The unbelievable true story of Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos is the subject of a new Hulu/Disney Plus miniseries titled The Dropout.
Academy Award nominee Amanda Seyfried plays the entrepreneur, who caught the attention of big money investors with her groundbreaking idea for a new way to take blood tests.
She envisioned a device that would be more convenient and comfortable than a standard venous sampling, providing rapid results by withdrawing only a very small amount – such as from a finger prick.
The concept was certainly an appealing one but the science behind it was not sound, as the world began to learn in 2015 following an investigation by The Wall Street Journal.
This dramatisation is based on a factual podcast of the same name from ABC, which was hosted by journalist Rebecca Jarvis and provided a detailed account of how this strange case unfolded.
Read on for everything you need to know about The Dropout on Disney Plus.
The Dropout release date
!["The]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2022/02/the-dropout-magazines-312d48f.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"the-dropout-magazines\"")
CONFIRMED: The Dropout will premiere its first three episodes on Disney Plus on Thursday 3rd March 2022, with the remaining four episodes being rolled out weekly from then.
The series was first announced in April 2019, before Holmes’ trial had started, with Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon originally set to star and executive produce.
However, she dropped out of the project for undisclosed reasons almost two years later, with Seyfried being hired as her replacement after generating Oscar buzz for Netflix’s Mank.
The Dropout cast: Amanda Seyfried plays Elizabeth Holmes
Academy Award nominee Amanda Seyfried leads the cast as entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes, who started her company Theranos after dropping out of the prestigious Stanford University at age 19.
Her former business partner and ex-boyfriend Ramesh ‘Sunny’ Balwani, whose trial is scheduled to begin in March 2022, is played by Lost and Sense8 star Naveen Andrews.
The Dropout has lined up a number of recognisable faces to play some of the scientists Holmes crossed paths with over the years, including William H Macy (Shameless) as Richard Fuisz, Laurie Metcalf (The Big Bang Theory) as Phyllis Gardner and Stephen Fry (It’s A Sin) as Ian Gibbons.
The large ensemble cast of The Dropout also includes Utkarsh Ambudkar (Ghosts), Dylan Minnette (Scream), Michaela Watkins (Search Party) and LisaGay Hamilton (The Practice).
The Dropout true story
!["Elizabeth]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2022/02/elizabeth-holmes-0c6ed6a.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"elizabeth-holmes\"")
The Dropout is based on the shocking true story of Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos, which was believed to have technology that would revolutionise healthcare for years to come.
Their product was a new type of blood test that could provide rapid results for a wide variety of health conditions, all of which would be run using a tiny sample taken painlessly.
At the centre of this was a machine named Edison, which was a similar size to a standard microwave and was intended to function as a miniature laboratory through which all of these tests could be run.
Powerful people bought into this idea, with Theranos being valued at $10 billion at the height of its popularity, but the technology behind its key product simply didn’t exist.
More than a decade after her company was founded, things finally started to fall apart for Holmes when an article was published by the Wall Street Journal detailing how the company had “struggled” to turn its groundbreaking concept into reality.
This kicked off a catastrophic chain of events for Theranos, which ended with the company being dissolved in 2018 and Holmes’ net worth evaporating from an estimated $4.5 billion to nothing at all.
Currently, she is awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiring to defraud private investors, with a maximum prison term of 20 years being possible (albeit, not likely).
It’s quite a fall from grace for someone who had previously been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people and Glamour’s Woman of the Year, among other honours.
The Dropout trailer
Hulu dropped the first trailer for The Dropout in February 2022, which came with a premiere date and confirmation that the show will be available on Disney Plus in the UK. Watch below:
The Dropout premieres on Disney Plus on Thursday 3rd March 2022. You can sign up to Disney+ for £7.99 a month or £79.90 a year now. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now – subscribe now to get each issue delivered to your door. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.