“Inventing Anna” — the first show Shonda Rhimes has written for Netflix, and the first show she’s created since “Scandal” made its debut in 2012 — will premiere in February.
“Inventing Anna” follows the massive success of “Bridgerton,” which Rhimes and her company Shondaland executive produced. Season 2 of “Bridgerton” will also premiere in 2022.
In May 2018, when Rhimes read Jessica Pressler’s New York Magazine story “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People” — a viral journalistic feat that detailed the scammy enterprises of a charming young Russian woman, who had grifted New Yorkers — she immediately wanted to option the story.
The article was Rhimes’ first major acquisition for her Netflix talent deal, which had begun in August 2017. The nine-episode limited series began production in fall 2019 in New York City, and then had to finish a full year later because of the pandemic. “Inventing Anna’s” exact premiere date in February will be announced at a later time.
Courtesy of Nicole Rivelli/Netflix
On “Inventing Anna,” “Veep’s” Anna Chlumsky plays Vivian, a reporter based loosely on Pressler, and Julia Garner, the Emmy winner from “Ozark,” plays Anna, the object of everyone’s obsessions and projections. “Inventing Anna” is told through Vivian’s eyes, as she reports the story through speaking with the people in Anna’s life whom she affected, either because they’d been charmed by her or she’d stolen from them — or both.
Shondaland linchpins Katie Lowes, Anna Deavere Smith, Jeff Perry and Kate Burton are among the cast, as are Arian Moayed (“Succession”), Alexis Floyd (“The Bold Type”), Anders Holm (“Workaholics”) and Laverne Cox (“Orange Is the New Black”).