music history, it's a love story that moves and will win over your heart.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Moulin Rouge' (2001)

A little bit quirky and a little bit extravagant, Baz Luhrmann creates a visual spectacle of a musical that's still so much fun to watch, despite a sad ending. Complete with a perfect soundtrack and fairytale romance, this is a musical you can watch again and again.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Notebook' (2004)

Ryan Gosling. Rachel McAdams. An on-screen kiss that's impossible to forget. The Notebook, based on Nicholas Sparks's 1996 novel, is a must-watch for all hopeless romantics out there who believe they'll eventually find their way back to their one true love. "It wasn't over. It still isn't over!"

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Notting Hill' (1999)

Julia Roberts is just a girl—a beret-wearing, world-famous movie star, to be exact—standing in front of a boy—Hugh Grant, as a decidedly non-famous travel bookstore owner—asking him to love her. His response, of course, comes with a supersized dose of that classic, bumblingly awkward Hugh Grant charm.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Past Lives' (2023)

Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae-sung (Teo Yoo) were childhood sweethearts growing up in Seoul, South Korea, but after Nora's family immigrated to Canada, their lives went down different paths. Celine Song's directorial debut follows the pair as they reunite in N.Y.C. over two decades later, facing questions of lingering feelings, nostalgia, and in-yun, or the Korean concept of fate derived from Buddhism.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Portrait of a Lady on Fire' (2019)

Set in 18th-century France, a young painter named Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is commissioned to paint the wedding portrait of Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), the daughter of a French countess, only she must keep it in secret. By day, Marianne and Héloïse spend time together and eventually grow a mutual attraction, while Marianne attempts to paint Héloïse at night. Each shot of this rich period piece is like a painting itself, and the love story is so intimate to watch unfold.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Pride and Prejudice' (2005)

Sure, there have been plenty of Jane Austen adaptations over the years, but not all of them have Matthew Macfadyen dreamily walking across a field at sunrise in a billowing coat. This period piece takes the cake for its beautiful scenery and in-your-face chemistry between Macfadyen and Kiera Knightley.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Princess Bride' (1987)

There are many things packed into The Princess Bride: historical fantasy, sweeping romance, laugh-out-loud comedy, subtle satire, Robin Wright, and Mandy Patinkin! If you haven't seen it, just think of every time you've heard, "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die," as little nudges to watch.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Roman Holiday' (1953)

Breakfast at Tiffany's is terrific, of course, but Audrey Hepburn won the Academy Award for her turn as a princess who ditches her schedule (and her entourage) in favor of exploring Rome, only to fall asleep on a bench and get rescued by a hunky American reporter played by Gregory Peck.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Silver Linings Playbook' (2012)

What looks from the outset like a typical rom-com delves deeper into the motions of mental illness, as a bipolar man (Bradley Cooper) tries to reconnect with his estranged wife following his release from a psychiatric ward. He meets a recently widowed woman (Jennifer Lawrence) with her own problems, who convinces him to join a dance competition with her to help him win his wife back.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'A Star Is Born' (2018)

If you were alive in 2018, you most definitely heard about Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga's on- and off-screen chemistry thanks to their roles in the hit adaptation of A Star Is Born. The movie centers on rockstar Jackson Maine (Cooper) and struggling artist Ally (Gaga) who fall in love while Maine pushes Ally into the spotlight and confronts his demons. Make sure to have a pack of tissues handy.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Titanic' (1997)

Need we say more? If you haven't watched James Cameron's Titanic yet (please don't admit this out loud), do yourself a favor and watch it immediately. We're all searching for the feeling of Rose telling Jack she's "flying."

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'When Harry Met Sally' (1989)

If you haven't seen When Harry Met Sally, you probably know it from this famous "I'll have what she's having" scene. But it's worth seeing in full to relive Nora Ephron's groundbreaking screenwriting, plus the easy banter between America's sweetheart Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. It set the stage for modern rom-coms as we know them.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'You've Got Mail' (1998)

Starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, this 1998 Nora Ephron romance tells the story of two neighborhood bookstore rivals (Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan) who hate each other in real life. Meeting in a very '90s anonymous AOL chatroom, they fall in love online, and well...we won't spoil the rest for you.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

The Best Comedy Movies of All Time

Sometimes, we all need a little cheering up, and what better way to do that than with a feel-good movie that makes you laugh? These comedy films are guaranteed to bring a little levity to your evening, whether it be through jokes or characters in insane situations. With typically universally relatable stories, comedy movies remind us that it's okay to poke fun at ourselves once in a while.

'10 Things I Hate About You' (1999)

Volumes could be written about the sheer brilliance of 10 Things I Hate About You. If you've never seen it, know that it's one of the best teen movies ever made, from the script to the acting (two words: Heath. Ledger.) to the speech-making and wooing. It feels like a modern Shakespearean comedy because it is. (Ever heard of Taming of the Shrew?)

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Barbie' (2023)

The summer of 2023 will forever be remembered for its spectacular displays of female power, between Beyoncé and Taylor Swift’s sold-out world tours and, of course, the blockbuster release of Greta Gerwig's Barbie. Come for the nostalgia, the perfectly choreographed dance scenes, and Ryan Gosling’s goofy turn as Ken, stay for the expert skewering of the patriarchy, a celebration of womanhood, and that America Ferrera monologue.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

The Breakfast Club' (1985)

John Hughes's catalog of '80s films (with Molly Ringwald often playing the starring role) are all classics, however, this story about unexpected friendships that blossom in the middle of detention hall takes the cake for its iconic scenes, from coordinated dances to beauty makeovers.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Devil Wears Prada' (2006)

This fashion movie is filled with iconic moments: There’s the infamous cerulean monologue, the perfect mid-aughts opening montage set to “Suddenly I See,” one of the most satisfying style transformations ever put on film, a grilled cheese sandwich containing $8 worth of Jarlsberg and, yes, the Chanel boots. What more could you ask for?

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Bridesmaids' (2011)

Kristen Wiig wrote and stars in Bridesmaids, a film about a bridal party's hilarious activities leading up to the big day (which should be required viewing every wedding season). We still can't stop quoting it.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Clueless' (1995)

Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) stole everyone's heart in the '90s as the well-intentioned Valley Girl with an enviable revolving closet who set out to prove she wasn't "just a ditz with a credit card." Inspired by Jane Austen's Emma, Clueless sees her trying to play matchmaker at school until she gets caught up in her own love triangle.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Coming to America' (1988)

A hilarious comedy with a super-sweet love story, Coming to America is an essential watch for anyone who loves to smile. This film also cemented Eddie Murphy's place as comedy royalty, with him and Arsenio Hall cracking us up through multiple different characters.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' (1986)

Every kid in high school dreamed of having a day off like Ferris Bueller's (Matthew Broderick) and, frankly, we can't help but still aspire to have one like his as an adult. Come for each character's hilarious antics, and stay for the inevitable comparisons between Alan Ruck's character, Cameron Frye, and his recent portrayal of Connor Roy on Succession.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'His Girl Friday' (1940)

Carey Grant and Rosalind Russell play a formerly married couple—he an editor, she an investigative reporter—who have to team up for one last assignment. Of course, the fact that he hired her only after finding out she was engaged to someone new might have something to do with it, but Russell is hilarious and their chemistry is bananas in this romance.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Legally Blonde' (2001)

Heard of the bend and snap? If you can believe Legally Blonde came out over two decades ago, it's time to give this classic feel-good movie a watch if you haven't already (even if to witness the evolution of Reese Witherspoon and her incredible acting). What, like it's hard?

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Mean Girls' (2004)

No movie has ever spoofed high school culture as brilliantly as Mean Girls, whose hilarious script by Tina Fey has become iconic, bringing the phrases "so fetch," "I know, right?" and "cool mom" into our modern language. It lives on in countless memes and GIFs, even though the movie's more than 20 years old at this point.

WATCH IT ON APPLE TV+

'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' (1975)

You'll never think of coconuts the same way after watching this silly British slapstick comedy set in the time of King Arthur and the fabled Round Table. God sends a group of knights on a quest to find the Holy Grail, where they encounter several nonsensical obstacles along the way—a classic Monty Python premise.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'My Cousin Vinny' (1992)

Sure, a murder trial doesn't seem like it would be the best place for laughs, but proving that assumption wrong is just one of the surprises that catapulted this '90s comedy into the all-time must-watch category. After a pair of road-tripping New Yorkers are wrongly accused of killing a convenience store clerk, they enlist the help of Cousin Vinny (Joe Pesci) and his fiancée Mona Lisa (Oscar winner Marisa Tomei) to prove their innocence.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Paddington 2' (2017)

This movie about a talking teddy bear with a big heart shows a heartwarming lesson about empathy and community to kids and adults alike, as Paddington (Ben Whishaw) and the people who love him band together to help when the polite bear is falsely imprisoned.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Some Like It Hot' (1959)

If you don't know why Miss Marilyn Monroe was and is such a big deal, take a look at this one. The film shows off her vocal chops as the lead singer of an all-girl band who dreams of wooing a millionaire. As her band travels to sunny Florida, she makes friends with two new musicians in the group, who she doesn't realize are men in disguise and on the run.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse' (2018)

If you love superhero movies, this Spider-Man standalone may become your favorite of them all. The Oscar-winning animated film follows Miles Morales' (Shameik Moore) origin story with a multiverse twist that has multiple Spider-Mans (Spiders-Man? Spider-Men?) popping up in his world.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Step Brothers' (2008)

Don’t let the Rotten Tomatoes score fool you: As any real cinephile can attest, this film is one of the all-time greats. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be inspired to form an entertainment company à la Prestige Worldwide with your rival-turned-best friend-slash-stepsibling and start churning out hit songs (“Boats ’N Hoes,” anyone?)—all the makings of a truly great movie.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Tangerine' (2015)

Sean Baker was one of the first filmmakers to shoot a feature entirely on an iPhone back in 2015. For the project, he utilized a microbudget, three iPhone 5Ss, and a cast of many untrained actors, finding his leads in two transgender women and real-life friends, Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor, whom he discovered outside of an LGBTQ+ center in L.A. The two play sex workers and close friends Sin-Dee Rella (Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Taylor), who set out to find Sin-Dee’s boyfriend and pimp when they find out he cheated on her when she was carrying out a recent prison sentence.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

The Best Classic Movies of All Time

Less of a genre and more of a distinction, we define "classic movies" as the kind of film that changed their respective genres forever. Being familiar with the films on this list will set you apart from the casual pop culture fan and put you on the road to becoming a movie buff. For a film to be a classic in our book, it should have some years on it, be universally loved, and have a major cultural impact. The classic movies below, all released over 25 years ago, check those boxes.

'12 Angry Men' (1957)

This classic film is ostensibly about a dozen white men on a jury arguing over whether a young Puerto Rican man killed his father (the class and race dynamics feel unfortunately familiar, 60-plus years later). But it's really about prejudice and stereotypes and the assumptions we carry with us every day without realizing it. If you didn't get to watch this one in school, watch it now.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Back to the Future' (1985)

This sci-fi film sees Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, a time traveler who drives his flying Delorean back into the '50s after an experiment gone wrong. Fun fact: The sequel is set in the far-away future, a.k.a. 2015.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' (1969)

Robert Redford! Paul Newman! Really strong facial hair game! What could go wrong? Well, actually, a train robbery does go wrong, leaving outlaws Butch Cassidy (Newman) and The Sundance Kid (Redford) on the run from a seriously dangerous posse as they try to leave rural Wyoming for Bolivia. It's a Western film you can't miss.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Carmen Jones' (1954)

This underrated musical set at an all-Black army camp follows Carmen (Dorothy Dandridge), who, despite being sought after by every man at the base, has her sights set on the super-married Joe (Harry Belafonte). Dandridge's performance as Carmen Jones got her nominated for an Oscar, making history as the first African American actress in a leading role to be nominated.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Do the Right Thing' (1989)

Spike Lee acts and directs in a film that marries comedy and drama perfectly. Roger Ebert's review is spot-on, but to summarize: Lee builds a community in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, teeming with life and tension on the hottest day of the year. And then he rips it all apart. But it's so much more compelling than even that description. Lee handles all his characters with love, and no one's truly evil, despite spot-on and heart-wrenching commentary about racism, classism, and poverty.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Godfather' (1972)

The three parts of this trilogy might require a night of bingeing. But there's nothing like Francis Ford Coppola's depiction of the mob family of Don Vito Corleone (played in the films by Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro). It's a chilling-to-the-bone, action-packed story that's not one to miss.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Graduate' (1967)

Between the Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack and the easy-on-the-eyes love triangle—Dustin Hoffman as a wandering college graduate, his married neighbor Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), and her daughter (Katharine Ross)—it's hard not to immediately fall in love with this film.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Jaws' (1975)

When Steven Spielberg made this movie, it's unclear if he knew he'd make a whole generation scared to get in the water. Regardless, this movie about a sheriff (Roy Scheider), marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss), and fisherman (Robert Shaw) hunting down a shark terrorizing their beach town is a must-see.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Matrix' (1999)

Many elements of The Matrix have escaped the screen to become mainstays in fashion and internet culture as a whole (for better or worse). Over 25 years after its release, Neo's (Keanu Reeves) escape from his simulated reality still has some of the best action scenes and visual effects ever put to film.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' (1975)

Jack Nicholson is at his best in this film about a habitual criminal sentenced to time in a mental hospital. There, he threatens the natural order under the watch of cruel Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) and attempts to flee with his fellow patients. The film swept up five Academy Awards in its day, from Best Picture to Best Actor and Best Actress.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Philadelphia Story' (1940)

Over 80 years after its release, this classic still deserves every bit of its perfect Rotten Tomatoes rating. Katharine Hepburn plays the headstrong socialite Tracy Lord, who spends the days leading up to her second wedding trading barbs with her ex-husband Dexter (Cary Grant) and James Stewart’s Mike, a journalist sent to cover the ceremony—leading her to reassess her decision to marry the social-climbing George Kittredge (John Howard). There’s still a wedding at the end, but we won’t spoil who ends up as the groom.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'A Raisin in the Sun' (1961)

A Chicago family, the Youngers, is about to receive a windfall that will change their lives, but they have different ideas on how to use the money. An adaptation of the Lorraine Hansberry play made with the original cast, this film questions who is allowed the American Dream.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Rebel Without a Cause' (1955)

Two words for you: James! Dean! The old Hollywood icon's second to last film, as teenager Jim Stark, before his untimely death in 1955 ended up being one of his most celebrated. The unlikely bond shared on-screen between him, John "Plato" Crawford (Sal Mineo), and Judy (Natalie Wood) gave American youths at the time a movie where they could finally see themselves on the screen.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Rocky' (1976)

It’s the classic underdog story that made Sylvester Stallone a household name. The sports movie follows boxer Rocky Balboa (Stallone) on the road to fight heavyweight champion Apollo Creed in a match deemed “a somebody vs. nobody.” The film, written by Stallone, won Best Picture at the Oscars in 1977.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Rocky Horror Picture Show' (1975)

See for yourself where all the live versions of the cult favorite Rocky Horror Picture Show began with this over-the-top, perfectly cast musical (see: young Susan Sarandon).

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Seven Samurai' (1956)

If you're an action fan and haven't watched Seven Samurai, odds are you've already seen countless references to Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film. This story of a motley crew of samurai gathered to protect a small village from a major threat has inspired generations of filmmakers, including several who appear on this list. Just be sure to carve out enough time to immerse yourself in the three-plus hour runtime.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Singin’ in the Rain' (1952)

Singin’ in the Rain is still considered by many to be the greatest musical film of all time, more than 70 years later. Rightfully so—the rom-com is full of catchy songs and impressive dance sequences to tell the story of Hollywood’s not-so-smooth transition from silent films to “talkies.”

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Sound of Music' (1965)

Julie Andrews plays an Austrian nun during World War II in this Academy Award-winning film. When she comes to the villa of retired naval officer Captain Georg von Trapp to be a governess to his seven children, she realizes how much the family means to her. The latter part of the movie has an unexpected twist and displays the unfathomable truth of what it was like living in Nazi Germany.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'To Kill a Mockingbird' (1962)

Scout Finch (Mary Badham) tells the story of how her father, Atticus, a small-town lawyer in the rural South, defended a wrongfully accused black man in this adaptation of Harper Lee's beloved novel. Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch is how most people who've seen this movie think of the character, and you will too when you see it.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Wizard of Oz' (1939)

A technical marvel at its time and one of the most influential films ever, this 1937 film is definitely worth a watch for movie buffs, even if you've seen countless iterations of L. Frank Baum's fairy tale.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

The Best Horror Movies and Thrillers of All Time

Horror and thriller films do something to us that no other film genre does—they terrify us. Some people may think it’s crazy, but feeling a sense of fear, dread, and anticipation via movies is an adrenaline rush like no other. These classic horror movies and thrillers feature some of the most terrifying creatures, killers, jump scares, and unforgettable psychological horror. You’ll want to leave the lights on when you go to bed after watching these.

'2001: A Space Odyssey' (1968)

This movie is trippy and a bit hard to follow, but it's absolutely required viewing. Stanley Kubrick takes us from the dawn of the human species to the dawn of a totally new species in just a few hours, and his view of space and space travel set the standard for a thousand sci-fi films to come. More importantly, it's compelling and totally, totally terrifying. It's aged really well, despite being made over 50 years ago.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Black Swan' (2010)

Who says ballet can’t be scary? Natalie Portman plays Nina, a professional ballerina who increasingly loses her grip on reality as she’s forced to compete with Mila Kunis’s Lily for the lead role in a production of Swan Lake. This psychological thriller explores the (very) dark side of devotion to one’s art, and it won Portman the Best Actress award at the 2011 Oscars.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Carrie' (1976)

Sissy Spacek is the one true Carrie—a bullied young woman who develops telekinetic abilities just in time for a prank prom invite to turn into a full-fledged bloodbath. We shouldn't condone violence, but it's hard not to root for poor Carrie after her classmates dump pig blood on her in her prom dress, right?

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Dark Knight' (2008)

For many, Christopher Nolan's second installment in his superhero trilogy is the best Batman. Equal parts action blockbuster and crime thriller, Nolan expertly combines aspects of both genres into a modern superhero film for the ages. Heath Ledger's go at the Joker is so massive and brilliant that arguably no other actor has topped it.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Everything Everywhere All At Once' (2022)

This irreverent action comedy movie will have you both laughing at Michelle Yeoh's multiverse adventures and crying at its poignant, universal theme. (Trust us, it's best to go in blind and be pleasantly surprised.)

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Exorcist' (1973)

The film that prompted so many parodies and remakes, nothing lights a candle to the original from William Friedkin. Rightfully dubbed "one of the best horror films ever made" by many, The Exorcist goes above and beyond to make you terrified. The story about a girl possessed by a demon in need of an exorcism is unsettling, to say the least.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Free Solo' (2018)

This documentary about Alex Honnold's free solo climb of Yosemite's 3,200-ft mountain El Capitan is just as thrilling as the latest big-budget thriller. The jaw-dropping film goes beyond following Honnold's hike to exploring why anyone would want to climb the world’s tallest summits without a rope or harness.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Get Out' (2017)

It's not often that a movie so perfectly taps into the spirit of the times, but released in a year when Donald Trump's presidency sparked tense discussions about police brutality, race, and false liberalism, this was the breakout movie that did the job, in the horror genre, no less. Director Jordan Peele turns the typical horror script on its head with this blend of cultural criticism and horror tropes.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Heathers' (1988)

Winona Ryder's always in her element in off-beat dark comedies, and this one sets her in the middle of a high school where her character Veronica gets invited to join a popular clique of "Heathers" (literally three girls whose names are Heather) until they betray her. Veronica and her partner-in-crime J.D. Dean (Christian Slater) set out to right all the wrongs made against her, in cruel and unusual ways.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Jurassic Park' (1993)

It's hard to believe that Steven Spielberg released Schindler's List a mere few months apart from this dino adventure. They could not be more different, but equally impressive—so if you're looking for a film about these prehistoric creatures, stick to the classic. There's so much loving attention paid to the dinosaurs' look—there isn't a ton of CGI, with a greater reliance on practical effects—but more importantly, the human characters are just as interesting. Samuel L. Jackson, in the best cameo of all time.

WATCH IT

'Parasite' (2019)

An unemployed family of four slips into the lives of the crazy wealthy Park family. Then, an incident that can’t entirely be cleaned up in a cleaning shift. Long after the credits roll in this Oscar-winning Bong Joon-ho feature, you’ll question the ending and mull over the tough, important themes.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Promising Young Woman' (2020)

This very dark comedy juxtaposes one woman's (Carey Mulligan) insatiable quest to avenge her best friend's tragic assault in front of a backdrop of all things frilly, pink, and sweet. That stark contrast only makes the movie's incredibly intense climax that much more shocking. Promising Young Woman was nominated for five Oscars in 2021, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Carey Mulligan, and a history-making Best Director nod for Emerald Fennell.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Psycho' (1960)

One of the first slasher films (that launched many copycats to come) is Alfred Hitchcock's creepy story of Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) and his hotel on the hill.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Rear Window' (1954)

This early Hitchcock movie boasts an impressive 98% percent Rotten Tomatoes score, and it's still considered one of the best of its time. Starring Princess Grace Kelly and James Stewart, the film revolves around a man confined to his wheelchair whose pastime involves spying on his neighbors (through the rear window—get it?). Things take a turn for the worse when he believes he's witnessed a murder.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Seven' (1995)

One of the best crime thrillers of all time has to be David Fincher's Seven. With Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman at the helm, two detectives investigate several grisly murders inspired by the seven deadly sins, and boy, do things get dark. There's plenty of symbolism along the way for you to connect the dots, but bet you'll be shocked by the now-memeable ending.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Shining' (1980)

Jack Nicholson is on this list a few times, but this classic horror movie is probably his most well-known role. The Torrance family—husband Jack, wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and son Danny (Danny Lloyd)—stay in the Overlook Hotel during the winter. Then, the hotel comes alive with a terrible, terrifying evil. Stephen King famously hated this adaptation of his iconic novel, because Stanley Kubrick takes out all the empathy from the patriarch (Nicholson, playing unhinged like he was born to do it). But it makes the story even more powerful. Viewed through today's lens, it's also a haunting look at the effects of domestic violence.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Silence of the Lambs' (1991)

Anthony Hopkins's performance in this film made Hannibal Lecter the creepiest villain of the past few decades, who isn't even the actual villain of this film. Lecter's influence is felt in many horror baddies who have come after, but there's nothing like hearing the original say "fava beans and a nice Chianti."

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Train to Busan' (2016)

In this legendary Korean thriller, a group of travelers on a bullet train fight off a car full of zombies as a mysterious infection ravages the country. The pulse-pounding film has a stellar cast and a secret heart, with the characters making tough choices to help their families survive.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

The Best Drama Movies of All Time

Movies that fall under the drama genre are exactly what the name suggests: dramatic. The list of films that can be considered a drama is long and varied. Anything from period pieces, teen dramas, war movies, movies for girls' night, biopics, etc, fall under the drama category, but what they all have in common is emotionally driven characters and plenty of conflict.

'The Big Sick' (2017)

Kumail Nanjiani wrote and stars in The Big Sick, the real-life story of how he met and fell in love with his wife, Emily Gordon. The film feels familiar in its sincerity, but brings a twist to the rom-com with clashing cultures.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Brokeback Mountain' (2005)

Set in 1963 Wyoming, cowboys Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis (Heath Ledger) discover deep feelings for each other while on a sheep herding job on Brokeback Mountain. Over 20 years, the two maintain a secret affair while marrying women and struggle to come to terms with their sexuality. It's a story for the ages that deals with toxic masculinity and homophobia set in a stunning landscape.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Dead Poets Society' (1989)

Set at a New England private school in 1959, this movie follows an English teacher, played by Robin Williams, and his relationship with his students as he teaches them to live a little more through poetry. The movie gave Williams his second Oscar nomination, and Ethan Hawke said that working on this movie inspired him to continue to be an actor.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Erin Brockovich' (2001)

Steven Soderbergh turns a true story about an incident of corruption into a riveting legal drama. Julia Roberts stars as the real-life woman Erin Brockovich, a single mom who uncovered an environmental crime and went after the huge corporation involved.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Farewell' (2019)

In her Golden Globe-winning role, Awkwafina plays Billi, a woman on a trip to China for a "family wedding" that's actually a final goodbye to her grandmother (Zhao Shu-zhen). While there, Billi struggles to find a deeper connection to the country and tries to understand her family's decision to keep her grandmother's sickness a secret from her.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Forrest Gump' (1991)

Whether you love or hate it, you can't deny Forrest Gump pulls at your heartstrings. Tom Hanks stars as the titular Gump, a slow-witted man waiting on a bench for the bus that will reunite him with his childhood sweetheart. During his wait, he tells his life story to willing strangers, which includes meeting the president (twice), serving in the Vietnam War, and becoming a millionaire. It's a film full of memorable lines and charming anecdotes.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Fruitvale Station' (2013)

Directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan, this heart-wrenching film follows the last day of Oscar Grant, a man who was killed by police at a BART station in San Francisco on New Year's Eve 2009.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Good Will Hunting' (1997)

Matt Damon stars as Will, a janitor with a hidden genius-level IQ, who runs into trouble and is forced to get treatment from a therapist (Robin Williams). Damon and Ben Affleck's friendship chemistry is a must-watch, but Williams' Oscar-winning performance is the real draw.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Her' (2013)

Joaquin Phoenix delivers as the sensitive Theodore, who writes personal letters for others. After a bitter divorce, he soon develops a friendly (and later romantic) relationship with an intuitive operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). It may be an unusual relationship, but the film shows that love comes in many forms.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Lady Bird' (2017)

Greta Gerwig dives into the tricky dynamics of mother-daughter relationships in this coming-of-age story. Saoirse Ronan plays the titular Lady Bird, a teen navigating her last year at her Catholic high school. Gerwig paints a portrait of adolescence that's poignant, genuine, and hilarious.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Life is Beautiful' (1997)

While this Italian film is about the horrors of the Holocaust, it has plenty of comic moments as well—and it works. Roberto Benigni gives a breathtaking performance as a family man who, as a Jew, is sent with his family to a concentration camp in northern Italy, but uses his imaginative powers to convince his young son that it's all a game.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Little Women' (2019)

Greta Gerwig's adaption of Louisa May Alcott's novel is nothing short of stunning. Each March sister is determined to live their own life and it's fascinating to see how they each carve their own path. Gerwig's autumnal color palette and New England scenery will make you want to curl up on the couch and get cozy while shedding a tear a two.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Moonlight' (2016)

Yes, you've heard the buzz about this movie. But if you haven't seen it yet, make room in your schedule. Moonlight is a beautifully filmed coming-of-age story of a gay Black boy growing up in a housing project in Miami. The multilayered film sheds light on aspects of Black identity rarely spotlighted on film.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Paris Is Burning' (1990)

Long before RuPaul's Drag Race or the Renaissance World Tour, this landmark documentary brought N.Y.C. ballroom culture to the mainstream, immortalizing its Black and brown subjects as icons of queer culture. Over 30 years since its release, it's clearer than ever how the "Golden Age" of ballroom influenced countless elements of today's pop culture.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Pulp Fiction' (1994)

Quentin Tarantino's second feature film holds up as one of the best films of the '90s and for good reason. With storylines between two hitmen, gangsters, a mob wife, a boxer, and a pair of nervous robbers, Pulp Fiction is a rollercoaster of a film, in the best way possible.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Remember the Titans' (2000)

Set in the 1970s and based on a true story of a Southern HS football team's integration, Remember the Titans is (unfortunately) still a relevant story over two decades later. Come for the inspiring tale of teamwork, and stay for Denzel Washington and the cast of future stars who populate the cast (hi young Ryan Gosling!).

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Roma' (2018)

This gorgeous black-and-white Mexican film follows an indigenous domestic worker (Yalitza Aparicio) who has to deal with unexpected changes in her life and that of the family she works for, based on director Alfonso Cuarón's memories of his own nanny from childhood.

WATCH IT ON NETFLIX

'Saving Private Ryan' (1998)

Saving Private Ryan opens with an extremely visceral and violent image: the Allied invasion of Normandy Beachy. This sets the tone for Spielberg's epic war film and sets the standard for the genre moving forward. It tells the story of Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) and his team of men who go behind enemy lines to find Private James Ryan and return him home.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Schindler's List' (1993)

A movie about the Holocaust is almost guaranteed to be poignant, but under Stephen Spielberg's expert direction, this one surprises with its restraint. That's deliberate—the sadness and symbolism build throughout the film so that you have a full sense of what happened, who did it, and why it matters so much. The movie's in black and white, with the smallest pop of color to offer a moment of hope and then (devastatingly) all possible heartbreak in one unforgettable image.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Social Network' (2010)

As the founder of the tech empire now known as Meta, Mark Zuckerberg coined the phrase “move fast and break things,” which soon became a rallying cry for the impossible-to-sustain growth mindset of Silicon Valley startup culture in the aughts and 2010s. That mantra is on stark display in The Social Network, which charts the meteoric rise of Facebook from Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room to billions of devices around the world—and the relationships that broke down along the way.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Spirited Away' (2001)

This celebrated Studio Ghibli film about a young girl traveling through a spirit world is one of the best animated movies of all time. It feels like a fairy tale full of eerie spirits.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'Trainspotting' (1996)

Considered one of the best British films of all time, Trainspotting follows a group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh, Scotland who try and fail to integrate themselves into "normal" society. It's dark, but also an ode to youth and economic insecurity that you won't be able to stop thinking about.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Truman Show' (1998)

If you've ever wondered whether your life is just one big sitcom, The Truman Show illustrates what happens when one man, played by Jim Carrey, realizes that his entire life is scripted for television. While that premise seems pretty straightforward, there's a lot of deeper messaging about narcissism, surveillance, media, and what it means to have free will.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'The Shawshank Redemption' (1994)

There's a reason why some critics claim The Shawshank Redemption is the best drama film of all time. The moving story follows Andy (Tim Robbins), a man sentenced to serve two life terms at the high-security prison Shawshank for murdering his wife and her lover. There, he meets friends and enemies and learns a new way of life incarcerated.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

'West Side Story' (1961)

If you liked the 2021 Steven Spielberg remake, be sure to also check out the original film adaptation of this Romeo and Juliet-inspired musical, starring Rita Moreno and Natalie Wood.

WATCH IT ON PRIME VIDEO

Amid new interest in the Erik and Lyle Menendez case following the release of Netflix's Monsters, Kim Kardashian is using her platform to call for their release from prison.

After recently visiting the Menendez brothers, who were convicted of killing their parents Kitty and José in 1989 where they are incarcerated, Kardashian has penned an essay in which she expressed her "hope" in that their "life sentences are reconsidered."

On October 3, the Skims founder published an op-ed on NBCNews demanding that the case be reevaluated. She wrote of how the trial was mishandled, how "the media turned the brothers into monsters and sensationalized eye candy," and argued that the abuse and molestation Lyle and Erik experienced led to the killings and would have been seen differently today.

Kardashian wrote, "Following years of abuse and a real fear for their lives, Erik and Lyle chose what they thought at the time was their only way out—an unimaginable way to escape their living nightmare."

"I have spent time with Lyle and Erik; they are not monsters," she continued. "They are kind, intelligent, and honest men. In prison, they both have exemplary disciplinary records. They have earned multiple college degrees, worked as caregivers for elderly incarcerated individuals in hospice, and been mentors in college programs—committed to giving back to others. When I visited the prison three weeks ago, one of the wardens told me he would feel comfortable having them as neighbors."

The reality TV star/entrepreneur also explained that 24 members of the Menendez family released statements in support of Erik and Lyle shortly after Ryan Murphy's controversial series debuted on Netflix on September 19.

Kardashian wrote, "I don’t believe that spending their entire natural lives incarcerated was the right punishment for this complex case. Had this crime been committed and trialed today, I believe the outcome would have been dramatically different. I also strongly believe that they were denied a fair second trial and that the exclusion of crucial abuse evidence denied Erik and Lyle the opportunity to fully present their case, further undermining the fairness of their conviction."

"We owe it to those little boys who lost their childhoods, who never had a chance to be heard, helped or saved," she concluded.

Kardashian's open letter comes less than two weeks after she visited Erik and Lyle on September 21 at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional facility in San Diego, California, just days after Monsters hit the streamer.

On October 4, it was announced that there has been progress in the 35-year-old case. According to CNN, L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón said the office plans to review new evidence, which includes a letter written by Erik about the alleged abuse. A hearing has been set for November 29, which could ultimately lead to a resentencing.

Ari Graynor has been a working actor for more than 20 years, appearing as memorable characters in The Sopranos, Winning Time, and Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. But never in her career has the 41-year-old been part of a project that became a cultural lightning rod quite like Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series that tells the story of the 1989 slayings of José and Kitty Menendez by their sons Lyle and Erik. The murders and the subsequent two trials (the first ended in a mistrial and the second found both brothers guilty of first-degree murder) captivated the country in the early ‘90s; at the center of the frenzy was Erik’s defense attorney Leslie Abramson, a woman who The Washington Post once described as a “4-ft-11, fire-eating, mud-slinging, nuclear-strength pain in the legal butt.”

Throughout nine episodes, Graynor, in a corkscrew blonde wig, plays Abramson with warmth, power, and nuance. She becomes more than just a lawyer to the boys. As she builds a defense based on Erik and Lyle’s testimony of a childhood filled with sexual abuse at the hands of their father, Abramson becomes their protector, mother figure, and confidante—even when she’s vilified in the media and portrayed as overbearing, brash, and self-serving.

With early awards buzz for Graynor and the series swirling, the Boston-born actress spoke from her home in upstate N.Y. about the strength she found in playing Leslie, her hopes the case will be reopened following the show’s success, and the craft that went into filming the show’s riveting fifth episode—a 33-minute scene, shot in one take.

Marie Claire: What was your reaction when you first heard about the role? What was the casting process like?

Ari Graynor: I auditioned for this the day before the actors strike and got the offer the day the strike ended, which is an unbelievable miracle because like so many other people, I was really in a tailspin during the strike. Then came this incredible, true gift of a lifetime to play this woman that I'm just so in love with. When I got the material, it was just a few scenes: the intro to Leslie when she's in the adoption office and the first time she meets Erik.

I had known about the case a little bit, but nothing in depth. I started diving into her and it's been a rabbit hole for the last year. I would sleep with her audiobook playing. I would sleep with the trial on. I'm still carrying her book around with me wherever I go.

When I went in for casting, I felt such a kinship to her immediately. This powerful, charismatic, funny, irreverent woman in a power suit that really resonated with me. One of the enormous gifts of playing her was to embody those parts of myself that I think over time as a woman, as an actress, you diminish.

As an actor, I do this creative ‘dream work’ of integrating her whole history and childhood and how she was raised to make those memories feel like they're coming from the inside out. I also had to do my own personal work of confronting my fear about stepping into her shoes and really having a sense inside myself that this was meant to be. I had all those self-doubts of, What if I can't fill her shoes? What if I get in my own way?

MC: Erik Menendez and his extended family have released statements slamming the series for inaccuracies and “slander.” And Cooper Koch, who plays Erik, visited the brothers in prison alongside Kim Kardashian. Cooper has said in interviews that he wants to advocate for them. How do you view the actor-as-advocate relationship in this situation?

AG: All of us, but I think especially Cooper and I, who became very close during this—he is my absolute love, and the first person I spoke to when this part was official—felt very close to the boys and Leslie. Leslie was such a fierce advocate and protective mother to them in many ways.

Had I been in L.A., I probably would've gone with Cooper on that trip. Erik has spent two-thirds of his life in prison. Enough is enough already. There's new evidence. It's time for this to be relooked at.

I think the incredible thing about the show, regardless of how people feel about it—and it is polarizing and it is holding a lot of different points of view at once—it's incredible to see the way culture has changed in 35 years. We almost take for granted now that everyone's like, "They were abused." They were. Thirty-five years ago, people were not taking that seriously. This is a huge leap in consciousness.

I hope that this show, and the conversation around this show, is ultimately helpful for them in having this case be relooked at. I think it's a mirror for how much we've changed as a culture.

MC: In episode five, Erik and Leslie sit in a questioning room and Erik tells Leslie about all of the sexual abuse he faced as a child at the hands of his father and how his mother did not protect him. This is the core of their legal defense. Erik faces the camera, but for nearly all of the episode we only see Leslie’s back and hand gestures, and hear her voice as she listens. It’s a harrowing episode and there’s not a lot of room for error. How did you do it?

AG: They sent me the first five scripts, and I read this episode, and then I put it down for four months. I felt so intimidated because you really have to know who somebody is to know how they listen. I really had to get inside Leslie and feel that I knew everything about her and how she would be. She's holding a lot of different things: She's a lawyer trying to understand a story. She's a therapist holding space for this unbearable and unspeakable life experience that Erik had never shared before. It's also the episode we spoke a lot about when she becomes his ‘mother.’

They wrote the script a year before we started shooting it, and that one shot was written in there. I had the opportunity to hold space for him and to say the things that somebody might need to hear like, “You did not deserve that. That is not a mother. That was because of her, not because of you.”

I finally started picking up the script when I knew we had a date of when we were going to shoot it. Cooper and I ran through it a few times for lines. We lived five minutes away from each other while we were shooting so he would be over almost every day. We spent copious amounts of time on my porch talking about everything. He had memorized it before production had even begun. He was just so incredibly prepared and cared so deeply and took it so seriously, as did I.

Then we rode over to rehearsal together and we did a rehearsal. It was the first time we'd really done it out loud, and we did it in the room—just a small group of us—and we were all crying and quiet after. And Michael Uppendahl, who directed it, basically said, "I don't really want to touch it or talk about it too much. I think we should just shoot it."

We shot it eight times over two days. We did it four full times each day. It was different every time. We were as locked in together as friends and artists and collaborators. It was one of those magical experiences where, without words, we just were completely in tune with each other. I just wanted to give him every ounce of presence that I could conjure in myself.

By that point, I felt so close to Leslie as well that it didn't matter to me where the camera was. I didn't know what it was. It wasn't going to change what we were doing, and it felt like doing a play.

MC: Have you seen the final cut? What's your take on what that one was in compared to the other takes?

AG: The one that they ended up using was the last time we did it. So often when people are talking about the hardest parts of their life and the worst thing that's happened, there is a matter-of-factness about it. In other takes, we did it emotionally in a way that felt cathartic for us. It was probably a lot longer. There was more crying. There was more emotion. Sometimes, as an actor, what feels really good to you takes away from the catharsis that the audience can feel. Sometimes they say, "If you're crying, the audience can't cry."

It was a process of moving through different levels of emotion and fine-tuning those beats. I totally understand why that was the one they chose.

MC: Later in this series, after the mistrial, Leslie's trying to get feedback from the jurors, and one juror tells her, “They hated you.” Erik also gets upset and says the same thing. What about her was so off-putting to jurors and the media? What about her made people react that way?

AG: Listen, people don't love a strong aggressive woman all the time. Especially in the ‘90s, a woman that strong, smart, unafraid of conflict, aggressive… These are qualities we know are appreciated and accepted in men, and questioned in women. Strength gets redefined as being overbearing. She's not a quiet, demure lady. She has this quote that she's like, "Not everyone's going to like me. I never said I was Shirley Temple."

MC: Did you ever reach out to her or try to contact her?

AG: I haven't, although I've written her about a thousand drafts of an email that I've been thinking about relooking at now. In my research, I came to discover this was an unbelievably painful time for her. This was a massive heartbreak. She really, I believed, loved the boys, especially Erik, and for her to feel like she was not able to save them after everything they had been through was unbearable.

She was quite vocal about her distaste for the media. As an actor, I felt like trying to revisit this moment with her that had existed 35 years before, however she might look at it now, wouldn't necessarily be helpful for me to tell the truth of that time.

I fell deeply in love with her. I mean, I really love her. I miss her in the way you miss somebody that has left your life. I'll find myself tearing up thinking about her. I have deep respect for her and admiration and think that she was such a multifaceted human being. First of all, she went to law school in 1967 as a single mom in her early 20s. She came up as a public defender, working in juvenile courts. Her being a defense attorney was really about wanting to fight injustice and fairness and the belief in the legal system that everybody deserves a defense and really fighting for the underdog. She believed people are more than the worst thing that they did.

MC: You’ve been acting for more than 20 years, but you mentioned that before you got this role you were reassessing your career. How do you view your career up until now? Does this feel like an inflection point—a before and after?

AG: There's been a lot of heartbreak through the years of wanting to find the place to express yourself. As an actor, it's tricky because you can't do it alone. If you're a musician, you can play music in your house, even if you don't have a stadium. To act, you really need others and you need an audience. There is an exchange.

In the moment before this happened, there was a reality check of “this might not happen in the way that I hope. I might not get the chance to express all that's inside of me through characters.”

We'll see what the long game is with Monsters, but certainly to be a part of a Ryan Murphy show… He is one of our most prolific creators out there right now, and what he does with female characters is just extraordinary and really singular.

The audience of Netflix is a whole other ballgame I've never been anywhere near. Everything I've been in, you've just been begging and hoping that somebody is going to watch it. But I still have that fear of “What’s next?” We just got done with the junket yesterday and I think, "Well, now I have nothing to do for the rest of my life." Let's see what happens.

Hopefully, this will be the beginning of the next chapter of my career in some ways, but one never knows. I keep reminding myself I've already gotten the gift, which was to play her and be a part of this. I'm always fascinated by the difference between hope and expectation. I'm trying really hard to lean on hope and not expectation.

Last week, two series about sensationalized true-crime cases, produced by Hollywood mogul Ryan Murphy, premiered: American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez on FX and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story on Netflix. While the two shows—the former about the rise and fall of an NFL star convicted for murder and the latter about the killings of José and Kitty Menendez by their sons—don’t have many similarities, they do share several hallmarks. Murphy is an executive producer on both series, each a spinoff of his true-crime franchises, and there’s a significant focus on the titular subjects’ sexualities—particularly pertaining to homosexuality and childhood abuse.

In Monsters (and real life) Lyle and Erik’s defense hinged on their claims that they killed their parents as an act of self-defense, after years of alleged sexual abuse. And before Hernandez was pushed over the edge by the hyper-masculine football industrial complex, he had closeted homosexual experiences and was allegedly molested in his youth—though none of those details were brought to light until years after he stood trial. While at first it seems Murphy intends to paint a full picture of his subjects in these shows (and others like 2018’s American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace) by looking into their private lives, it quickly veers into salaciousness territory by including speculative information. But Monsters and American Sports Story could have gone (and arguably would’ve been better shows) without dissecting the sexuality of each of its subjects. In many ways, it feels unnecessary and repugnant, as these shows only further scandalize sensitive and true stories that have already been tabloid fodder for years.

Though it premiered to much less fanfare than Monsters, the first season of American Sports Story has all the traits that a Murphy production (American Horror and Crime Story, Ratched, Hollywood, Nip/Tuck) is known for: character studies, snappy dialogue, immersive period-appropriate styling, and intense sexual content. Co-written by series creator Stuart Zicherman, Sports Story distinguishes itself from the rest of the showrunner’s true-crime anthology series with its exploration of the NCAA and NFL and how football influenced Hernandez’s life. However, a majority of the show is also spent with the athlete grappling with his sexuality. The first three episodes include scenes of Aaron (played by Josh Rivera) hooking up with a high school teammate in secret, cruising for guys in the University of Florida library, and panicking that his father, girlfriend, or teammates may find out he’s “gay.” There are multiple locker room scenes where naked male bodies are on display. There’s even a sequence where Aaron looks a bit too long at a teammate’s penis in the locker room—a loose parallel to a moment in Monsters, in which a fully nude Erik makes eyes at fellow inmate Tony in the shower.

As a viewer who went into Sports Story knowing nothing about Hernandez’s life, I was surprised to find out after watching advanced screeners of the season that his sexuality wasn’t a factor at all in the real-life murder case. There were rumors and an infamous Newsweek piece claiming that Hernandez slept with men around the time of his 2017 death, but the Boston Globe’s 2018 Spotlight investigative series on the case (which Sports Story is based on) didn’t report on the rumors, as they “had not been able to verify that they are based in fact.” It wasn’t until a year later that the Globe found enough evidence to report on Hernandez’s past homosexual relationships, as well as his claims of childhood sexual abuse. In hindsight, it’s been theorized (as alluded to in Sports Story) that Hernandez’s closeted sexuality factored into his trauma and inherently contributed to what could have led him to kill Odin Lloyd. But it also could be argued that Aaron’s sexuality was only a minor factor compared to the entitlement he gained after Florida’s football program continuously swept his bad behavior under the rug to keep him on the field, not to mention his severe posthumous diagnosis of CTE and brain damage (causing violent behavior and poor decision making). After all, the show is Sports Story. What’s the cause of prioritizing Aaron’s sexuality over examining the ways his football success changed his life, for better or for worse?

American Sports Story at least presents its exploration of Hernandez’s private life through an objective lens; Monsters, on the other hand, turns its depiction of real people’s hidden lives into an obscene puppet show. In the wake of Monsters’ premiere—the series was written by Murphy, co-creator Ian Brennan, and David McMillan— it has been criticized for several scenes featuring homoerotic subtext between Erik and Lyle Menendez. Viewers are going as far as to call the show “incestuous fanfiction,” and even Erik Menendez himself has declared it “vile and appalling.” On my first watch, I quickly felt sickened by how the “monsters,” teenage Erik and Lyle, are sexualized. The first episode includes a sequence of José and Kitty’s memorial that gives way to a sun-kissed montage of Erik working out in little clothing, glistening with sweat—and that’s hardly the first time shots unnecessarily linger on their bodies. Actors Cooper Koch and Nicholas Chavez’s bodies are on display throughout the series, through various shower shots, montages of them enjoying their lives as post-murder, in speedos, and Erik’s Calvin Klein-esque underwear modeling shoot.

It’s a fact that Lyle and Erik Menendez were conventionally attractive, rich, popular, white men and that their trial was sensationalized because that’s the opposite of American media and society’s idea of a murderer (or a trauma victim). In trying to make the point that Lyle and Erik are conflicted, dissonant figures, Monsters switches between two caricatures, making them entitled, asshole, all-American sex gods in one breath and weeping children in the other. On a stronger show, this could make a point about the brothers’ public personas, but on Monsters, the aggressive beefcake angle overshadows any hint of nuance, especially in the show’s controversial, fictionalized shower scene.

In interviews, Murphy and Brennan have compared the show to Rashōmon, the acclaimed 1950 Akira Kurosawa film that tells a murder through multiple points of view. In doing so, Monsters includes different stagings of what could’ve happened during the night of the murders. Its most polarizing scene, where Kitty catches Erik and Lyle taking a shower together, is presented as Vanity Fair writer Dominick Dunne’s theory on why they really murdered their parents. The author of the definitive book on the Menendez trial, Robert Rand, has told The Hollywood Reporter that the incest scenario was “pure fantasy” on Dunne’s part and that the only proven sexual contact between Erik and Lyle was a “response to trauma.” But even in the show’s Rashōmon framing, it’s hard to argue that the show can be billed as true-crime when it makes a point of including something that’s well-documented fiction. In the era of “Hot Dahmer” fan cams, where the scene could be taken out of context and added to all the other homoerotic shots of the brothers, we have to ask if any of those scenes were necessary to depict a holistic version of these real people.

In response to questions about the Monsters backlash, Murphy argued the show’s presentation of all the different theories on the Menendezes, even Dunne’s, was a critical part of telling the brothers’ story. “What the show is doing is presenting the points of view and theories from so many people who were involved in the case," Murphy told Entertainment Tonight. "We had an obligation to show all of that, and we did.” But my question to the show creator: Was there an obligation to include hearsay about the killers that never even made it into the court cases? Whether the shower scene is a theory or not, its inclusion means that Monsters dedicates a portion of its runtime to stigmatizing two alleged survivors of abuse as closeted, incestuous, cold-blooded killers. It’s offensive to real-life trauma survivors and their loved ones, and it’s a literal worst nightmare for any viewers who could be survivors of abuse themselves, seeing this depiction and fearing that if they went public, their lives would be cruelly bastardized and sensationalized for all of Netflix to see.

Sports Story and Monsters aren’t even the first Murphy-verse shows to center on killers, homosexuality, and child abuse. American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace included an origins episode that explored Andrew Cunanan’s childhood and implied that the future killer was sexually abused by his father Modesto. (In a 2018 piece, Vulture couldn’t find evidence of the abuse besides one unconfirmed report.) In season 3 of the trailblazing series Pose, Pray Tell confronts his mother Charlene about the abuse he suffered at the hands of her second husband, his stepfather (a storyline that contained similarities to actor Billy Porter’s real experiences of childhood abuse). These stories are important, as they can help illuminate predatory behaviors and inspire victims to seek help or justice, but that doesn’t excuse them from criticism of their handling. Television has only recently grown beyond the negative trope that gay men and other queer characters are inherently nefarious, and a portion of America still believes in those outdated, prejudiced views. In the case of Hernandez, the Menendezes, and Cunanan, when do these stories of children experiencing abuse who grow up to be killers cross over from illuminating into stereotyping?

Murphy’s shows have leaned on sensationalism, camp, and the old Hollywood adage of “sex sells.” At their best, Murphy-verse shows juxtapose the camp with poignant and edifying character studies, like the revolutionary characters of Kurt Hummel from Glee and the entire cast of Pose. Even if Murphy-verse characters aren’t iconic, they’ve often been nuanced vehicles for many actors’ award-winning performances (see Sterling K. Brown in American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson, Darren Criss in American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Niecy Nash in Monster, and perhaps even Cooper Koch in Monsters one year from now). But stories based on real-life people have a much higher duty of care, whether the true-crime genre wants to acknowledge that or not. If done wrong, these series can be exploitative, retraumatizing reminders of people’s worst life experiences or lost loved ones, retold over and over and eventually made into the most popular TV show in the world. Sex may sell, but is there a point where it should be taken off the shelf?

This article contains descriptions of domestic violence and abuse. For support, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at (800) 799-7233, or visit thehotline.org.

Though Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story centers on the titular brothers' sensationalized murder trial, Netflix's true-crime miniseries touches on several other high-profile murder cases. One of these cases is the tragic 1982 murder of actress Dominique Dunne. Following the Poltergeist star's death, her father Dominick Dunne went on to write about several crime sagas for Vanity Fair, including one on the murders of José and Kitty Menendez. Episode 7 of Monsters, named "Showtime," follows the writer as he attends the Menendez trial while still struggling with his daughter's death, which tinged his coverage of the brothers.

As millions of viewers tune in to the new series created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, many are left wondering about the life of Dominique Dunne, and why her case and Dominick's writing looms large over the fictionalized true-crime story. Read on to learn more about Dominick Dunne.

Dominick Dunne was a Hollywood producer who became an acclaimed true-crime writer.

Dominick Dunne was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1925, and graduated from Williams College in 1949, after serving in World War II. After college, Dunne moved to N.Y.C., where he began his television career before eventually moving to Hollywood. He served as a producer on several films, including 1970's The Boys in the Band and 1971's The Panic in Needle Park—the latter being a collaboration with his younger brother John Gregory Dunne and sister-in-law Joan Didion.

Despite his successful Hollywood career, Dunne moved from L.A. to rural Oregon in 1979, where he sought treatment for his alcohol addiction. In the wake of his daughter's tragic 1982 death, Dunne transitioned to writing about crime and society throughout the '80s and published 11 books based on real-life crimes. He also hosted the talk show Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice on Court TV (later truTV) from 2002 until his death from bladder cancer in 2009.

As for his personal life, Dominick married ranching heiress Ellen Griffin in 1954. The couple welcomed five children: actors Griffin Dunne and Dominique Dunne, Alexander Dunne, and two daughters who died in infancy. Dominick and Ellen later divorced in 1965. Ahead of his death, in a 2009 interview with The Times of London, Dominick described himself as a "closeted bisexual celibate."

Dominick Dunne's daughter Dominique Dunne was a rising actress on the brink of stardom.

Dominique Dunne was born in November 1959, the youngest child of Dominick Dunne and Ellen Griffin Dunne. After growing up with a parent and several relatives in showbiz, including Didion and godmother Maria Cooper, Dominique started acting. Her first role was in the 1979 TV movie Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker, and she went on to have supporting roles in popular ’80s TV series like Breaking Away, Hart to Hart, CHiPs, and Hill Street Blues.

Dominique's big break came with her supporting role as Dana Freeling, the eldest child of a family tormented by demonic spirits, in the 1982 horror film Poltergeist. The movie was praised by critics at release and grossed over $77 million at the box office, per IMDb. However, Dominique tragically died before production began on its sequel Poltergeist II: The Other Side. V, a miniseries she was filming before she died, was released in 1983 in her memory.

Dominique Dunne was murdered by her ex-boyfriend John Sweeney, who served little prison time.

At a 1981 party, Dominique Dunne met John Thomas Sweeney, a sous chef at the glamorous L.A. eatery Ma Maison. According to a 1983 PEOPLE article, the couple felt a quick and strong attraction, and within "a few weeks" they had rented a house together. However, they soon faced difficulties, which the outlet attributed to "differences of temperament and schedules sharpened by the contrast between their backgrounds." Sweeney grew up in a Pennsylvania coal town to an alcoholic, physically abusive father, before taking a bus to L.A. at age 20 and working his way up the ranks at elite restaurants, including serving as a chef's assistant to Wolfgang Puck.

The couple's relationship became abusive, with Sweeney reportedly exhibiting controlling behavior, including following Dunne to her horse-riding and acting classes and even on set. His possessiveness and jealousy would lead to long "bitter" arguments. In a letter to him, Dunne wrote, "You do not love me. You are obsessed with me. The person you think you love is not me at all. It is someone you have made up in your head. I think we only fight when images of me fade away and you are faced with the real me... The whole thing has made me realize how scared I am of you."

By August 1982, their fighting escalated to violence, including one fight where Sweeney tore Dunne's hair out at the roots and another where he strangled her, with the fight only broken up by a friend staying with them. After that strangling, Dunne ended things and hid out at a friend's and her mother's house while he frantically searched for her. Several days later, she convinced him to move out of their shared house, and after she did so, he changed the locks.

On the evening of October 30, 1982, Sweeney arrived at Dunne's door unannounced, as she was rehearsing a scene with fellow actor David Packer. Dunne went out onto the front porch, and Packer soon heard loud noises and screams. After calling the police (who said the house was outside of their jurisdiction) and a friend, Packer went outside to find Sweeney crouching in the driveway. Sweeney reportedly told Packer to call the police, and once they arrived, Sweeney told them, “I killed my girlfriend, and I tried to kill myself.” Dunne's heart was stopped when she arrived at the hospital, but by the time she was revived, her brain was no longer functioning. Five days later, her family consented to turn off her life support.

Sweeney was charged with first-degree murder, which could result in 25 years to life in prison. During the trial, he claimed that he exploded in anger after Dunne said she did not want to get back together with him and that she had been "leading him on" about reconciling for days. (Per PEOPLE, there was no evidence of a reconciliation besides Sweeney's claims.) Meanwhile, prosecutors concluded that Sweeney must have choked Dunne for a full five minutes and that he had plenty of time to "come to his senses" and spare her life. Sweeney also reportedly told a cop on the way to the station, "I can’t believe I did something that will put me behind bars forever… Man, I blew it. I killed her. I didn’t think I choked her that hard. I just kept on choking her."

Ahead of the trial, prosecutors discovered that Sweeney had brutally beaten an ex-girlfriend, Lillian Pierce, on 10 separate occasions, once putting her in the hospital. However, the defense managed to keep Pierce's testimony out of the trial. Not knowing Sweeney’s history, the jury found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to just six and a half years in prison, of which he served two and a half.

Dominick Dunne and the Dunne family struggled with the outcome of Dominique's case for years.

As seen in episode 7 of Monsters, Dominick Dunne had an outburst in court when the judge told the jury that they had "served justice well," interjecting, "Not for our family."

Over the years following Sweeney's sentencing, the Dunne family responded in different ways. Her mother Ellen went on to found the victims' rights organization Justice for Homicide Victims; in 1989, she was honored by then-president George H.W. Bush at the White House for her work. Dominick wrote the acclaimed article "Justice: A Father's Account of the Trial of his Daughter's Killer" for Vanity Fair's March 1984 issue.

After Sweeney was released from prison, he was hired as a head chef at a Santa Monica restaurant. Per PEOPLE, Dominique's family protested outside of the eatery after his hiring, handing out flyers that read, "The food you will eat tonight was cooked by the hands that killed Dominique Dunne." After the protests, Sweeney quit and left L.A. for Florida, eventually changing his name to John Maura.

In a 2007 Slate article, Dunne admitted that when Sweeney was released from prison, the writer hired private investigator Anthony Pellicano to help Dunne put a hit out on his daughter's killer's life. "I was nuts at that time with rage and hate... I truly went through a period of wanting to hire somebody," Dunne told the outlet. "I know, it seems absurd now… But I worshipped my daughter. I just became obsessed with this guy getting out of prison. I wanted harm to come to him." However, Pellicano talked him out of it and instead kept track of Sweeney for some years, until the pair terminated their contract. By the time of the Menendez case, Dunne had lost track of Sweeney.

Dominick Dunne covered the high-profile murder trials of Lyle and Erik Menendez, O.J. Simpson, and others.

Following Dominique's death and the success of "Justice," Dunne dedicated his career to covering high-profile crime cases. Some of the trials he covered included the murder of Alfred Bloomingdale's mistress, Vicki Morgan; the rape trial of William Kennedy Smith; the fatal shooting of William Woodward, Jr. by his wife Ann Woodward (which was briefly depicted in Murphy's Feud: Capote vs. the Swans); and the murder trial of Phil Spector. As seen in Monsters, he was one of two journalists granted full access to O.J. Simpson's murder trial, a few years after the Menendez brothers; in 2008, at the age of 82, Dunne traveled to Las Vegas to cover Simpson's trial on kidnapping and armed robbery.

Earlier this year, Griffin Dunne published his memoir, The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir about the Dunne family's history. Speaking to PEOPLE about his father's journalism, Griffin described Dominick as "not a terribly unbiased" journalist. “If he wrote about Phil Spector, he talked about Lana Clarkson and not as a third-rate actress, as the media continue to describe her,” Griffin said. “Or during O.J., he sat with the Browns and Nicole's family… he always looked at it from the rights of the victim.”

Dominick Dunne helped make Lyle and Erik Menendez's case a nationwide sensation.

Dominick Dunne and the Dunne family had no connection to the Menendez family before the murders, but in covering the case, he became a definitive voice of the trial that influenced the public opinion of Lyle and Erik Menendez. Millions of Americans interested in the trial turned to media like Dunne's Vanity Fair articles and the case's CourtTV coverage to learn everything they could about the Menendez family.

As seen on the show, Dunne's articles on the case were typically biased towards the prosecution, and likely biased by his previous experience with Sweeney's trial. In depicting Dunne's side of the story, Monsters provides a perspective on the Menendez murders filled with doubt about the boy's motives, one where critics can argue whether or not it was necessary to provide a full picture of the case.

This article contains descriptions of sexual assault and harassment, and child abuse. For support, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at (800) 656-4673, or visit rainn.org. Or, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at (800) 422-4453; or visit www.childhelp.org.

Netflix's new true-crime show Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story gives a fictionalized take on two of the world's most infamous killers. In 1990, teenagers Lyle and Erik Menendez (played in the series by Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch, respectively) were arrested after fatally shooting their parents José and Kitty Menendez. At their trials, both of the brothers claimed that they had acted in self-defense after they were physically and sexually abused by their parents throughout their childhoods. The case dominated headlines and became one of the most notorious murder trials ever, with the world shocked at the secrets of the wealthy family.

Now that Monsters has brought the case back to the spotlight, many are wondering about José and Kitty's backstories, and what in the series is fact vs. (already controversial) fiction. Read on to learn more about José and Kitty Menendez.

José Menendez was a Cuban immigrant, who met Kitty in college.

According to a 1990 PEOPLE article, José Menendez (portrayed in Monsters by Javier Bardem) moved to the U.S. from Cuba in 1960 at age 16, after his father encouraged him to immigrate. His father, also named José, was "a onetime soccer star who stayed behind in Cuba until his last investment property was seized by Fidel Castro," per the outlet. The teenager moved in with family friends in Pennsylvania, and earned a swimming scholarship to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. However, he gave up swimming due to "the exhausting training schedule" and transferred schools, moving to N.Y.C., where he graduated with an accounting degree from Queens College.

When he was a sophomore, José met Kitty Anderson (brought to life in the Netflix series by Chloë Sevigny), a senior and communications major, in a debate class. They began dating and when José decided to move to New York, he proposed to her. Though José's father opposed the match due to his son's age, José argued back via letter, "If I was old enough to be on my own at 16, I'm old enough to be married at 19."

José and Kitty were wed in 1963, and soon after she relocated with him. While José worked washing dishes during the remainder of college, Kitty worked as a teacher until she quit to stay at home and raise their sons Lyle and Erik full time.

Kitty Menendez dealt with household abuse as a child.

Mary Louise "Kitty" Andersen (played in the Netflix series by Chloë Sevigny) was born and raised in Oak Lawn, Illinois, and she was a "former beauty queen," per the Los Angeles Times. Though she grew up in a middle-class suburb of Chicago, Kitty had a difficult childhood; per Biography.com, her father Charles was abusive toward her mother, Mae, and the couple's children. Kitty was still young when they divorced, and she dealt with depression and resentment toward her father in the aftermath, per the outlet.

Despite the hardship, Kitty still had big dreams of becoming an actress. While enrolled at Southern Illinois University (and after meeting José), she won the Miss Oak Lawn beauty pageant in 1962. Her friends at the time also described Kitty as "glamorous and a trifle mysterious," and "a bit of a quiet rebel."

After marrying José at age 21 and moving to N.Y.C., Kitty gave birth to Lyle in January 1968, and Erik in November 1970.

José Menendez became a music and entertainment executive.

Menendez started his career in the business world as an accountant for the firm Coopers & Lybrand, and he eventually became the executive vice president in charge of U.S. operations at Hertz rental cars, then a subsidiary of RCA. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, in 1980, the corporation put him in charge of RCA Records, where he eventually served as COO—with a $500,000 salary—and helped signed artists like Duran Duran, the Eurythmics, José Feliciano, and Menudo.

The Menendez family moved to L.A. in 1986 after José got a job with International Video Entertainment, a debt-saddled video distributor, then acquired by the production company Carolco Pictures. The exec was able to turn the failing business (which was later renamed Live Entertainment) around, and he was widely known as a successful businessman at the time of the murders.

During Lyle and Erik's 1993 trial, Roger R. Smith, José's second-in-command at Live Entertainment, testified that Menendez was "the ultimate control freak," per Los Angeles Times. According to Smith, José once told him that his business credo was "I’ve always thought it far better, Roger, to be feared than loved." Though Smith admitted to not liking the exec, he did admit that Menendez "got things done" in the business world.

José Menendez was accused of assaulting a member of a boy band.

Years after the murders, a public figure outside of the family came forward with assault accusations against José Menendez. In the 2023 Peacock docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed, former Menudo member Roy Rosselló claimed that Menendez, then an executive at RCA Records, sexually assaulted him, per Rolling Stone. In the doc, Rosselló alleges that Menudo's then-manager Edgardo Díaz—who has long been accused of sexually abusing the then-teenaged boy band members—delivered Rosselló to Menendez in an alleged attempt to seal the band's multimillion-dollar recording contract.

Kitty Menendez was "devastated" by José's years of cheating.

As José became more and more successful, he and Kitty began to face marital problems. Per the Los Angeles Times, Kitty wasn't thrilled about the family's move from New Jersey to California, with anonymous friends telling the outlet that she would rather have stayed on the East Coast.

Later, Vanity Fair reported that Kitty was "deeply unhappy," and that she was "devastated" over José's flagrant cheating. Per the Los Angeles Times, during the 1993 trial, Kitty's former psychologist testified that she had been suicidal over José's eight-year affair with a woman in New York. The physician also described her as "dependent on drugs and alcohol, depressed and obsessed with appearances." A friend of Kitty's, Karen Lamm, corroborated Kitty's despair while speaking with Vanity Fair.

Lyle and Erik Menendez accused José and Kitty Menendez of controlling behavior and emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.

After their parents José and Kitty's murders in 1990, Lyle and Erik Menendez were arrested and eventually charged with first-degree murder. At their separate trials, the brothers both claimed they killed their parents in self-defense after suffering years of sexual abuse by José and, to a lesser extent, Kitty.

Some of the behavior alleged by the brothers (and depicted in Monsters) was corroborated by accounts from acquaintances who testified during the 1993 trial. One of Erik's tennis coaches said José exerted control on every aspect of the boys' lives, including "academically, socially, [and] the girls they went out with.” Lyle's sixth-grade history teacher called José "belligerent" and Kitty "negligent," and claimed that other students at the school considered the couple "problem parents." The brothers' first tennis coach, who taught the pair for five years, said he was fired after confronting José, adding, "I just couldn’t stand the guy... because I saw him being mean to the boys."

During the trials themselves, both Lyle and Erik separately accused José of sexually abusing them when they were children. Lyle testified that José had molested him from age 6 to 8, while Erik claimed that his father molested him from age 6 to 18. Per the Los Angeles Times, Lyle alleged Kitty would wash his body and touch him "everywhere" until he was 13, and that it "enraged" her when he stopped her. He also claimed that she "harassed" him with "increasingly bizarre sexual conduct" throughout his adolescence.

30 years after their murder trials became a true-crime sensation, a new Netflix documentary will feature the Menendez brothers telling their story in their own words. The documentary, titled The Menendez Brothers and premiering on October 7, will include interviews from both Erik and Lyle Menendez as well as others involved in the brothers' trials, which ended with the pair sentenced to life in prison for the murders of their mother and father, José and Kitty Menendez.

Erik and Lyle Menendez, both currently incarcerated at Donovan Correctional Facility in California, were interviewed via phone about the well-publicized trial, with clips from their recorded calls included in the documentary's trailer that debuted on September 23, 2024. "Everyone asks why we killed our parents,” says Lyle, in the film's trailer. “Maybe now people can understand the truth.”

Eric adds, "What happened that night is very well known but so much hasn’t been told."

The film's description reads, "In 1996, Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted for the murders of their parents in what became one of the most famous criminal cases of the late 20th century. For the first time in 30 years, and in their own words, both brothers revisit the trial that shocked the nation. Through extensive audio interviews with Lyle and Erik, lawyers involved in the trial, journalists who covered it, jurors, family, and other informed observers, acclaimed Argentinian director Alejandro Hartmann (Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta?, The Photographer: Murder in Pinamar) offers new insight and a fresh perspective on a case that people only think they know."

Ahead of the documentary's release, L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón announced Oct. 3 that his office is reviewing the Menendez case, per New York Times. According to the outlet, the brothers' claims of sexual abuse are "among the aspects his office was reviewing." The D.A. also remarked that his office was "divided" over whether Lyle and Erik Menendez should spend the rest of their lives in prison.

“We have a moral and ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us,” Gascón said.

The new documentary will debut just weeks after Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story premiered on September 19 to rapid popularity and instant controversy. Created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, the limited series dramatizes the events before, during, and after the murders. The new show is the latest entertainment project delving into the trial, one of the most well-known cases of the true-crime genre. It has also revived the case in the public eye, with D.A. Gascón acknowledging that his office received many calls about the case following its release.

On the day of Monsters' release, Erik Menendez released a statement lambasting Netflix and Murphy, which claimed that the series is a "dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding [the brothers'] crime."

"I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show," Erik wrote in the statement. "I can only believe they were done so on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent."

One of the subjects of Netflix's latest Ryan Murphy-produced true-crime hit has spoken out.

On September 19, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story premiered on the streaming giant, and the miniseries about the titular brothers—who murdered their parents José and Kitty Menendez, after enduring years of alleged abuse—quickly became one of the most popular shows the platform. Since then, Erik Menendez has slammed the series, created by Murphy and Ian Brennan, which he says is "rooted in horrible and blatant lies."

In a statement shared by his wife, Tammi Menendez, on September 19, and written "in Erik's words," the younger Menendez brother blasted Netflix and Murphy for the series and its depiction of his brother, Lyle.

"I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show," the statement begins. "I can only believe they were done so on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent."

In Monsters, Erik Menendez (played by Cooper Koch) is depicted as sensitive and shy, while Lyle (Nicholas Chavez) is presented as arrogant and entitled.

The real-life Erik's statement was shared on the same day the limited series premiered.

Menendez went on to criticize the series' decision to rehash stigmas about sexual abuse that have long been disproven.

"It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward—back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women," the statement continued. "Those awful lies have been disrupted and exposed by countless brave victims over the last two decades who have broken through their personal shame and bravely spoken out."

He added, "Now Murphy shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander."

Menendez ended the statement with a message to Murphy, asking, "Is the truth not enough? Let the truth stand as the truth."

“How demoralizing is it to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma," he wrote. "Violence is never an answer, never a solution, and is always tragic. As such, I hope it is never forgotten that violence against a child creates a hundred horrendous and silent crime scenes darkly shadowed behind glitter and glamor and rarely exposed until tragedy penetrates everyone involved."

Menendez concluded his words by thanking those who have "reached out and supported" him.

On September 25, 24 members of the extended Menendez family also spoke out against the series, claiming that they have been "victimized" by the show and accusing Murphy of never reaching out to them. Erik's wife Tammi Menendez posted the joint statement to her X (formerly Twitter) account, dubbing it "the official response from Joan VanderMolen (Erik's Aunt) and the Menendez Family."

After beginning the statement by affirming that they "individually and collectively pray for [Lyle and Erik's] release after being imprisoned for 35 years," the family went on to call Monsters a "phobic, gross, anachronistic, serial episodic nightmare that is not only riddled with mistruths and outright falsehoods but ignores the most recent exculpatory revelations."

The statement continues by calling Monsters a "grotesque shockodrama" and "character assassination," specifically calling out the series for including the P.O.V. of "debunked Dominick Dunne." It adds that they "know what went on in their home and the unimaginably turbulent lives they have endured."

"It is sad that Ryan Murphy, Netflix, and all others involved in the series, do not have an understanding of the impact of years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse," the statement concludes.

The Menendezes are not the only one who has criticzed the controversial series. Over its first weekend of streaming, many viewers took to social media to call out the show for its depiction of Erik and Lyle's relationship, arguing that it implies that the brothers had an incestuous relationship and at times makes light of the abuse allegations the brothers brought against their father. Many have also pointed out new evidence that has come forth in recent years which allegedly corroborates the claims that José Menendez was sexually abusive.

The backlash against Monsters also calls back to the controversy against 2022's Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Though Murphy and Brennan's previous series became one of Netflix's most-watched series, racking up over one billion hours watched and spurring the anthology that brought forth Monsters, it was also heavily criticized for revisiting the serial killer's heavily sensationalized story. Several family members of Dahmer's victims also claimed that the series retraumatized them.

Speaking with Entertainment Tonight on September 23, Murphy responded to Erik's statement, defending Monsters' inclusion of multiple points of view on the case.

“I think it’s interesting that he’s issued a statement without having seen the show,” Murphy said of Menendez's criticism, per Variety. “It’s really, really hard—if it’s your life—to see your life up on screen.”

“The thing that I find interesting that he doesn’t mention in his quote is, if you watch the show, I would say 60 to 65 percent of our show in the scripts and in the film form center around the abuse and what they claim happened to them,” he continued. “And we do it very carefully and we give them their day in court and they talk openly about it."

"In this age where people can really talk about sexual abuse, talking about it and writing about it and writing about all points of view can be controversial," he continued. "It’s a Rashomon kind of approach, where there were four people involved in that. Two of them are dead. What about the parents? We had an obligation as storytellers to also try and put in their perspective based on our research, which we did.”

Murphy also addressed backlash regarding the implied "romantic relationship" between the brothers.

“If you watch the show, what the show is doing is presenting the points of view and theories from so many people who were involved in the case," he said. "Dominick Dunne [the Vanity Fair journalist played by Nathan Lane] wrote several articles talking about that theory. We are presenting his point of view, just as we present Leslie Abramson's [played by Ari Graynor] point of view. And we had an obligation to show all of that, and we did.”

Kim Kardashian reportedly paid a visit to Erik and Lyle Menendez at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional facility on Saturday, September 21, according to Variety. The reality star's visit comes after the release of Netflix's Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which has faced some backlash from one of the brothers on whom the series is based.

According to the outlet, Kim was accompanied by her sister Khloé Kardashian and their mother Kris Jenner. Actor Cooper Koch, who plays Erik in Monsters, also joined the visit, along with producer Scott Budnick, to talk about prison reform.

Kim's visit reportedly involved discussing the Greenspace initiative, "a reform strategy aimed at improving prison yards to aid inmate rehabilitation, led by both Lyle and Erik Menéndez," per Deadline.

Co-created by prolific television producer Ryan Murphy, the second season of Monsters was released by Netflix on September 19. While the show's first season explored the crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer, season 2 covers the investigation into the murders of José and Kitty Menendez, and the arrests of their sons Erik and Lyle.

Kim's visit to the prison that houses the Menendez brothers comes after news of her future collaborations with Murphy. After starring in American Horror Story: Delicate alongside Emma Roberts, Kim is working with Murphy on a new legal drama for Hulu called All's Fair. It's unknown if her visit to the correctional facility was related to her work with Murphy in any way.

The Menendez brothers were convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder following the 1989 deaths of their parents, per Variety.

After the release of Monsters, Erik shared a statement on September 20 denouncing the series and its negative depiction of his brother.

"I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant likes rampant in the show," he said in the statement, which was shared on X by his wife Tammi Menendez.

He continued, "It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward—back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women."

Erik further explained, "Those awful lies have been disrupted and exposed by countless brave victims over the last two decades who have broken through their personal shame and bravely spoken out."

The Netflix true-crime series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story dramatizes the harrowing story of the Menendez brothers, with rising actors Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch playing the titular figures. Both of the actors give impressive performances while depicting the fictionalized life story of the convicted murders, and Koch in particular is drawing critics' praise for his portrayal of younger brother Erik. Will he will become the next award-winning actor from the Ryan Murphy-produced anthology? Read on to learn more about Cooper Koch, including his previous acting accolades.

Cooper Koch was born in Los Angeles and got an early start in the acting industry.

Cooper Koch, 28, was born and raised in Woodland Hills, a suburb of Los Angeles. His first on-screen acting credit was as a child actor in the 2007 crime thriller Fracture, which was produced by his grandfather, Hawk Koch. Cooper went on to attend Pace School of Performing Arts in New York City, from which he graduated in May 2018.

Before Monsters, Cooper was best known for his supporting roles in projects like the Starz series Power Book II: Ghost, the 2020 movie A New York Christmas Wedding, and the 2022 Peacock thriller They/Them. He also starred alongside Jena Malone in the 2022 body-horror movie Swallowed.

Cooper Koch comes from a lineage of Hollywood heavyweights.

Per his IMDb, Koch's family has a long history in Hollywood. His father, Billy Koch, has worked in visual effects on films including Jerry Maguire, Space Jam, and Rugrats in Paris. His grandfather, Hawk Koch, is a prolific movie producer and former president of both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Producers Guild. Meanwhile, Cooper's great-grandfather Howard W. Koch was an Emmy-nominated producer and director who worked on films including Airplane! and The Manchurian Candidate, as well as several Oscars ceremonies.

Also, Cooper isn't the only member of his generation who followed in the family's showbiz footsteps. His twin brother, Payton Koch, is an Emmy-nominated editor who worked on Only Murders in the Building, as well as several Ryan Murphy-verse series (from The Politician to American Crime Story: Impeachment). The twins also have another brother, Walker Koch, who appears to have gone the musician route rather than filmmaking.

Cooper Koch is an out gay actor who has been vocal about queer representation in Hollywood.

Koch has been open about his sexuality throughout his career, and often gravitates toward gay roles. Speaking to the San Francisco Bay Times about his film They/Them in 2022, he opened up about accepting himself as a gay man when he was young.

"When I was in high school and in my first year of college, I really didn’t want to be who I was," he told the outlet. "And it took being in acting school to realize that if I want play other people, I need to be able to be myself."

When asked about starring in the film with a mostly-queer cast, Koch added, "I’m grateful that I got the opportunity to be cast in it. To have actual trans, nonbinary, and queer people playing all of the roles is how it should be. We should tell these stories more to build more awareness and represent our community."

But Koch also recognizes that queer actors shouldn't be pigeonholed in the entertainment industry due to their sexuality. In a 2023 interview with Edge Media Network, he recalled an incident where an acting teacher alluded that he might not have been booking roles because he had "a gay voice."

"I have a thick skin and at this point in my life, I've, you know, been through bullying when I was a kid, I've been fired from a pilot because of it," he said at the time. "But I also don't tolerate it anymore. I just will turn the other way and walk away. And also, it's like, yeah, if you're gonna have that kind of opinion or you're not gonna wanna work with me because my voice sounds a certain way or because I walk or talk or move my hands in a certain way, then I don't wanna work with you either, babe."

Cooper Koch's research for 'Monsters' involved turning his trailer into 'Erik [Menendez]'s room.'

In an interview with TheWrap during the Monsters premiere, Koch revealed that he went through immersive measures to put himself in the younger Menendez brother's shoes.

“I turned my trailer into Erik’s room so I had clothes everywhere, and I had pictures of him on the wall, pictures of me too,” he told the outlet. “I looked at videos of me when I was really young, and I watched how my parents treated me, which gave me a level of gratitude for my family and my parents. I listened to [Erik] and watched him religiously. And I had my music, I had all different kinds of journals, all different kinds of things to help me really feel like him and be him."

Cooper Koch doesn't have a social media presence.

New fans of Koch post-Monsters will find that the rising star does not have an active Instagram, as he seems to keep his personal life private. However, he has occasionally appears in his co-star Nicholas Chavez's feed, as well as his brother Payton Koch's posts. To celebrate the Monsters release, Payton shared a sweet tribute to his twin on the occasion of his breakout role.

"Have never felt more proud of another human being," Payton wrote, alongside some behind-the-scenes pics of Cooper filming Monsters. "I love you so much and am so so happy for you."

Netflix's latest true-crime series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story brings one of the world's most sensationalized cases to life, with the help of rising star Nicholas Chavez. In the Ryan Murphy-produced Netflix series, Chavez plays Lyle Menendez, the older brother of the real-life pair who was sentenced to life in prison for the 1989 murders of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez.

Though the 25-year-old actor makes his Netflix debut in the harrowing series, Chavez is already an award-winning actor who has found fame through one of Hollywood's most intense subcultures: the soap opera world. Read on to learn more about the Monsters star, including the surprising friend he made while starring in another Ryan Murphy series.

Nicholas Chavez found his love for acting as a high schooler.

Nicholas Alexander Chavez, 25, was born in Houston, Texas, and spent part of his childhood there before relocating to Denver, Colorado. According to SoapHub, he majored in acting at the Mason Gross School of the Arts Acting Conservatory in New Brunswick, New Jersey, before moving to L.A., where he landed his first-ever acting role on General Hospital.

Speaking with PEOPLE in 2022, Chavez revealed that he became interested in acting when he got to play Atticus Finch in a high school production of To Kill a Mockingbird, after another student called out sick.

"I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life when I was in high school," he told the outlet. "So when the faculty all came and saw the production, I had multiple people pull me aside and say, 'You should consider doing this as a profession,' which sounded really, really crazy to me because that wasn't generally something you did for work in Denver."

Nicholas Chavez is a Daytime Emmy winner who started his acting career on the soap opera 'General Hospital.'

Chavez made his TV debut as another rich kid with a run-in with the law, Spencer Cassadine, on the legendary soap opera in 2021, and quickly became a breakout star. In June 2022, less than a year after joining the series, he won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Performer in a Drama Series.

"12 months before I received that award, I was selling cars down in Florida so it was a paradigm shift of epic proportions," he told PEOPLE in September 2022. "It was very, very surreal to stand up on that stage and be recognized for the thing that I'm more passionate about than anything else in life. It was a real dream come true, and I'm incredibly thankful—and still now, months later, in disbelief quite frankly."

Unfortunately for soap fans (but less so for Netflix fans), Chavez made his last appearance on General Hospital in January 2024. He took a leave of absence from the show to film in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, before confirming his exit from the soap in May, per Deadline.

Nicholas Chavez is the Ryan Murphy-verse's newest star (and he's friends with fellow newbie Travis Kelce).

Monsters isn't the only Murphy-verse show that Chavez stars in this month. He'll also have a leading role as Father Charlie Mayhew in the FX series Grotesquerie, which premieres on Wednesday, September 25, less than a week after Monsters hit streaming on Netflix. Details on his character have been sparse, but his storyline will probably intertwine with the character Sister Megan (Micaela Diamond), a journalist nun who helps Detective Lois Tryon (Niecy Nash-Betts) investigate a series of crimes.

While Chavez has remained tight-lipped on his character, he has joined some of his co-stars in singing the praises of Travis Kelce, who makes his acting debut in the series. Speaking to PEOPLE at the Grotesquerie premiere, Chavez said that he "really enjoyed getting to know" Kelce on set and that the football star is a "friendly and cool guy."

“He has such an exciting character in this show, and I think that people should be looking forward to seeing Travis shine because guy's a star,” he said, teasing that Kelce “handled the material like a pro. He’s awesome.”

Nicholas Chavez is a fitness buff and avid traveler.

Chavez's Instagram is best described as curated. Though he only has a couple dozen posts, it's easy to tell upon browsing that the actor is passionate about fitness and world travel. According to his feed, some countries he's visited include Italy, Japan, Ireland, Mexico, Greece, and Turkey. The rising star also told PEOPLE in 2022 that he booked his spur-of-the-moment trip to Istanbul, Athens, and Rome four days before he left.

Nicholas Chavez is dating fellow actor Victoria Abbott.

As for his romantic life, Chavez is happily taken. The Monsters star has been dating Victoria Abbott for several months, with the two actors appearing in each other's Instagram posts since spring 2024. It's unknown how the couple met, but they could have started as an on-set romance, as Abbott is also set to appear in a recurring role in Grotesquerie.

Before Grotesquerie, Abbott had her breakout role in Netflix's 2022 thriller series Echoes.

Nicholas Chavez hadn't heard of the Menendez murders before landing the role in 'Monsters.'

Though the Menendez brothers' case is a well-known true-crime story (that has been adapted to screen before), Chavez did not know about the events before landing the role in Monsters. In an interview with TheWrap, he revealed that he watched footage from the trial and "several" documentaries as part of his research for the show.

“The first thing that I did was called the people who I love who were alive at the time, and then I asked them what their perspective was and what their impression was,” he told the outlet.

Chavez also said of the new series, “This show is going to present the facts from so many different perspectives. Ultimately, it’s going to allow people to make their own judgments about this family and the events that transpired, and I think that that’s one of the more compelling aspects of the show."

TV Showrunner Ryan Murphy, a.k.a. the king of true-crime dramatization, has put his spin on the sensationalized murder trial of the Menendez brothers. Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story premiered on Netflix on September 19, 2024, marking the second season of the mega-producer's Emmy-winning series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. The new binge-worthy TV series depicts the events following the murder of José and Kitty Menendez by their sons Erik and Lyle, focusing on the trial that sentenced both of the wealthy young men to life in prison.

For the series, creators Murphy and Ian Brennan gathered a cast composed of talented newcomers, veteran actors, and some of Hollywood's biggest stars. Read on to learn everything about the cast of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez

Erik Menendez—the younger and more mild-mannered Menendez brother, who was 18-years-old when he and Lyle murdered their parents—is played by Cooper Koch. The L.A.-born actor is an alum of the Pace School of Performing Arts in N.Y.C. The 28-year-old began his career with a series of short films during his college days. Before his breakout role in Monsters, Koch played a minor character in season 1 of Power Book II: Ghost.

As of Monsters' release, Erik Menendez is serving his life sentence at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. He's now 53.

Nicholas Alexander Chavez as Lyle Menendez

Lyle Menendez—who was 21-years-old at the time of the murders and is depicted as the more aggressive brother in Monsters—is played by Nicholas Alexander Chavez. Chavez, 25, was born in Houston, Texas, and started his acting career with the role of Spencer Cassadine on General Hospital, which he starred in from 2021 til earlier this year. In addition to Monsters, he's also set to star in the Murphy-produced FX series Grotesquerie, which premieres just a week after the Netflix series.

As of Monsters' release, Lyle Menendez is currently serving his life sentence at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, now at age 56.

Javier Bardem as José Menendez

Lyle and Erik's father José Menendez was born in Cuba and immigrated to the United States in the 1960s. At the time of his death, he was 45 and the multi-millionaire CEO of a video distribution company.

Javier Bardem is an Oscar-winning actor, with Monsters marking his first-ever regular role in a TV series. The Spanish actor previously worked with Murphy on the 2010 movie Eat, Pray, Love, and according to TheWrap, Bardem was eager to work with the media titan again. He's best known for his roles in the films Before Night Falls, No Country for Old Men, Vicky Christina Barcelona, Mother!, The Little Mermaid, and Dune (and for being married to Penélope Cruz, of course).

Chloë Sevigny as Kitty Menendez

Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez, Erik and Lyle's mother, was a former school teacher who met José while studying at Southern Illinois University. She married the future tycoon in 1963. Kitty was 47-years-old at the time of her murder.

Chloë Sevigny, acclaimed actress and forever "It" girl, started modeling before becoming an indie darling with her debut film role in 1995's Kids. She broke into the mainstream in 1999 by starring in Boys Don't Cry in a role that earned her an Oscar nomination. She went on to star in films including American Psycho, Dogville, and Zodiac, as well as series including HBO's Big Love. She has become a regular member of the Murphy-verse, with starring in two seasons of American Horror Story as well as Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.

Nathan Lane as Dominick Duane

Dominick Dunne is an investigative reporter who covered the Menendez trial for Vanity Fair in the '90s. He frequently covered high-profile crime cases including the deaths of William Woodward, Jr., and his own daughter, Dominique Dunne. He was also one of two reporters granted full access to the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995. Dunne died in August 2009, having written five best-selling books.

Nathan Lane is an actor and Broadway legend who has won three Tonys and three Emmys throughout his career. His best-known roles include Timon in The Lion King, Max Bialystock in The Producers, Roy Cohn in Angels in America, and Albert in The Birdcage. He also recently starred in series including American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson (another Murphy-verse series), The Gilded Age, and Only Murders in the Building.

Ari Graynor as Leslie Abramson

Leslie Abramson is a former L.A. defense attorney who served as Erik's lead counsel during the murder trial. After the brothers' conviction, she was under investigation due to "allegations that she asked Erik's psychiatrist to delete portions of his notes;" although, the investigation was inconclusive, according to PEOPLE.

Ari Graynor grew up in Boston and made her acting debut with a small role in The Sopranos. She has appeared in dozens of shows and films including 2008's Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, 2009's Whip It, 2012's For a Good Time, Call..., CBS' Bad Teacher, 2017's The Disaster Artist, Showtime's I'm Dying Up Here, and FX's Mrs. America.

Dallas Roberts as Dr. Jerome Oziel

Dr. Jerome Oziel, Erik and Lyle's therapist who treated the brothers after the murder—and taped their confessions—is played by Dallas Roberts. The Houston-born actor has starred in dozens of projects, including 2005's Walk the Line, 2007's 3:10 to Yuma, Showtime's The L Word, AMC's The Walking Dead, 2013's Dallas Buyers Club, Netflix's Insatiable, and 2022's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

Leslie Grossman as Judalon Smyth

Judalon Smyth was Oziel's mistress and former patient at the time of the murder. She's the one who tipped off the police that the therapist had recorded the brothers' confessions.

Leslie Grossman is a Murphy-verse regular, who previously starred in seasons 7-12 of American Horror Story, and appeared in a supporting role in Nip/Tuck. Her other notable roles include The WB's Popular and What I Like About You, ABC's Scandal, NBC's The Good Place, and Hulu's Love, Victor.

Charlie Hall as Craig Cignarelli

Craig Cignarelli, one of Lyle and Erik's closest friends, becomes a key figure in the brothers' court cast, testifying in both trials. In real life, as in the show, he went to the police about Erik's confession after the pair co-wrote a screenplay, called Friends, about a son who murders his parents to receive a multi-million dollar inheritance.

Charlie Hall, 27, is the son of comedy legend Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Saturday Night Live alum Brad Hall. Charlie made his acting debut with a bit role on Veep after graduating from Northwestern University (his parents' alma mater. He went on to appear in the 2021 film Moxie and the TV series Love, Victor; Single Drunk Female; Bel-Air; and The Sex Lives of College Girls.

Jason Butler Harner as Det. Les Zoeller

Les Zoeller, the lead detective in the Menendez case, is played by Jason Butler Harner. He's best known for playing FBI agent Roy Petty in the Netflix hit Ozark. Harner may also be a familiar face due to his supporting roles in series like Homeland, Ray Donovan, The Walking Dead, The Handmaid's Tale, Rabbit Hole, Sugar, and Clipped.

Jeff Perry as Peter Hoffman

Peter Hoffman (pictured above, center left), Jose's former business partner, is portrayed by Shondaland favorite Jeff Perry. The stage and screen actor is best known for playing chief-of-staff Cyrus Beene on Scandal, but his decades-long acting career has included series like My So-Called Life, Nash Bridges, Grey's Anatomy, Alaska Daily, and Inventing Anna.

Carlos Baralt as Enrique Murciano

Carlos Baralt, Jose's brother-in-law and the executor of his will, is played by Enrique Murciano, a Miami-born actor who's best known for playing FBI agent Danny Taylor in CBS's Without a Trace. His other credits include the films Traffic, Black Hawk Down, Bright, and The Half of It, as well as the shows Power, Bloodline, Panic, and The Night Agent.

Ryan Murphy's latest true-crime miniseries is a look at the sensationalized, heartbreaking story of sports-star-turned-convict Aaron Hernandez. Premiering on FX/Hulu on September 17, 2024, American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez tells the life story of the late NFL phenom, who rose from a working class childhood in Bristol, Connecticut to NCAA D1 football and then the pros, before being convicted for murder in 2015. While laying out Hernandez's life, the new must-watch series also examines the racial dynamics and prejudice against gay men within multimillion dollar sports industry.

For the new drama, FX has gathered a cast of talented actors, from rising superstars to many familiar faces from the world of theater. Read on to meet the all-star cast of American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez.

Josh Rivera as Aaron Hernandez

Aaron Hernandez grew up in Bristol, Connecticut, and had a tough childhood; his father, who was physically abusive and demanding, died when Aaron was 15. However, Aaron excelled in sports and was recruited to play football at the University of Florida before joining the NFL. Throughout his career, Aaron struggled with anger issues, drug use, and his sexuality. He was eventually convicted of first-degree murder in 2015, and he died by suicide in prison two years later.

Josh Rivera, 29, is a Puerto Rican actor who grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He began his acting career in musical theater, performing in the national touring cast of Hamilton before his breakout role as Chino in the 2021 Steven Spielberg-directed remake of West Side Story. In addition to American Sports Story, Rivera also appeared in the 2023 films Cat Person and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. (The latter of which he starred alongside his girlfriend Rachel Zegler, who he met while filming West Side Story.)

Tammy Blanchard as Terri Hernandez

Aaron has a difficult relationship with his mother, Terri Hernandez. They became estranged while he was still in high school, with Aaron moving in with his cousin Tanya.

Tammy Blanchard, 47, made her acting debut in 1996 with a role in the soap opera Guiding Light. She went on to play a young Judy Garland in the 2000 miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, which earned her an Emmy. In addition to her roles in the films Rabbit Hole, Moneyball, and Into the Woods, she's a Broadway veteran and two-time Tony Award nominee.

Ean Castellanos as D.J. Hernandez

Aaron's older brother D.J. Hernandez was also raised to be a football star, and he formerly played football at the University of Connecticut. Following Aaron's sentencing and subsequent death, D.J. has unfortunately been through his own legal and mental health issues.

Ean Castellanos is an actor, musician, and filmmaker who recently graduated from the American Music and Drama Academy, according to FX. He previously had small roles on the TV series High Maintenance, Tommy, and Five Days at Memorial.

Lindsay Mendez as Tanya Singleton

Lindsay Mendez plays Aaron's cousin Tanya Singleton. Mendez, 43, is a Tony Award-winning Broadway star who previously appeared in musicals including Wicked, Godspell, Grease, and Carousel. Most recently, she starred alongside Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe in the acclaimed first Broadway revival of Merrily We Roll Along. As for her on-screen career, she's best known for playing Sara Castillo in the CBS/OWN series All Rise.

Jaylen Barron as Shayanna Jenkins

Shayanna Jenkins was one of Aaron's childhood friends from when they grew up in Bristol and went to school together. They briefly dated as teenagers before reuniting when Aaron began playing for the Patriots and were later engaged. Shayanna gave birth to one child by Hernandez, a daughter who's now 11-years-old.

Jaylen Barron, 26, started her career as a child actor appearing on shows like Shake It Up, See Dad Run, and Good Luck Charlie. She went on to play Dominique Winslow in the Showtime drama Shameless, before starring in the Netflix original Free Rein. Most recently, she starred as Trish in the Starz dramedy Blindspotting.

Patrick Schwarzenegger as Tim Tebow

Tim Tebow was the starting quarterback for the University of Florida when Aaron joined as a freshman in 2007. In American Sports Story, the two players are just acquaintances until they connect on a deeper level due to their faith. In real life, Tebow played three seasons as a quarterback for the Denver Broncos and was traded to multiple teams before eventually ending his professional career as part of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He also worked for several years as a commentator and analyst, before recently taking a non-football job at a Florida venture capital firm.

Patrick Schwarzenegger, 31, is the son of former Terminator star and Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger and author Maria Shriver. He started his acting career with supporting roles in movies in the early 2010s, and has gone on to appear in shows including Scream Queens, The Long Road Home, The Staircase, The Terminal List, and Gen V. Next up, he's set to appear in season 3 of The White Lotus.

Tony Yazbeck as Urban Meyer

In American Sports Story, Urban Meyer is the head coach of the Florida Gators, who recruits Aaron and turns him into an NCAA superstar. In real life, Meyer became the third highest-paid football coach during the 2009 season (Hernandez's final season with the Gators), with a contract worth $24 million over six years. The former NCAA and NFL coach has not coached since 2021, and he's currently an analyst at FOX Sports.

Tony Yazbeck is an actor, singer, and dancer who has starred in Broadway productions since 1989, when he made his debut as an ensemble member in Gypsy. He held principal roles in musicals including A Chorus Line, White Christmas, Chicago, Flying Over Sunset, and On the Town, which earned him a Tony nomination. In the TV world, Yazbeck has appeared in series including Smash, Billions, and The Good Fight.

Jake Cannavale as Chris

Chris is a physical therapist at Aaron's agency, who becomes a romantic interest for the budding NFL star. Unlike many of the show's characters, Chris is a fictional composite based on multiple people.

Jake Cannavale, 29, was born in N.Y.C. to parents Bobby Cannavale (of Boardwalk Empire, Nine Perfect Strangers, and The Watchers fame) and Jenny Lumet (daughter of Sidney Lumet and the writer/producer of Rachel Getting Married, among other projects). Jake has previously appeared in the TV series The Mandalorian, The Offer, and Ghosts.

When I listen to Laci Mosley talk about scamming, the actress and comedian behind the award-winning podcast “Scam Goddess” seems like she’s found the cheat code to life. While the average person may never want to be associated with cons, Mosley admits she has been scamming since she was 5-years-old—and revels in it.

Before launching her podcast about infamous scammers in 2019, Mosley was fascinated by the fraud, swindles, and schemes she could get by perpetuating, or she realized had been done onto her. It’s how she describes her path from growing up in rural Texas to starring in shows like iCarly, Lopez vs Lopez, and A Black Lady Sketch Show; her success hasn’t been without exchanging cash for unusable headshots or dealing with her roommates turning into squatters.

In analyzing the mechanisms of scamming over the years, the comedian has become a “true con” expert herself and shared her subversive gospel to the “Scam Goddess” audience—dubbed the “con-gregation”— while telling tales of today’s most infamous fraudsters, from Anna Delvey to Shaun King to George Santos. In the world of “Scam Goddess,” both the scammers and the scammed are treated with empathy and respect as the stories unfold, as the podcast offers a refreshing take on the average true-crime fair. In her theory of connery, she asks a question: What is a scam other than a way to get ahead in a system that wasn’t built for you to succeed? And, by embracing scamming, what if we could “create the life and the existence that we want?”

As the podcast approaches its sixth year, its host is expanding her “Scam Goddess” empire, with a forthcoming TV adaptation on ABC News, and a memoir/essay collection of the same name in which Mosley turns her scam-expert lens on herself. With the book hitting shelves on September 10, Mosley tells Marie Claire that she hopes it’ll spread her con philosophy far and wide. Throughout the book, the stories of her outrageous life are interspersed with calls for readers to cultivate a scammer’s toolkit and come out ahead of the cons that life throws at them. “I've been in some wild situations. I've worked for some drug fronts. I've been in some shootings. Somehow it's all weirdly funny, but acting like I belonged everywhere that I entered was something that gave me a lot of confidence,” she says. “Scammers are always taking up space. So I think we should all be taking up space in whatever way we can.”

Below, Mosley chats with Marie Claire about why we should talk about scams more often, the most altruistic con she’s covered on the podcast, and why she thinks we all have to scam ourselves sometimes.

Marie Claire: For anyone unfamiliar with “Scam Goddess” the podcast, how would you describe your relationship with scams?

Laci Mosley: I would say everything is a scam and everything is made up, so we can make up our own rules. We can create the life that we want, and the existence that we want. I think that there's a lot of beauty in scamming, but at the same time, there's so many people who are talented scammers who I wish would use their powers for good, and not harm people in vulnerable positions. It's kind of love-hate.

MC: It can be hard to think of scams as anything other than a negative connotation. When was the first time you realized a scam could be neutral or even?

LM: I think a scam is comedic when it's goofy, like when people are using costumes. Hilaria Baldwin, there was no reason for her to just be pretending that she had a Latina accent. It's just goofy and it harmed no one. We all had a good time. People were saying that she was culturally-appropriating, but there's a difference between race and nationality.

Recently on the podcast, we profiled the woman behind the rideshare racket, Priscila Barbosa. She was an immigrant and didn't have her papers. She founded a Facebook group with other people who had migrated to the country and were contributing to the economy, and they would use other legitimate people's ride-share information. Not in a nefarious way. It was just so people can make money. She did eventually make a lot of money doing it, but she would always just charge a finder's fee and then let people go off and make their own money. Then she started making up Social Security numbers and that's when she got in trouble-trouble. But during COVID, Uber was all the way through the roof, and her business was actually helping get food to people who were immunocompromised or didn't want to go outside. So even though the government came down on her really hard, I really feel like she helped a lot of people. She put food on a lot of people's tables, literally. So I don't think that's a bad scam.

Also, laws are just made up. Laws were literally like old white dudes got in a room like, 'Let's make laws.' So I don't understand why we take so much credence in certain laws. There are laws that are just, fair, and moral, and there are certainly ones that are corrupt that should be changed.

MC: There can be beauty in scamming, but you're also very clear on the podcast that once the scam crosses a certain line, it's not fun anymore.

LM: No, absolutely not. We all know that that line is when you start punching down on vulnerable people, on people who are in need, and also on people who aren't actively scamming others. That's why I'm like, ‘Scam corporations.’ They're wage-thieving, they're price-gouging. Let's get our lick back. Take a stapler with you home. Grab those paper clips. Take that office toilet paper. It's one-ply; it might rip you up down there, but take something.

MC: Your podcast focuses more on discussing other people’s scam stories than your own. What do you hope readers take from your own stories?

LM: You gotta scam yourself sometimes. Acting like I’ve belonged everywhere that I entered has given me a lot of confidence. I have negative thoughts sometimes about my appearance or my work ethic or my level of success [or] how much care I'm giving to my loved ones because I've sacrificed so much for work. I have so many negative thoughts that creep in—and they're scams, and I have to push them out. I don't think there's such a thing as a confident person. I think every day you have to get up and you have to choose to love yourself.

MC: Why was it important to be so honest in Scam Goddess about the scams you faced in the beginning of your acting career?

LM: I went through every way I got scammed in the entertainment industry, all the way from A, B, C to D, and hopefully that saves a lot of people a lot of time, money, and self-esteem. A lot of people in this industry who are teachers or have established a reputation for being gatekeepers, they'll tell you things about yourself and you'll believe them. I think the best way to be successful in the entertainment industry is to rawly and purely be yourself. There's always something for every type of person, so you don't need to mold yourself into what somebody else is. What's for you is for you.

MC: America has been in a cultural moment for the past few years where scammers can become full-out celebrities. What purpose do you think Scam Goddess serves in the true-crime entertainment landscape?

LM: I think the fascination with true crime has grown because 1. We're all realizing the system is rigged; and 2. People are nosy; [and] 3. People are extremely judgmental when it comes to crime. I like to call what I do "true con," not true crime, because we're not profiling people's deaths or monetizing people's pain. Obviously, there are people who are exploited and victimized, and we don't punch down on them, but no one's dying for the most part on [“Scam Goddess”]. And people want to judge. They want to feel like, 'Oh I would never fall for that scam. I'm smarter than that.'

What I hope is coming across—and I think is really going to come across in the television show—is that anything can happen to you. If you are someone who believes that these things can't happen to you, you're actually more vulnerable, because then when the red flags start coming, you start thinking, 'Oh well, that can't be what I think it is, because that would never happen to me.' But if you believe [anything could happen to me] and you start seeing something weird, you're just like, 'Let me get outta here. I don't want to go through door number three.' I hope that it starts to erase people's judgment. I've had a lot of people reach out to me and say, 'Oh I didn't get scammed because I listened to the podcast.' Or, 'I kept my mom from getting scammed.' That gives me a lot of joy, and I hope that this book Scam Goddess will do the same thing: Give people joy and laughter, but also you can learn a lot and be a voyeur into my life.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What if your breakthrough success resulted from a tragedy within your community? Maddie Morgenstern (Natalie Portman) faces this ethical conundrum in the Apple TV+ limited series Lady in the Lake. Set in 1966, two different murders in her Baltimore neighborhood inspire Maddie to make a bold leap from a dissatisfied housewife to an intrepid reporter. But in this adaptation of Laura Lippman's 2019 bestseller of the same name, showrunner Alma Har'el never positions Maddie as a flawless hero driven by selfless reasons on a quest to break the glass ceiling. Rather, Maddie's insatiable drive to crack a whodunnit reflects society’s true crime fascination that begins as newspaper headlines and evolves into books and now thrives across pop culture.

It’s in many ways like Hulu's Under the Bridge, one of this year’s true crime hits, which aired just several months before Lady in the Lake premiered on July 19. The series, starring Riley Keough and Lily Gladstone, similarly depicts how ambition, a writer reckoning with trauma from their past, and a horrifying act of violence intersect. In both series, too, exploration of who becomes a crusading voice for the victim—or even a messenger for the accused—doubles as examining the knotty crime-as-entertainment relationship.

Various think pieces and reports have been published trying to understand why women in particular are drawn to the true crime genre, in which the victims are frequently women. (The Saturday Night Live sketch "Murder Show" hits the nail on the head.) But what makes Lady in the Lake and Under the Bridge stand out is how concepts of girlhood and womanhood are a recurring motif in the depictions of the victims, investigators, and, in the case of Under the Bridge, the aggressors. Taking this feminized approach allows room for layered and complex depictions, and, notably, humanity (and even agency) is given to the deceased and the living. Each protagonist is not let off the hook regarding their failures, nor are they vilified. Exploring the moral gray area is a signature of Ha'rel’s. “I think that in everything I do—and I wish the whole world was capable of this—the goal is to humanize every experience, and not just find out who’s right and who’s wrong,” she recently told Variety.

Getting close to the alleged killer while covering a story is a common narrative choice. However, Lady in the Lake and Under the Bridge purposefully explore the push-pull of how the victim can get lost amid the noise of the living. Whereas Lady in the Lake is inspired by disparate media coverage of two unrelated disappearances in '60s Baltimore with an invented protagonist, Under the Bridge is adapted from Rebecca Godfrey's 2005 non-fiction book detailing events surrounding the 1997 murder of teenager Reena Virk. Rather than entering the scene after the arrests, creator Quinn Shephard and showrunner Samir Mehta ensure that Rebecca (Keough) is in the eye of this investigation storm as it unfolds. Each title utilizes a fragmented sense of time and place, toggling back and forth to illustrate the layers of history that led to current circumstances.

From its opening sequence, Lady in the Lake teases the body disposal that eventually plays out at the end of episode 4 (which hit streaming on August 2). Cleo Johnson's (Moses Ingram) initial voiceover makes no secret that she is the future woman in the lake. Serving as the narrator, Cleo's distaste toward Maddie's reporter-savior positioning is clear: "You said you knew who took my life from me, Maddie Morgenstern. You said no one cared until you came along. Truth is, you came at the end of my story and turned it into your beginning." Questioning Maddie's intention from the jump sets the tone, and guarantees audiences question her agenda throughout the season. It also signifies that Lady in the Lake has no interest in offering some sort of girlboss twist on history; racism, antisemitism, and sexism provide the undercurrent Cleo and Maddie swim in.

Far from living out a His Girl Friday fantasy of playful newsroom banter, Maddie has to claw for a mention in an exclusive story in the Baltimore Star which she facilitated with murder suspect Stephan Zawadzkie (Dylan Arnold). Despite her small credit, Maddie positively beams at her big break during the Hanukkah festivities. That is until Tessie's father (and Maddie's high school ex) Allan (David Corenswet) angrily confronts her and accuses her of doing “whatever it took to” get her name in print, “even if it meant drumming up sympathy for the murderer." Allan vibrates with rage, his comments fueled by raw grief, while Maddie harbors unfinished business with her ex.

Rather than slink away when Allan demands she leave, Maddie insists her only agenda is to find out what happened to Tessie. Not that Allan agrees: "Everybody here knows the truth. You're trying to recover your lost dreams, and you want to use the body of my dead child to do it," he spits with fury. Maddie's teenage son Seth (Noah Jupe) even sides with Allan, but her actions read as naive more than calculated. Everyone contains multitudes in these narratives, with Maddie swinging between exploiting others and being exploited. As a viewer, you may even see yourself in Maddie: wanting justice for the victim (fictitious or otherwise), and still wanting to consume the gory and salacious nuggets of information within these stories.

Nowadays, citizen detectives who pour over every detail of a case as it unfolds on TikTok and Reddit aren't unlike Maddie and Rebecca. But as those 21st-century platforms weren't an option for the characters, they instead become the voices of the victims and suspects through their research and reporting. Whereas Maddie finds freedom from being boxed in as a homemaker through Tessie's murder, in Under the Bridge, Rebecca confronts a past tragedy through her interactions with one of the accused killers, Warren (Javon Walton). Their kinship explores notions of punishment and forgiveness, and while Rebecca does lose sight of Reena at times, the series never does.

With that, it's as if TV is finding its footing in how to more thoughtfully cover crime stories that we can't look away from. Even when the pacing of the shows stumble under the weight of these different perspectives, it is a better series for showcasing each vantage point. This approach remains a consideration until the Hulu series’ very end: When the court case wraps, Rebecca is forced to confront her involvement and how the outcome has given her material for a book. While executed differently in Lady in the Lake, as the show plays out, Cleo's life has depth and shading, and the continuing voiceover ensures she will be more than how Maddie molds her to get ahead at the newspaper. The creators of these shows are done with thinly painted victims, proving that storytellers like Rebecca and Maddie need to give as many words and attention to Reena, Tessie, and Cleo as those accused of harming them. In doing so, they hold a mirror up to our fascination with the macabre and make witnesses of us all.

Social media, the dance community, and alleged coercive control intersect in Netflix's latest cult documentary, Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult. In February 2022, the Wilking family went viral on Instagram after they posted an emotional livestream claiming that famed TikTok dancer Miranda Wilking, now known as Miranda Derrick, was under the control of an alleged cult leader named Robert Shinn. As both news outlets and Internet sleuths began to look into Shinn's past, more and more concerning evidence kept coming up that Miranda, her now-husband James Derrick, and the other dancers employed under the talent incubator 7M Films may allegedly live under complete financial and emotional control, despite the sunny, positive image put forth on social media.

Since the docuseries' release on May 29, countless viewers have been on the lookout for any information regarding where Miranda and other subjects of Dancing for the Devil are now. Below, we've rounded up everything we know about Miranda Derrick's whereabouts and whether she is still allegiant to the alleged cult now, two years after the three-part doc was filmed.

Who is Miranda Derrick (née Wilking)?

Miranda Derrick (neé Wilking) was raised in suburban Michigan, where she and her younger sister, Melanie Wilking, began dancing as children. According to her family's interviews in Dancing for the Devil, in which Melanie, mom Kelly, and dad Dean participated, Miranda moved to Los Angeles to pursue dance professionally after graduating high school. Melanie followed soon after, and the sisters found success on social media, creating the joint profile "The Wilking Sisters."

In 2019, Miranda connected with James "BDash" Derrick over Instagram DM, and the krump dancer collaborated with Miranda and Melanie on videos, before Miranda and BDash began dating. In late 2020, the couple started working with 7M Films, a new management company founded by Shekinah Church pastor Robert Shinn. They also joined Shinn's church and moved into a home that he owned.

In February 2022, Melanie, Kelly, and Dean Wilking took part in an Instagram Live where they shared their allegations that Miranda had become part of a "cult," claiming that she, BDash, and the other dancers in 7M were allegedly under Shinn's control. They said that Miranda Derrick had cut all ties to the family after officially signing with 7M in January 2021, adding that they believed she had been “brainwashed” by the organization.

Following the Instagram Live, several outlets including Rolling Stone and The Cut published exposés on the group and Robert Shinn's alleged history of abuse, including a former lawsuit brought against him by an ex-Shekinah member. Several dancers left 7M in the months prior, and in 2023, a group of dancers and former church members filed a (still ongoing) lawsuit claiming that Shinn and other defendants subjected people “to brainwashing, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, manipulation, and exploitation.”

Is Miranda Derrick still a member of the alleged '7M TikTok Cult'?

As of the docuseries' May 29 release, Miranda Derrick still appears to be a member of 7M Films. Though the company's website does not have an official roster, she and BDash have credited Robert Shinn's son Isaiah for filming several recent videos, many of which match the 7M filming and content style (such as dances to older songs). She also appears to collaborate with other dancers allegedly under 7M Films, including Vik White, RainO, Kendra "KO" Willis, and Ceasare “Tighteyex” Willis.

Are Miranda Derrick and James "BDash" Derrick still together?

Miranda became engaged to James "BDash" Derrick in August 2021, with BDash proposing during a dance video. The couple was later married, though it is unclear when the ceremony was. Earlier this year, the pair shared throwback photos of themselves dressed in wedding attire. As of June 2024, the Derricks are still married and based in Los Angeles.

Has Miranda Derrick responded to 'Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult?'

Several days after Dancing for the Devil premiered, Miranda shared a statement on social media on June 4. According to Glamour, she denied that she belonged to a cult and attributed the tension between her and her family members to be about her faith.

She wrote on her Instagram Stories, "I just wanted to hop on here really quick and first of all say thank you to everybody who’s been so supportive during this time. In the next couple slides I’ve included my statement of this documentary that’s just been released. I can’t go into too much detail because of legal purposes, but I wanted to add my side of the story a little bit."

"I have been getting together with them over the past couple years to make amends, move on and work things out as a family,” she continued. “This documentary has created a further challenge between us as I work to overcome this public attack. No one likes to be portrayed as their brainwashed/not in control of her own life/shell of herself/human trafficked daughter/sister when that just isn’t the truth.”

The dancer posted the statement nearly a week after the docuseries' premiere. Before speaking out, she continued to share content centered on her routines, including one clip featuring her husband BDash, soundtracked by Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso." Comments have also been limited under her posts.

Fans also speculated that Miranda could have subtly shaded the docuseries in a June 1 shared post, where she collaborates with another alleged 7M dancer, Kendra “KO” Willis. Willis captioned the post, "Dancing it out with my sis by my side," which some have seen as a possible indirect criticism of Miranda's sister Melanie.

Miranda's recent statement is not the first time she's denied her involvement in the alleged cult. In May 2022, following her family's Instagram Live, she denied all allegations in a statement to The Cut.

"I am not held against my will and I've never been a hostage," she said. "I go to church and I have faith in God. If one day I wish to pursue my faith elsewhere, I will and feel completely free to do that. As far as my career, my time at 7M Films has been one of the most exciting years ever and if one day I wish to partner with a different management company or start my own company, I will. No one is forcing me to do anything. I am excited to move forward in this incredible walk with God, an amazing marriage and exciting career. I’m also looking forward to moving past all of this and mend my relationship with my family privately."

7M Films have also spoken out about the Wilkings' concerns. In a 2022 statement to The Daily Beast, a representative for 7M Films said, “Miranda Derrick is a successful businesswoman and a loving wife and daughter who cares very much about her family. While the recent portrayals of Dr. Robert Shinn and 7M Films have been wildly offensive and riddled with inaccuracies, those false claims will not deter 7M from supporting Miranda in whichever endeavors she chooses to pursue next.”

What is Miranda Derrick's relationship with her family?

As seen in the documentary, Miranda Derrick eventually reconnected with her family after a period of estrangement, and the Wilking family is still in contact with her today. However, in the doc, Melanie Wilking says that her relationship with her sister feels superficial and admits that she hesitates to include Miranda in major life events, such as her then-upcoming wedding.

On June 2, 2024, Melanie shared her first public statement since filming the documentary, via her Instagram stories. Per Glamour, Melanie (who now does by her husband Austin Ekeler's surname) thanked viewers for the support she and her family have received since Dancing for the Devil premiered on Netflix, while also speaking out on her relationship with Miranda.

“Thankfully, since going public in 2022, we have reunited with my sister, who even attended my wedding,” Melanie wrote. “We believe that one day my sister and the other victims will realize their love for their families and faith was exploited. When that happens, we will be there for them without judgment."

Since then, Melanie opened up to Glamour in an interview, reportedly conducted on June 5 and published on June 6, about reuniting with her sister on her wedding day. She confirmed that Miranda and BDash both attended the ceremony on May 25 (just days before the docuseries dropped), which she called "truly the best day of my life."

She told the outlet that her "interactions were very positive" with her sister, adding, "I'm glad we can share that memory together.”

Miranda, meanwhile, posted pictures from the venue.

Melanie also explained to Glamour that she and her sister have not continued talking since Dancing for the Devil premiered. She said, "Sadly, I did reach out but I have not heard back."

She noted that she does not believe Miranda has actually watched the three-parter, despite her recent statement. "I feel it is very clear that she did not watch it because it’s so much bigger than just our family situation," she explained. "It goes so much deeper into that and if you watch the documentary, you would know that. So it’s very sad to me, it was very sad when I read that. And it’s like, I do not believe that she watched it."

While there continues to be a rift between the Wilkings sisters and Melanie said she's "not too sure" if contact will continue, she also expressed hopefulness. She shared, "I’m hopeful that we will stay in contact. I don’t necessarily know what that looks like. But I’ve never lost hope that we will get our relationship back."

Netflix's latest true-crime docuseries, Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult, chronicles one of the wildest stories to ever emerge from social media. In 2022, an Instagram Live from dancer Melanie Wilking and her parents went viral as they claimed that they had lost contact with Melanie's sister Miranda Wilking and that she was "no longer in control of her life" after joining a "cult." Two years, several investigations, and a major lawsuit later, the new docuseries lays out the full history of pastor and entrepreneur Robert Shinn, who has allegedly sexually and financially abused and exploited dozens of people through his Santa Ana-based Shekinah Church and his management company 7M Films.

In the three-episode series directed by Derek Doneen, several former 7M and Shekinah Church members share their harrowing experiences with the Shinn and his family's organizations. Since the docuseries was filmed, several dancers and former members have made massive strides in their careers, while concurrently fighting for justice in the legal system. Unfortunately, others in the saga have yet to completely part ways with the alleged abuser. Read on to see where the subjects of the cult documentary Dancing for the Devil are today, including a brief rundown of the ongoing court case against Shinn.

Miranda Derrick (née Wilking)

Miranda Derrick, 27, moved from suburban Michigan to L.A. after high school, to become a professional dancer. She was followed by her younger sister Melanie a year later, and the two found fame on social media, where they shared their dance routines and lifestyle content; their joint TikTok, the Wilking Sisters, amassed over 3 million followers. In 2019, she met James "BDash" Derrick through Instagram and began dating. By August 2021, the two were engaged, with James proposing mid-dance in a shared video.

In 2020, the couple began working with 7M Films, a management and content creation company run by Robert Shinn, who also founded the LA-area Shekinah Church. Per the Netflix doc, Miranda and BDash became members of both the agency and church, even moving into a property owned by Shinn.

Her sister Melanie, meanwhile, expressed how uncomfortable she was with the control Shinn had over the dancers. Per the Wilking family, Miranda began distancing herself from the family in early 2021, even refusing to travel back to Michigan for her grandfather's funeral. The family claims that they lost nearly all contact with Miranda following the incident, and did not see her again until they approached her at a public dance event that December.

In early 2022, Melanie and the sisters' parents did a livestream that quickly went viral, in which they alleged that Miranda was in a "cult" that was controlling her interactions with her family. Miranda has consistently denied the allegations. In a May 2022 statement to The Cut, she said, "I am not held against my will and I've never been a hostage. I go to church and I have faith in God. If one day I wish to pursue my faith elsewhere, I will and feel completely free to do that. As far as my career, my time at 7M Films has been one of the most exciting years ever and if one day I wish to partner with a different management company or start my own company, I will. No one is forcing me to do anything. I am excited to move forward in this incredible walk with God, an amazing marriage and exciting career. I’m also looking forward to moving past all of this and mend my relationship with my family privately."

As of the docuseries' late May 2024 release, Miranda and James Derrick still work with 7M Films and have credited Robert Shinn's son Isaiah for filming several videos. Professionally, the couple has most recently appeared as dancers in Prime Video's 2024 action film Road House, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Miranda and BDash also got married; it is unknown when the wedding was, but Miranda recently shared wedding pictures on Instagram in April 2024.

Miranda is also now in contact with her family and has shared videos spending time with them on social media. However, as of the doc's filming, Melanie claimed that their interactions seemed "superficial" and shared her apprehension that Miranda may have reopened communication only to save face publicly. It's unknown whether Miranda ended up being a bridesmaid in Melanie's wedding after Melanie also shared her reluctance to involve her sister in more of the ceremony.

Melanie Wilking

Melanie Wilking, 25, is the woman who brought 7M Films to the public's attention, when the TikTok of herself and her parents explaining their estrangement from Miranda went viral. She's also a main character of the documentary, with herself and the elder Wilkings opening up about their experience and everything they discovered about the alleged cult. The estrangement especially weighed on Melanie, since she and her sister used to live and work together. They also planned to be the maid-of-honor at each other's weddings, but she claims she wasn't even told about Miranda's marriage until after it happened.

Since the events of Dancing for the Devil, Melanie has remained active on Instagram and TikTok, where over 3.7 million cumulative followers can watch her lifestyle and dancing content. Her parents have also appeared in sweet clips where she teaches them short routines. Melanie also has a lot to celebrate this month, as she recently married her fiancé, NFL player Austin Ekeler. Per PEOPLE, she and Ekeler are based in Las Vegas and Virginia, where Ekeler plays for the Washington Commanders. (Per Miranda's Instagram, she attended the wedding.)

James "BDash" Derrick

James "BDash" Derrick is a krump dancer and influencer who previously competed on shows, including World of Dance and So You Think You Can Dance. He met his wife Miranda Derrick when he slid into her DMs to collaborate on a video. The pair eventually joined 7M Films and Shekinah Church after being connected to Robert Shinn through his son Isaiah, who works with BDash as a choreographer. They got engaged in August 2021 and were married sometime later. In the Wilking family's viral February 2022 clip, they said that they believed BDash was a victim of the alleged cult's manipulation as well as Miranda.

As of the docuseries' release, BDash and Miranda still work with 7M Films, and their respective Instagrams are mostly filled with content of them dancing together.

Kevin “Konkrete” Davis

Kevin "Konkrete" Davis is an Oakland-born krump dancer and musician who has appeared in dance competition TV series, such as America's Best Dance Crew, So You Think You Can Dance, and World of Dance. Before the events of the documentary, he was best known for competing on World of Dance as part of a duo with BDash, who introduced him to Isaiah Shinn and eventually Isaiah's father Robert. In the Netflix doc, Davis claims that most of the money he earned at the time went to 7M and Robert Shinn, with the company allegedly collecting substantial fees and rent and the dancers relying on "mentors" who permitted them to make purchases.

Per the doc, after several outlets published investigations in the wake of the Wilkings' viral livestream, Davis reached a turning point when Shinn attempted to get the dancers to sign NDAs. He and his then-girlfriend Kailea Gray left 7M soon after and, in March 2023, Rolling Stone reported that he had joined a lawsuit against Shinn, 7M, and Shekinah, accusing Shinn of running a "cult" that "required full physical and economic and control [sic] over Shekinah members."

Recently, Davis has danced in several major performances, including Ryan Gosling's "I'm Just Ken" performance at the 2024 Oscars and all 56 nights of Beyoncé's Renaissance Tour. He has released music and regularly appears at dance boot camps and events, including a recent event where he collaborated with BDash again. He lives with his now-wife Gray and their children.

Kailea Gray

Kaliea Gray is a videographer and photographer who appeared in the Netflix doc to share her experience as a former member of 7M. She joined the alleged cult around the same time her then-boyfriend, now-husband Davis, then left alongside him once the investigations into the church began going viral. She now works as a content creator and frequently collaborates with Davis and other dancers, while the couple raises their family.

Aubrey Fisher

Aubrey Fisher is a dancer, actor, and musician. He was introduced to Isaiah Shinn through his friend and frequent collaborator BDash. In the doc, Fisher shares that he was raised in a religious home and considered rejoining a church community when he met Robert Shinn and began attending the pastor's bible study, which often lasted over three hours. When the elder Shinn founded 7M, Fisher joined the management company to access new opportunities, such as brand deals.

As the documentary states, after the investigations into Shinn and 7M came out in 2022, Fisher was part of the group of dancers (including Davis, Gray, and Fisher's then-girlfriend Kylie Douglas) who began comparing notes and realizing they may be in an alleged cult. He soon left the company, and in 2023, he and Douglas joined the lawsuit against Shinn, alongside Davis.

Today, Aubrey regularly releases music and dance content on Instagram and TikTok, while participating in live events.

Kylie Douglas

Kylie Douglas is a Detroit-born dancer, choreographer, and coach who eventually joined 7M after being introduced to 7M through her then-boyfriend, Aubrey Fisher. In the doc, she describes herself as having been "hungry to get invited to everything" when she joined the company, though the only members she knew were Fisher and Miranda Wilking. Douglas claims she was urged to cut off contact with her family after joining 7M. She also recalled an incident where Robert Shinn offered to crack her back and allegedly groped her. Though she thought that Shinn had no ill intention toward her, she recalls seeing the incident differently once the investigations into the pastor came out. She left 7M soon and began speaking out to raise awareness about the alleged cult, and she also filed a police report of sexual assault against Shinn.

Douglas is currently the director of The VoltZ Dance Company, which she founded in 2019. As the head of VoltZ, she trains and coaches junior and teen dancers who compete in the Hip Hop International organization's tournaments; one of the dance teams also participated in the non-televised World of Dance competition in 2023. Aside from being a coach, Douglas regularly shares her own dance content on Instagram and TikTok.

RainO

Nick Raiano, best known by the moniker RainO, was one of the first dancers to join 7M. His parents Lawrence and Migdalia Raiano, who participated in Dancing for the Devil, claim that Shinn initially made RainO distance himself from his family. Per the doc, the dancer eventually reconnected with his family, but they believe the messages he sends to them are "written by another church member."

As of the docuseries' release, Raino has deleted his Instagram and TikTok accounts, though his YouTube account is still live. RainO continues to work with 7M Films and has collaborated with Miranda, James, and Vik White in recent uploads.

Vik White

Vik White, a.k.a. Slavik Pustovoytov, is a Ukraine-born dancer who competed on season 15 of So You Think You Can Dance, and placed 4th as a finalist. White joined 7M after the company's founding and is frequently seen in clips from Dancing for the Devil. While he has not spoken out on the documentary, per his Instagram, White still collaborates with Isaiah Shinn and 7M dancers, including BDash and Miranda Wilking.

White currently has 11.9 followers across Instagram and TikTok, where he primarily posts dance content. He also recently had a breakout role as a member of August Moon, in the hit 2024 Prime Video rom-com The Idea of You.

Melanie Lee and Priscylla Lee

Melanie and Priscylla Lee are former members of Shekinah Church, who joined the alleged cult in 2001, as young women who had recently moved to the U.S. from South Korea. In the docuseries, Melanie recalls her history with Robert Shinn, describing Shekinah as a community that initially felt welcoming and eventually devolved into an environment where Shinn exercised complete control. The sisters claim that Shinn forced them and the other church members to work in several businesses he owned for little to no pay, dictated where they would live within houses he owned, and cultivated an environment where church members would monitor each other and relay any transgressions to Shinn. Per Melanie, she escaped the church after Shinn informed her that she would have to marry someone within the church. At the time, Priscylla refused to leave out of fear, so Melanie left alone.

Priscylla claims that Shinn eventually began assaulting her repeatedly, as he had unrestricted access to her room. In the doc, she describes falling into depression during the years of alleged abuse, and feeling as if she was trapped in a dark room with no way out. She also claims that Robert Shinn's wife Hannah once physically attacked her while Robert stood by. Per Priscylla, she eventually decided that even if leaving the church would condemn her to Hell, as Robert claimed it would, she would rather be damned than stay in the alleged cult. Priscylla finally left Shekinah in 2021, after 23 years.

In the 11 years since she left Shekinah, Melanie, who now goes by Melanie Lee Goldman, rebuilt her life and eventually founded a full-service real-estate advisory agency. She currently serves as CEO of her company, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter, while also expecting a second child.

Meanwhile, Priscylla shares in the doc that she has spent several years rebuilding her life and adjusting to the world after spending so many years under Shinn's alleged control.

As seen in the doc (and mentioned above), Priscylla and Melanie are currently in litigation against Shinn, along with the former 7M members. Per CNN and Rolling Stone, the sisters and several of the dancers are among the co-defendants who filed a cross-complaint against Shinn, after the alleged cult leader sued several former Shekinah members, including the Lee sisters, for defamation and trade libel. In the cross-complaint, the Lees and the dancers accuse the Shinn family and other affiliated individuals of fraud, forced labor, and human trafficking, as well as directly accusing Robert Shinn of sexual battery. Shinn and 7M did not respond to the lawsuit when it was filed. However, in 2022, 7M Films posted a statement to the company's Instagram account denying any business affiliation between 7M and the Shekinah Church.

According to CNN, the civil case is scheduled to go to trial in July 2025 in Los Angeles. No criminal charges have been filed against Shinn, despite Priscylla and Douglas' police reports.

Netflix's new series Bodkin is the latest fictional show about the making of a true-crime podcast; think Only Murders in the Building but set in Ireland and somehow even more absurd. Produced by Higher Ground (a.k.a. Barack and Michelle Obama's company), the comedy-thriller stars Will Forte as Gilbert Power, a happy-go-lucky American podcaster who travels to Ireland to solve a decades-old mystery in the small town of Bodkin. Helping him make the podcast is Dove (Siobhán Cullen), a cynical print journalist who thinks podcasts aren't real reporting, and Emmy (Robyn Cara), an eager researcher excited about her first assignment in the field.

Over its seven episodes, Bodkin sucks you into its fictional mystery (yes, both the plot and the town are fictional), as it becomes clear that many of the town's residents don't want anyone snooping about. The truth behind every secret is revealed by the end of the final episode—but that doesn't necessarily mean the series won't return. Here's everything we know so far about a possible Bodkin season 2.

Has 'Bodkin' been renewed for season 2?

There's been no news of a possible renewal yet, but it's only been a short time since the series dropped on streaming. Bodkin has sat steadily on Netflix's Top 10 since the show's May 9 premiere, even as it was released following the recent success of hit shows like Baby Reindeer and A Man in Full, as well as Netflix's popular Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival.

So far, the best clue we have of a possible Bodkin season 2 is that the show is billed as ongoing, rather than a limited series. Still, fans will likely have to wait for another couple of month's worth of ratings to hear about the thriller's future.

What could 'Bodkin' season 2 be about?

By the end of season 1, the podcasters uncover the truth about the mystery that first brought them to Bodkin—the disappearance of three people during the Gaelic festival Samhain 25 years ago. They also manage to piece together all of the chaos they found during their stay, the international eel-smuggling ring included. (We'll spare the details of what exactly plays out in the Bodkin finale, but eel smuggling is in fact a lucrative, harmful underground business that Europol is working to crack down on.)

Though we learned the fates and identities of the three people who went missing during Samhaim, there's one present-day character whose fate was left up in the air. Seamus Gallagher, a.k.a. smuggler on the run Jackie McFadden, was in the eel-truck explosion that took one of Sean's thumbs. His death wasn't confirmed nor shown on screen, though. Did his rivals the McArdles finally catch up to him, or did he escape to (possibly) run into the podcasting trio again in the future?

As for the main trio, their roles are reversed by the end of the series. Gilbert decides to trash the podcast they were working on and get a job outside the podcasting industry, while Emmy uses a bit of the assertiveness she learned from Dove to get Dove's old reporting job at The Guardian. Meanwhile, Dove becomes a podcaster herself, which means there's still an avenue for the former print reporter to investigate a new mystery and enlist the help of her old colleagues in the process.

Which cast members would return for 'Bodkin' season 2?

If Bodkin does turn into a mystery-per-season series, only the main podcasting trio would likely return. That includes Will Forte (Gilbert Power), Siobhán Cullen (Dove), and Robyn Cara (Emmy). We can also hope that some of the local Bodkin standouts will return for at least a quick hello; fingers crossed especially for Chris Walley (Sean O’Shea) and David Wilmot (Seamus Gallagher/Jack McFadden). If they take their investigative reporting elsewhere, it's hard to say who we'll see again, but surely more intriguing suspects would be introduced.

While the idea of a quiet night in typically conjures images of several hours spent horizontally on a couch watching sweet rom-coms or comforting feel-good movies, sometimes you want something a bit more high-stakes. For those nights—when you’re feeling up to spending two hours on the edge of your seat, but (usually) without the guts and gore of a classic horror movie—a thriller is your best bet.

But before you start the dreaded endless scroll on Netflix to find the perfect offering within the genre, check out this list instead. We’ve done the work for you and rounded up more than two dozen of the best thrillers on the streamer, from high-intensity heist movies to eerie post-apocalyptic pictures to twisty noir mysteries, so you're sure to find something here that’ll get your heart pumping. (And if you want even more movie recommendations, check out our list of the best thrillers of 2025 so far.)

'Bird Box' (2018)

Based on Josh Malerman's 2014 novel of the same name, this post-apocalyptic thriller was a massive hit for Netflix when it was released in late 2018. If you somehow missed the boat, here’s a quick overview: It stars Sandra Bullock as a woman forced to navigate a terrifying new reality in which catching sight of mysterious entities drives people insane and suicidal, so the only way to survive is to move about the world completely blindfolded.

WATCH IT

'The Call' (2020)

This 2020 South Korean film is basically the thriller version of The Lake House. In this case, instead of Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves exchanging love letters two years apart, a young woman in 2019 begins receiving calls on an old landline at her childhood home from a woman in 1999, and their conversations begin changing both of their lives—in mostly terrible ways.

WATCH IT

'Carry-On' (2024)

As if air travel during the holidays wasn’t stressful enough! This Netflix original kicks up the drama several notches, with Taron Egerton playing Ethan, a TSA agent wrapped up in an under-the-radar mercenary’s criminal plot on Christmas Eve. Despite growing threats from the killer (Jason Bateman, playing a bit outside of his usual type) and escalating action, Ethan is relentless in his race to both stop the crime and keep the people he loves safe.

WATCH IT

'Darlings' (2022)

This Hindi-language black comedy has plenty of funny moments and a healthy dose of sweet mother-daughter bonding, but the murder plot at its core still firmly earns it a spot on this list. Darlings follows Alia Bhatt’s Badru as she enlists her mother’s help to get revenge on her husband, a violent alcoholic, and chaos ensues.

WATCH IT

'The Devil All the Time' (2020)

Based on the 2011 novel of the same name, this psychological crime thriller follows a cast of interconnected characters in Ohio across several decades in the mid-20th century. Its star-studded cast includes Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Riley Keough, Eliza Scanlen, Sebastian Stan, and more, all of whom play individuals plagued by darkness, including a World War II veteran, an abusive preacher, and a husband-and-wife serial killer team.

WATCH IT

'El Camino' (2019)

While it does help to have seen Breaking Bad before watching, this epilogue film for the acclaimed crime drama is just as propulsive as a standalone. It follows former meth cook Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) as he struggles to make his way out of Albuquerque following—spoiler alert for the finale!—the death of Walter White. As he revisits several locations on the way out of town, Jesse faces his demons and processes his trauma from the past few years, with the help of extensive flashbacks (and cameos).

WATCH IT

'Emily the Criminal' (2022)

Is there anything more disturbing than student loans and unfair hiring practices? Aubrey Plaza takes on the titular role in this crime film, playing a young woman bogged down by student debt and unable to find a well-paying job due to a felony conviction on her record. Inevitably, she gets swept up in a ring of credit card scammers.

WATCH IT

'Fair Play' (2023)

This (criminally overlooked) Netflix original starts as a sexy romance movie about newly engaged couple Emily and Luke, played by Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich, who have to keep their relationship a secret at the hedge fund where they both work. But things quickly take a turn in the relationship when one of the pair gets a major promotion—leaving the other flailing and increasingly resentful.

WATCH IT

'Gerald's Game' (2017)

Netflix regular Mike Flanagan is behind this adaptation of Stephen King's 1992 novel of the same name, so prepare for some psychological horror-thriller excellence. Jessie (Carla Gugino) is enjoying a romantic getaway with her husband, Gerald (Bruce Greenwood), when he unexpectedly dies of a heart attack. Jessie, who was handcuffed to the bed at the time of his death, is left to figure out how to free herself and survive.

WATCH IT

'The Good Nurse' (2022)

This ripped-from-the-headlines movie is based on the true story of serial killer Charles Cullen, who’s believed to have killed at least dozens, if not hundreds, of patients while working as a nurse from the late ‘80s through the early 2000s. Eddie Redmayne plays Cullen in this dramatization of the disturbing story—and earned several major award nominations for his truly unsettling performance—while Jessica Chastain stars as another nurse who initially befriends Cullen before beginning to suspect him.

WATCH IT

'The Gray Man' (2022)

One of Netflix’s most expensive films ever made, The Gray Man boasts a blockbuster cast and a thrilling plot. Ryan Gosling plays a CIA assassin who discovers the corruption of one of the agency’s officials, leading the official to hire a hit man who was kicked out of the CIA for his sociopathic behaviors—played by Chris Evans—to eliminate Gosling’s Sierra Six, making for an action-packed game of cat and mouse.

WATCH IT

'The Guilty' (2021)

This thriller doesn't show any of the actual drama, but your heart will still be pounding by the end. It takes place almost entirely in a 911 dispatch center, where LAPD officer Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) gets a call from a woman claiming she’s been abducted. When her call ends, Joe becomes obsessed with saving the woman and her children, using every tool at his disposal to track them down—only to learn that he is missing a few important pieces of the puzzle.

WATCH IT

'Hold the Dark' (2018)

This eerie and very dark 2018 film takes place in a remote Alaskan village, where several children appear to have been killed by a pack of wolves. Riley Keough plays Medora, the mother of one of the children, who hires Jeffrey Wright’s Russell, a wolf expert, to hunt down the animals responsible before her husband (Alexander Skarsgård) returns from the war in Iraq.

WATCH IT

'I Care a Lot' (2020)

Rosamund Pike earned a Golden Globe for her lead role in this dark comedy-thriller. She plays Marla Grayson, who’s made a living by running a lucrative elder financial abuse scam—until one of her targets turns out to be the mother of a powerful mafia boss. A wild showdown ensues, culminating in a shocking final act.

WATCH IT

'The Killer' (2023)

No list of the best thrillers would be complete without an entry from genre giant David Fincher. The Killer stars Michael Fassbender in the titular role, a professional assassin whose highly regimented life suddenly takes a turn for the unpredictable after he makes a major error on a job.

WATCH IT

'Leave the World Behind' (2023)

Be warned: This is one of those apocalypse movies that feels a little too real. Adapted from Rumaan Alam's 2020 novel of the same name, Leave the World Behind stars Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke as a married couple who take their family on a weekend getaway that delves into chaos when the owner of their rental house (Mahershala Ali) returns in the middle of the night looking for a place to stay. As he and his daughter (Myha'la) interrupt their vacation because of a major cybersecurity attack that has sent most technology and communication services offline and provoked fears of massive breakdowns of the world order, tension follows as the two families must agree on how to face the potential end of the world together.

WATCH IT

'Luckiest Girl Alive' (2022)

Mila Kunis stars in this Netflix adaption of Jessica Knoll’s hit 2015 novel, which should come with a trigger warning for sexual assault and gun violence. The title is very much a sarcastic one: The main character, Ani, had an extremely traumatic childhood, during which she survived both a horrific sexual assault and a school shooting—but it’s not until the movie goes on that we find out the full, devastating extent of each event, and how they’ve impacted Ani’s adult life.

WATCH IT

'Luther: The Fallen Sun' (2023)

Idris Elba’s gritty detective returned after a few years away from TV screens in Luther: The Fallen Sun, the first feature-length addition to the Luther series. In the movie, which picks up where the fifth season of the show left off—spoiler alert for the final episode!—Luther escapes from prison to help end the crimes of a wealthy serial killer.

WATCH IT

'Mea Culpa' (2024)

This Tyler Perry-directed drama stars Kelly Rowland as a criminal defense attorney who agrees to represent an artist (Trevante Rhodes) accused of killing his girlfriend. The case is even more complicated because her brother-in-law is leading the case against the artist, causing her husband’s (very manipulative) family to urge her to drop the case. Mea plows ahead, though, and soon begins unraveling a case that may hit closer to home than she’d expected.

WATCH IT

'The Pale Blue Eye' (2022)

Another novel adaptation, this 2022 mystery film is set in 1830 and stars Christian Bale as a retired detective sent to investigate a murder at West Point, where he enlists the help of one Edgar Allan Poe (played by Harry Melling). Fun fact: The real-life Poe was a cadet at West Point at that time, though he brought his military career to an abrupt end just a few months later.

WATCH IT

'Rebel Ridge' (2024)

Most crime thrillers feature a corrupt cop or two, but this Netflix original takes the trope to a whole new level, pitting one man against a small-town police force that seems to be rotten through and through. It all starts when a pair of officers unjustly seize the $36,000 in cash that Terry (played by Aaron Pierre) is planning to use to bail out his cousin—and things just keep escalating to horrific new heights from there.

WATCH IT

'Spiderhead' (2022)

If you like your thrillers with a side of sci-fi, here’s your film. It stars Chris Hemsworth as the head of a state-of-the-art prison program in which inmates have volunteered to test out experimental drugs, including mind-altering injections to make a person feel intense love, hilarity, or terror. Miles Teller and Jurnee Smollett play inmates at the facility who soon find themselves unraveling a much darker plot at play, even more bone-chilling than the whole “testing experimental drugs on human beings” thing.

WATCH IT

'The Weekend Away' (2022)

This 2022 Netflix original, based on Sarah Alderson's 2021 novel, is about a girls's trip gone very, very wrong. Leighton Meester plays new mom Beth, who goes on a weekend getaway to Croatia with her best friend Kate (Christina Wolfe), only to wake up after their first night there with Kate missing. As Beth tries to get to the bottom of Kate’s disappearance, she must sift through an increasingly tangled web of lies and cover-ups.

WATCH IT

'The Woman in the Window' (2021)

Amy Adams took on the titular role of an agoraphobic woman, child psychologist Anna Fox, who keeps an eye on her neighbors from inside her apartment in Netflix’s 2021 adaptation of the A.J. Finn bestseller. As she continues to watch the people inside the homes around hers—played by Gary Oldman, Julianne Moore, and more—Anna’s observations eventually get her wrapped up in a serial killer’s plot, from which she must save herself, as the police have deemed her an untrustworthy witness.

WATCH IT

'Woman of the Hour' (2024)

It sounds like a fictional premise: A serial killer goes on a televised dating show in the ‘70s to find his next victim. But perhaps the most terrifying part of Woman of the Hour—Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, by the way—is that it’s based on the very true story of Rodney Alcala, a convicted serial killer who did indeed appear on The Dating Game in 1978, amid his murderous spree. Here’s hoping our modern dating show producers are doing very thorough background checks.

WATCH IT

UPDATE: Since the Netflix crime miniseries Baby Reindeer premiered in April, a woman alleging to be the inspiration behind the character Martha has spoken out about her frustration with their likeness. After previously threatening legal action, she's officially filed a lawsuit against the streaming giant.

According to Variety, the Scottish woman who claims to be the real-life equivalent of Martha in the series created by Richard Gadd about his experience with a stalker is suing Netflix for damages worth at least $170 million.

The woman, Fiona Harvey, filed the lawsuit on June 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and named Netflix, not Gadd, in the documents. She alleged the streaming service was the source of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and violations of her right of publicity due to her similarity to the character Martha (played in the show by Jessica Gunning) and viewers' response in tracking her down to find her true identity. She is seeking $50 million for actual damages, upwards of $50 million in compensatory damages for "mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life and loss of business," at least $50 million "for all profits from Baby Reindeer," and at least $20 million in punitive damages.

"The lies that [Netflix] told about Harvey to over 50 million people worldwide include that Harvey is a twice-convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison, and that Harvey sexually assaulted Gadd," the filing states. "Defendants told these lies, and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money."

The complaint also notes how Baby Reindeer opens by saying it is a "true story," which Harvey and her attorneys claim Netflix "did literally nothing to confirm" and "is the biggest lie in television history."

Harvey's legal action comes a little over a month after she gave an on-camera interview on Piers Morgan's YouTube show Piers Morgan Uncensored, calling Baby Reindeer "a work of fiction [and] hyperbole."

During the interview, she spoke out about the alleged similarities between her and Martha and her history with Gadd, who plays a fictional version of himself named Donny Dunn in the show. She claimed to have only sent the Scottish comedian/writer "a handful" of emails and that she had never been previously convicted of stalking.

ORIGINAL STORY PUBLISHED APRIL 30: The alleged real-life stalker at the center of Netflix's crime miniseries Baby Reindeer has said she's unhappy with the hit show.

A woman has claimed in an interview with The Daily Mail to be the inspiration for the character Martha (played by actress Jessica Gunning) in the new series created by Richard Gadd and based on his own experience with a stalker. She told the outlet, which kept her identity anonymous, that she has received "death threats and abuse from [creator] Richard Gadd's supporters."

She also said that she's considering legal action against Gadd.

The seven-episode show is based on the Scottish comedian's real-life experience of being stalked by an acquaintance, who sent over 40,000 emails and 350 hours of voicemail messages to him over a four-year period. Gadd both wrote the series and stars in it as a fictional version of himself named Donny Dunn.

Speaking to the Mail, the unnamed woman "denied being a stalker" and called out Baby Reindeer for "bullying an older woman on television for fame and fortune."

Gadd has not divulged details about the real-life Martha's identity, and has stated in interviews that the situation was "resolved."

The showrunner/actor also said that he and Netflix went to "great lengths" to disguise the real woman's identity.

However, the woman alleging to be the inspiration for Martha said that there are similarities between herself and the character, including their age, former occupation, and nationality. She also claimed that certain details from the series, including the "curtain" innuendo from the show's early episodes, are taken from real life.

"He's using Baby Reindeer to stalk me now. I'm the victim. He's written a bloody show about me," she claimed of Gadd.

She later added, "If he wanted me to be properly anonymous, he could have done so."

In the weeks since Baby Reindeer premiered on Netflix, social media has filled with speculation about the real-life identities of the show's characters. Some viewers have gone on to wrongly accuse people of being the inspiration behind Martha, as well as the character Darrien, a man played in the show by Tom Goodman-Hill who sexually assaults Donny.

After theater director Sean Foley was falsely accused of being the real-life counterpart of Darrien, he posted a statement on X stating that police are investigating "defamatory abusive and threatening posts" brought against him.

Following Foley's post, Gadd shared a statement of his own on his Instagram Stories, per Deadline. “People I love, have worked with, and admire (including Sean Foley) are unfairly getting caught up in speculation,” Gadd wrote in the now-expired post. “Please don’t speculate on who any of the real life people could be. That’s not the point of our show.”

Gunning has also spoken out on the speculation. While speaking with Dazed, the actress highlighted that Gadd and Netflix went to "huge measures" to protect the identities of the real-life people who inspired the series.

She said, "I think it’s really sad if that is happening because they clearly haven’t watched the show in the right way and haven’t got the message of the show."

Gunning continued, "That’s definitely not what our intention was in any way. Huge measures were put in place for nobody to be identified on purpose. Netflix and Richard really didn’t want that. So I think it is a shame. I imagine it’s inevitable because people are fascinated nowadays with true stories, but I would urge people to think of the individuals and not do that."

Netflix's stellar true crime series Baby Reindeer introduces British actress Jessica Gunning to a global audience, as she brings an unforgettable character to life. Gunning plays Martha, a troubled woman who receives a moment of kindness when bartender and aspiring comedian Donny Dunn (played by the show's creator Richard Gadd) offers her a drink on the house. The limited series, based on incidents in Gadd's real life, goes on to follow the dynamic between Donny and Martha as the latter's romantic obsession devolves into several months of stalking. 

However, rather than depicting Martha as a singularly evil villain, Gunning's transformative performance shows Martha as a fully nuanced human, who is both capable of harm and in need of psychiatric care and support.

Long before she became an Emmys frontrunner for her performance on the new Netflix hit, which debuted on streaming on April 11, Gunning has been a prolific actress for years. She's appeared in dozens of U.K. series, including a breakout role in a comedy that's set to return this May. Read on to learn more about rising star, including her hopes for what viewers take away from the end of Baby Reindeer. 

She's a character actress and writer with nearly two decades of experience.

Gunning, 38, is a British actress who began her career in the late '00s and went on to star in a handful of TV series in the U.K., including multi-episode arcs on Law & Order: U.K., Jericho, Prime Suspect: Tennison, Fortitude, and Back. She also appeared in the acclaimed 2014 film Pride, as well as the 2020 period film Summerland.

The actress is also currently among the ensemble in the BBC/Prime Video crime comedy series The Outlaws. Helmed by British comedy icon Stephen Merchant, the series follows a group of strangers as they carry out their community service sentences, and Gunning portrays their supervisor. 

The show first premiered in 2021 and it's now onto its third season, which is set to hit streaming on May 31.  

In a recent interview with Deadline, Gunning revealed that she performed double-duty as an actress and writer on the new season, landing her first co-writing credit on the fifth episode of season 3.

"I love working with Stephen [Merchant] and he does let us add bits [of writing] here and there,” she said. “I was lucky enough to be in the writers room for season 3 and I learned so much behind the scenes. I was honored to be a part of that."

She was Richard Gadd's first choice to play Martha in 'Baby Reindeer.'

When Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd began considering who should play the fictional version of his real-life stalker, Gunning was at the top of his list. In an interview with Vanity Fair, he revealed that he "fought for" Gunning to be cast, even when "big name" actresses wanted to land the nuanced role.

"I fought for Jess against the tide, but then she came in one day and knocked everyone away," he told the outlet. "The one thing Jess got straight away was the fact that Martha was a bit cute and a bit odd and a bit empathetic and a bit weird. I felt like Jess believed the reality of Martha in a way, rather than playing the character."

In an interview with Dazed, Gunning opened up about the experience filming Baby Reindeer. She revealed that her performance of Martha was so uncanny that Gadd himself was affected at times during filming.

"As soon as I read [the screenplay], I captured the essence of her," she said of crafting her performance. "I think for him, that might have been quite strange as when we were filming, he’d be a bit quiet occasionally, and I’d check in with him and he’d say, ‘I’m so sorry. It just feels like she’s here with me. I feel like I’ve spent the day with her.'"

Gunning also explained that she didn't need to look beyond what Gadd had written about the character when preparing for the role. She added, "I didn’t need to do any more research or he didn’t really need to tell me that much about the real person because it was all there on the page. I’m not doing an impersonation of anyone. I’m just doing my interpretation of who I think she is, and I think by chance, there are similarities."

She says that fan speculation on the real-life Martha's identity is "not the point of the show at all."

Since Baby Reindeer has premiered, some fans have speculated on the true identities of Martha and other Baby Reindeer characters, from another one of the showrunner's abusers to his girlfriend Teri played by Nava Mau, leading false allegations to go viral on social media. 

During an appearance on BBC Scotland’s The Edit, Gunning responded to the speculation, saying that she finds it “quite sad” and “not the point of the show at all.”

“If you like the show and you are a fan of it, you should stick with the story of Martha and Donny being what connects you, not trying to do any detective work and find out any real identities," she said.

While speaking with Dazed, the performer also pointed out that Gadd and Netflix went to "huge measures" to protect the identities of the real-life people involved in the situation.

"I think it’s really sad if that is happening because they clearly haven’t watched the show in the right way and haven’t got the message of the show," she told the outlet. "That’s definitely not what our intention was in any way. Huge measures were put in place for nobody to be identified on purpose. Netflix and Richard really didn’t want that. So I think it is a shame. I imagine it’s inevitable because people are fascinated nowadays with true stories, but I would urge people to think of the individuals and not do that."