''Inventing Anna'' is an American

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

television miniseries created and produced by

Shonda Rhimes Shonda Lynn Rhimes (born January 13, 1970) is an American television screenwriter, producer, and author. She is best known as the showrunner—creator, head writer, and executive producer—of the television medical drama ''Grey's Anatomy'', it ...

, inspired by the story of

Anna Sorokin Anna Sorokin (russian: Анна Сорокина; born January 23, 1991), also known as Anna Delvey, is a con artist and fraudster who posed as a wealthy heiress to access the upper echelons of the New York social and art scenes from 2013 to 2 ...

and the article in ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

'' titled "How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People" by

Jessica Pressler Jessica Pressler (born 1977/78) is an American journalist and contributing editor at ''New York'' magazine. Her 2015 article "The Hustlers at Scores", was nominated for a National Magazine Award, and was later made into a feature film called '' ...

. The series was released on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

on February 11, 2022. Julia Garner starred as Anna Sorokin, the

title character The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piece. The title of ...

. The series received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the performances (particularly Garner) but criticized the inconsistent tone.

Premise

Under the assumed name Anna Delvey,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

n-born Anna Sorokin is able to con members of New York City's upper crust into believing she is a German heiress with access to a substantial fortune. She uses this persona to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, goods and services while working towards her goal of opening an exclusive art-themed club.

Cast and characters

Main

Anna Chlumsky Anna Maria Chlumsky (; born December 3, 1980) is an American actress. She began acting as a child, and first became known for playing Vada Sultenfuss in the film '' My Girl'' (1991) and its sequel, '' My Girl 2''. Following her early roles, she w ...

as Vivian Kent * Julia Garner as Anna "Delvey" Sorokin * Arian Moayed as Todd Spodek *

Katie Lowes Katie Quinn Lowes (born September 22, 1982) is an American actress and theater director. She is best known for her role as Quinn Perkins in the ABC political drama series ''Scandal'' (2012–2018) and her portrayal of Rachel DeLoache Williams i ...

Rachel Williams Rachel Williams (born April 29, 1967) is an American model, TV presenter, and landscape designer. Early life Williams is the daughter of architect Tod Williams and Patricia Agnes Jones, a dancer. Her parents divorced when she was five ye ...

* Alexis Floyd as Neff Davis *

Anders Holm Anders Christian Holm (born May 29, 1981) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is one of the stars and creators of the Comedy Central show '' Workaholics'' and starred in the short-lived NBC series '' Champions''. He, along ...

as Jack *

Anna Deavere Smith Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is known for her roles as National Security Advisor Dr. Nancy McNally in ''The West Wing'' (2000–06), hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus in the Showtime series '' Nu ...

as Maud * Jeff Perry as Lou * Terry Kinney as Barry *

Laverne Cox Laverne Cox (born May 29, 1972) is an American actress and LGBT advocate. She rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix series ''Orange Is the New Black'', becoming the first transgender person to be nominated for a Pri ...

as Kacy Duke

Recurring

* Rebecca Henderson as ADA Catherine McCaw * Kate Burton as Nora Radford *

Tim Guinee Timothy S. Guinee (born November 18, 1962) is an American stage, television, and feature-film actor. Primarily known for his roles as Tomin in the television series ''Stargate SG-1'' (1997–2007) and railroad entrepreneur Collis Huntington AM ...

as Paul * Armand Schultz as Landon Bloom * Anthony Edwards as Alan Reed

Guest

* Caitlin FitzGerald as Mags * James Cusati-Moyer as Val * Saamer Usmani as Chase Sikorski * Marika Domińczyk as Talia Mallay *

Joshua Malina Joshua Charles Malina (born January 17, 1966) is an American film and stage actor known for playing Will Bailey on the NBC drama ''The West Wing'', Jeremy Goodwin on '' Sports Night'', US Attorney General David Rosen on ''Scandal'', and Caltech P ...

as Henrick Knight * Christopher Lowell as Noah *

Ben Rappaport Ben Rappaport (born ) is an American actor. He played the role of Todd Dempsy in the NBC sitcom '' Outsourced'', which aired during the 2010–11 television season. The series marked Rappaport's debut acting role on screen. Life and career Rapp ...

as Billy McFarland * Will Stephen as Martin Shkreli * Gemma McIlhenny as Storage Facility Manager * Kieron J. Anthony as Dr. Millikan * Tracy Pollan as Sherry Reed

Episodes

Production

In June 2018,

and

Shondaland Shondaland (stylized as ShondaLand from 2005 to 2016 and shondaland thereafter) is an American television production company founded by television writer/producer Shonda Rhimes. She founded it to be one of the production companies of her first s ...

acquired the rights to the life story of

and the ''

'' article "How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People" by

, with plans to turn it into a television series with

serving as producer and writer, alongside Betsy Beers. Sorokin received $320,000, which was used to pay restitution and legal fees.

David Frankel David Frankel (born April 2, 1959) is an American filmmaker. Most known as the director of 2006 film, '' The Devil Wears Prada'', he is an executive producer and the director of the first and fourth episodes of the Netflix miniseries '' Inventing ...

was named as director and executive producer of two episodes of the series, including the first. In October 2019, Julia Garner,

, and Alexis Floyd joined the cast of the series.

Madeline Brewer Madeline Kathryn Brewer (born May 1, 1992) is an American actress. She is known for her role as Tricia Miller in the Emmy award-winning series ''Orange Is the New Black'' (2013), her role in ''Hemlock Grove'' (2014–2015), and her lead role as ...

was set to portray the role of Anna Delvey but had to pass due to scheduling conflicts. Also in October 2019,

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

began in New York and Los Angeles. In November 2019, Arian Moayed,

, Jeff Perry and Terry Kinney joined the cast of the series. In February 2020,

Jennifer Esposito Jennifer Esposito is an American actress. She is known for her roles in the feature films ''Summer of Sam'' (1999), '' Don't Say a Word'' (2001), '' Welcome to Collinwood'' (2002), as well as '' Crash'' and ''Taxi'' (both 2004). She has also ap ...

joined the cast of the series, but never appeared and the part of Talia was played by Marika Dominczyk. On February 11, 2022, ''Inventing Anna'' premiered on Netflix.

Reception

Reviews

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the series holds a 63% approval rating based on 84 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "While ''Inventing Anna'' is as tonally wobbly as Julia Garner's intentionally daffy accent, her committed performance and the salacious story make for juicy entertainment." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the series has a score of 57 out of 100, based on 34 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Saloni Gajjar of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cr ...

'' gave the limited series a B- and said, "Despite its more evocative performances, ''Inventing Anna'' demands patience that doesn't pay off, squandering its promising potential along the way." Reviewing the series for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...

'',

Alan Sepinwall Alan Sepinwall (born October 19, 1973) is an American television reviewer and writer. He spent 14 years as a columnist with '' The Star-Ledger'' in Newark until leaving the newspaper in 2010 to work for the entertainment news website HitFix. He ...

gave a rating of 2/5 and described it as "an overly long muddle, never quite sure what it wants to say about its title character, or how to say it." Mike Hale, television critic at the ''New York Times'', praised some elements of the series and criticized others. Notably, he compared the original thrilling nature of the article to the slower pace of the television series: "Pressler's article was like a speeding car, a thrill ride that kept your pulse up right until it went off a cliff. ''Inventing Anna'' is a long, pokey road trip with no G.P.S. All of Pressler's most colorful anecdotes and appalling details have been squeezed in, sometimes tweaked to fit better within what is now a fictional narrative. But the thrill is gone."

Audience viewership

According to

Samba TV Samba TV is a television technology company that offers real-time insights and audience analytics. It was founded in 2008 by early employees of BitTorrent, including Samba TV's current CEO, Ashwin Navin. It develops software for televisions, set ...

, 1.6 million US households watched the Netflix series in its first 4 days of streaming.

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{Netflix original ended series (2019–present) 2020s American drama television miniseries 2022 American television series debuts 2022 American television series endings English-language Netflix original programming Fraud in television Television series based on actual events Television series by Shondaland Television series created by Shonda Rhimes Television series set in 2017 Television series set in 2018 Television series set in 2019 Television shows filmed in Los Angeles Television shows filmed in New York City Television shows set in New York City Television shows set in Los Angeles Television shows set in Germany Television shows set in Morocco Works based on periodical articles