The full trailer for Shonda Rhimes’ Netflix miniseries, Inventing Anna, is here. The show chronicles the rise and fall of Anna Delvey (portrayed by two-time Emmy winner Julia Garner), the scammer who convinced New York socialites that she was really a German heiress. Delvey’s story went viral thanks to the 2018 New York Magazine story “How an Aspiring ‘It’ Girl Tricked New York’s Party People—and its Banks.”
In the show, Anna Chlumsky plays Vivian, a fictional journalist who’s trying to get to the bottom of Anna Delvey’s deceptions. Rounding out the cast are Shondaland veteran Katie Lowes, Laverne Cox, Arian Moayed, Jessica Esposito and Anders Holm.
“She’s either a rich German heiress or she’s flat broke,” Chlumsky explains in the trailer. Whether her name was even actually Anna Delvey was part of the mystery.
“She is everything that is wrong with America right now,” someone argues over montages of Anna spending money and taking selfies. But Anna argues that’s not her full story, and Garner nails Anna’s confusingly and vaguely European accent.
In 2019, in real life, Delvey was found guilty on eight charges, including grand larceny. She was sentenced to four to 12 years in state prison. She was released into ICE custody in February 2021, where she reportedly still is, awaiting deportation to Germany.
Garner has been an in-demand actress since her breakout role on Ozark. The first half of that show’s final season is set to hit Netflix on January 21, 2022. Last week, she signed on to the psychological thriller Apartment 7A.
Inventing Anna is Rhimes’ second series for Netflix since she signed her landmark deal with the streamer in 2017. Her first, Bridgerton, will return for a second season this March. The producer has also announced an anthology series, Notes on Love.
Inventing Anna premieres February 11.