Netflix’s new drama about fraudster socialite Anna Delvey – who posed as a German heiress to con New York’s social scene out of their riches – drops this Friday (11 February). Watch the trailer here:
Created by Shonda Rhimes (yep, that’s the TV mastermind behind the likes of Grey’s Anatomy, Bridgerton and Scandal) Inventing Anna is a nine-episode mini-series exploring how Delvey was able to fool New York City’s social elite into thinking she was one of them.
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Alongside Julia Garner in the titular role, the cast also features the likes of Anna Chlumsky, Katie Lowes, Laverne Cox, Alexis Floyd, Arian Moayed, Anders Holm, Anna Deavere Smith, Jeff Perry and Terry Kinney, with David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada) serving as director.
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The story is based on an article by Jessica Pressler titled ‘How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People’, which was published in New York magazine in 2018, with the new series delving into the relationship forged between the journalist and her subject.
A synopsis reads: "A journalist with a lot to prove investigates the case of Anna Delvey, the Instagram-legendary German heiress who stole the hearts of New York's social scene - and stole their money as well. But is Anna New York's biggest con woman or is she simply the new portrait of the American dream?
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"Anna and the reporter form a dark, funny love-hate bond as Anna awaits trial and our reporter fights the clock to answer the biggest question in NYC: who is Anna Delvey?"
In reality, Delvey was actually a Russian-born criminal called Anna Sorokin, who moved to New York in 2013 – telling acquaintances she had a €60 million trust fund overseas, while convincing them to pay large amounts of money for trips they had taken together.
Inevitably, her life of crime and deception caught up with her, and in 2019 she was convicted of multiple counts of attempted grand larceny, theft of services and larceny in the second degree.
Sorokin – who is now 31 – was handed a four-to-12-year prison sentence, having also been fined $24,000 and ordered to pay restitution of approximately $199,000.
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However, she ended up serving less than four years of her sentence, and was released from prison in February last year – although was later taken back into custody after overstaying her visa, and, as of September, was still awaiting deportation to Germany.
According to Insider, Sorokin was paid £320,000 by Netflix for the rights to adapt her life story into a TV series.
Records reviewed by the outlet show she used $199,000 of the money to pay restitution to the banks, along with another £24,000 to settle state fines.
Watch Inventing Anna on Netflix from Friday (11 February).
Topics: TV and Film, Netflix
Jess Hardiman