The Edinburgh Fringe Festival may be known for its immersive theater, but comedian Richard Gadd does not want you to get involved with his personal life. The creator and star of Baby Reindeer, which dramatizes a real-life trauma Gadd experienced, took to Instagram to tell fans of his hit Netflix series to stop trying to uncover the identities of people depicted in the series.
Based on Gadd’s one-man show of the same name, Baby Reindeer finds Gadd playing Donny Dunn, an aspiring comedian and barkeep, who is harassed and stalked by pub patron Martha (Jessica Gunning), who sends Dunn hundreds of hours of voice messages and over 40,000 emails. Over the course of the series, Donny develops a friendship with a predatory television comedy writer, Darrien O’Connor (Tom Goodman-Hill), who sexually abuses Donny.
The series has sparked intense speculation from some viewers regarding the actual identities of the people Gadd is writing about, particularly Darrien—so much so that director, writer, and Tony-nominee Sean Foley contacted the police after being repeatedly falsely accused of being the Gadd’s abuser.
“Police have been informed and are investigating all defamatory abusive and threatening posts against me,” wrote Foley on his X account.
Earlier this week, Gadd defended Foley and requested that viewers stop trying to reveal the identities of those depicted in his series. “People I love, have worked with, and admire (including Sean Foley) are unfairly getting caught up in speculation,” wrote Gadd. “Please don’t speculate on who any of the real life people could be. That’s not the point of our show. Lots of love, Richard.” Foley re-posted Gadd’s Instagram story on X.
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Baby Reindeer began as a one-man show at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019 written by and starring Gadd. It eventually transferred to London’s West End and won an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre, and has since been adapted into a surprise hit series for Netflix and will be submitted in the outstanding limited series category at the Emmys. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Gadd spoke of the parallels between the television show and his real life, noting that his situation with his real-life stalker “did result in a situation, shall we say, where she cannot contact me again.”
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The post ‘Baby Reindeer’ Creator and Star Is Begging You to Stop Looking for His Abuser appeared first on Vanity Fair.