Amanda Seyfried will play Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout, a new series at Hulu. Seyfried replaces Kate McKinnon, who exited the project in February, and she'll also serve as producer on the show. Elizabeth Meriwether, creator of the popular Zoey Deschanel-led sitcom New Girl, is on board as showrunner.
The series will center on the rise and fall of Holmes, a Stanford dropout who founded the medical testing start-up Theranos in 2003. At one time she was valued at nine billion dollars, making her the one of the richest women in the world and lauded as the Steve Jobs of the new generation – until it was revealed that none of the tech actually worked and had put thousands of people's health in danger. She was indicted by a federal jury in 2018, along with the former Theranos chief operating officer, on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Seyfried was most recently seen in Mank, David Fincher's latest movie for Netflix about the screenwriter of Citizen Kane. Seyfried played movie star Marion Davies and her performance earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at this year's Academy Awards. She's also known for her roles in movies like Mean Girls, Mamma Mia!, and Les Miserables, and her small screen work includes Veronica Mars, Big Love, and the Twin Peaks revival.
