Kate McKinnon to star as Elizabeth Holmes in Hulu series The Dropout

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

HBO’s recent documentary THE INVENTOR: OUT FOR BLOOD IN SILICON VALLEY put the spotlight on Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes, turning the mysterious figure into a household name – albeit not for the best of reasons. If you feel like you can’t get enough and need more content around the turtleneck-wearing subject then Hulu has your back, as they’re now going in for a scripted version of the Holmes story, titled THE DROPOUT, with none other than SNL’s Kate McKinnon set to don the all-black wardrobe.

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Deadline got the scoop that Fox Searchlight’s new TV division will be making the show that will air on Hulu, which is based on the podcast of the same name from ABC News/ABC Radio that aired in January. The podcast, which later aired as a documentary on ABC’s 20/20 last month, chronicled the rise and fall of Holmes’ company, much like the HBO documentary.

For those unfamiliar with any of these explorations of Holmes or of the woman herself, the rundown goes like this. Holmes, a chemical engineering student who dropped out of Stanford, launched the company Theranos which promised to develop a form of blood sampling that could detect any sort of illness from a pin-prick of blood, and all via a small testing device that consumers could eventually buy for their homes. While there’s no way anyone could have seen this going wrong, it all went to hell, and in HBO’s doc we see how the technology was never up to snuff, her staff was inexperienced, they falsified techniques as their tests came out wrong and her staff were in a constant state of confusion and stress over what they hell they were doing. On top of that Holmes made for a rather peculiar subject, modeling herself (and her style) off Apple found Steve Jobs, and having a deep voice to matching her unblinking, soul-piercing eyes.

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The limited series is set to be between 6-10 episodes, and McKinnon will executive produce alongside "The Dropout" podcast host /creator Rebecca Jarvis, with the producers of the podcast, Taylor Dunn and Victoria Thompson, also serving as producers on the show. McKinnon is also the second actress set to play Holmes, with Jennifer Lawrence cast in the part of the planned movie BAD BLOOD from Adam McKay. 

This is not the first time a Hulu series has come after a shocking HBO doc, with the recent series THE ACT with Patricia Arquette and Joey King based on the documentary MOMMY DEAD AND DEAREST, which dug into the tragic, unsettling relationship of Dee Dee Blanchard and her daughter Gypsy Rose.  Perhaps this is becoming the standard, with documentaries, much like books, becoming ample fodder for new shows and movies. As long as it's done right I'm down for THE DROPOUT, as McKinnon as an inspired choice for the role and is overdue for some juicy dramatic work (maybe with a bit of dark comedy sprinkled in).