Until just a few years ago, Elizabeth Holmes was viewed as an inspirational figure because of her success with her biotech company, Theranos. Holmes also promised that her company could radically reinvent blood testing by using samples from only a few drops of blood. That would have been revolutionary if true. And unfortunately, it simply wasn’t the reality of what Theranos could provide.
Next month, Hulu will explore Holmes’ story in The Dropout, a new original miniseries based on the podcast from Rebecca Jarvis and ABC Audio. In the show, Amanda Seyfried (Mank) portrays Holmes as a wide-eyed college student whose groundbreaking ideas about blood testing are ignored by her peers and professors. That’s why she drops out of college and pursues her ambition with Theranos. The first trailer for The Dropout shows Holmes’ rise to the top that was followed by a collapse of epic proportions.
Within the video, it’s all smiles when Holmes makes her claims for the news cameras. But behind closed doors, her employees soon realize that Theranos is a fraud and that Holmes’ blood testing techniques don’t actually work. Holmes also engages in a clandestine affair with Theranos’ President and COO, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani (Naveen Andrews). But when the truth about the company finally comes out, it will bring them crashing down to Earth.
William H. Macy also stars in the miniseries as Richard Fuisz, with Laurie Metcalf as Phyllis Gardner, Elizabeth Marvel as Noel Holmes, Utkarsh Ambudkar as Rakesh Madhava, Kate Burton as Rochelle Gibbons, Stephen Fry as Ian Gibbons, Michel Gill as Chris Holmes, Michael Ironside as Don Lucas, Bill Irwin as Channing Robertson, Josh Pais as Wade Miquelon, Dylan Minnette as Tyler Shultz, Alan Ruck as Jay Rosan, Bashir Salahuddin as Brendan Morris, and Mary Lynn Rajskub as Lorraine Fuisz.
The first three episodes of The Dropout will premiere on Hulu on Sunday, March 3. The four remaining episodes will be released weekly on Hulu.
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