New Drama Inventing Anna Debuts on Netflix

Based on a true story, a journalist with a lot to prove investigates the case of Anna Delvey

Back in 2017, self-proclaimed German heiress Anna Delvey made headlines when she was arrested and exposed as Russian-born con artist Anna Sorokin, accused of defrauding hundreds of thousands from banks, hotels and the wealthy New York socialites whose trust she’d gained.

This bizarre-but-true story unfolds in Inventing Anna, the latest Netflix series from Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes, following her 2020 mega-hit Bridgerton.

Ozark Emmy-winner Julia Garner plays the titular Anna, while Anna Chlumsky (Veep) is fictional journalist Vivian Kent, who struggles to piece together the truth behind Anna’s strange and ever-shifting story.

As the Netflix synopsis asks: “Is Anna New York’s biggest con woman or is she simply the new portrait of the American Dream? 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?”

As Garner told W Magazine, she was superficially familiar with the story, but didn’t realize how truly bonkers it was until she began researching how Sorokin managed to hoodwink Manhattan’s elite. Characterizing the woman as “kind of a genius,” Garner described her as “incredibly charming and really hilarious—a very dangerous combination.”

Speaking with W, Rhimes explained some of the acting challenges that Garner overcame. “For Inventing Anna, the audience sees Anna through the eyes of many different people in her life. That required Julia to constantly change who Anna is, based on which character’s point of view we are following. At the same time, she had to allow a true core to simmer throughout, so that we have a three-dimensional person whose journey we can understand.”

Inventing Anna streams Fridays on Netflix