Inventing Anna Trivia | 30 facts about the mind-blowing Netflix show

«Inventing Anna» is an American drama streaming television miniseries created and produced by Shonda Rhimes, inspired by the story of Anna Sorokin.

Let’s find out more about both the miniseries and the real story behind the Netflix show!

1. Inventing Anna is an American drama streaming television miniseries created and produced by Shonda Rhimes.
2. It was inspired by the story of Anna Sorokin and the article in New York titled “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People” by Jessica Pressler.
3. The series was released on Netflix on February 11, 2022.
4. Julia Garner starred as Anna Sorokin, the title character.
5. The series received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the performances (particularly Garner) but criticized the inconsistent tone.
6. In June 2018, Netflix and Shondaland acquired the rights to the life story of Anna Sorokin and the New York article “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People” by Jessica Pressler, with plans to turn it into a television series with Shonda Rhimes serving as producer and writer, alongside Betsy Beers.
7. Sorokin received $320,000, which was used to pay restitution and legal fees.
8. David Frankel was named as director and executive producer of two episodes of the series, including the first.
9. In October 2019, Julia Garner, Anna Chlumsky, Katie Lowes, Laverne Cox, and Alexis Floyd joined the cast of the series.
10. Madeline Brewer was set to portray the role of Anna Delvey but had to pass due to scheduling conflicts.
11. Also in October 2019, principal photography began in New York and Los Angeles.
12. In November 2019, Arian Moayed, Anders Holm, Anna Deavere Smith, Jeff Perry and Terry Kinney joined the cast of the series.
13. In February 2020, Jennifer Esposito joined the cast of the series, but never appeared and the part of Talia was played by Marika Dominczyk
14. Vivian Kent, the reporter who writes the infamous piece on Anna Delvey in the miniseries, is fictional, as is Manhattan Magazine. In real life Pressler never assisted the defense with the case, or relied on other journalists to do her research.
15. Pressler also insists that she definitely never tried to break into Anna’s parents’ German home.
16. However, Pressler really was pregnant during their interviews and while writing the article.
17. She actually did travel to Germany, but Anna helped her plan the trip and the parties she visited knew she was coming.
18. In addition, that conspiracy mapping wall Vivian Kent sets up in her baby’s nursery on the show? It was a much less exciting series of spreadsheets in real life.
19. Some names of people and places are real on the series (Anna and her friends and attorney, and a few of the hotels she stiffed, for example). On the other hand, other identities were changed or made up.
20. Some characters, like Anna’s mentor Nora Radford (Kate Burton) and financial attorney Alan Reed (Anthony Edwards), are likely based on real people or an amalgam of several people.
21. Anna’s relationship with Chase Sikorski (Saamer Usmani), inventor of a dream-mining app called Wake, is a big part of the earlier episodes in the series. He is fictional, but theories have been shared about whom he might be based upon. Though his name doesn’t appear in Pressler’s article, the show postulates that he agreed to give his side of the story if she left his name out. Anna did have a boyfriend with whom she traveled extensively, but not much is publicly known about their relationship. She has said that she came up with the idea for ADF after they broke up, rather than during their relationship as Inventing Anna depicts.
22. While the series shows Anna shaming Vivian into setting up official media visits so they can get “VIP” treatment, in real life Anna says there was “def no tea at rikers!” Instead, there was a cash-only coffee machine, and not a porcelain cup in sight.
23. The courtrooms in the series are also more «classy» than the court where Anna was really tried.
24. When Anna was released from prison she created a bit of a buzz around her love life by posting on her Twitter account in Febrouary 2021 “Looking for a boyfriend”. She later tweeted “Need help going through applications”. This tweet also later sparkled rumours about the show’s Chase, who btw is a fictional character. His start-up «Wake» is fictional as well.
25. Neff is one of Anna’s friends who kept her real name in the show.
26. Neff’s boyfriend made an appearance in the show, but he wasn’t portrayed very accurately. According to The Cut article that started it all, Neff was dating somebody while she hung out with Anna, but he was a rich guy who had promised to finance the young woman’s movies someday.
27. When he expressed his reservations about Sorokin, Anna suggested that she dump him. When Neff protested that he was supposed to finance her films, Anna said that she would give her the money because she was richer than him. Neff did leave her boyfriend, which also wasn’t a part of the Netflix miniseries.
28. That party with Martin Shkreli and Macaulay Culkin happened. The extravagant dinner between the rich and the famous was as lavish as it was in the show, and Shkreli did show off his latest purchase: The Carter V album.
29. Neff was so pumped about listening to the then-unreleased album, that she tweeted about it,. Anna though asked her to delete it. When Neff didn;t do that, Anna got mad about it, according to Neffetari herself.
30. The show depicts a lonely Anna after her arrest, one who had nobody to support her except for her lawyer and pet journalist Vivian Kent. This wasn’t the case. In an interview with Insider, Sorokin revealed that she wasn’t in touch during her student years, but months before the trial her parents were in correspondence with her.