Following the big Emmy awards on Sunday night, Netflix Baby Reindeer Creator and star Richard Gadd has signed a multi-year deal with the broadcaster for future scripted series.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos confirmed the deal at the Royal Television Society's London Congress on Tuesday. “I can give you some news this morning, we have finalized our first-look deal with Richard Gadd to do his first job at Netflix,” Sarandos said. Hollywood Reporter“I think he's a great storyteller… I'm so proud of the story Richard tells and the way he tells it, and it's his true story.”
The 35-year-old won for outstanding limited or anthology series and best lead actor and outstanding limited or anthology series writing, even as a real-life defamation lawsuit played out over the truths depicted in the comedy-drama thriller. Gadd said it was based on his real-life stalker. Scots lawyer Fiona Harvey, who claims the character of “Martha” is not so loosely based on her, has filed a $170 million lawsuit against the broadcaster.
Baby Reindeer When it first aired in April, it quickly became a pop-culture phenomenon. However, it wasn’t until a small subset of internet sleuths began working to identify the woman Gadd accused of stalking and harassing him for several years that Harvey revealed his identity to the world. However, he denies any of the events, implying that he sent Gadd more than 41,000 emails, 744 tweets, 100 pages of letters, and 350 hours of voicemails.
In the series, “Martha” is sentenced to nine months in prison after leaving threatening voicemails for Gadd, a stand-up comedian who was serving her at a London pub at the time. Netflix admitted in May that Harvey had only been given a court order rather than a prison sentence, leaving one of the “true story's” biggest claims hanging in the air.
Baby Reindeer It spent a month at the top of Netflix, racked up 56.5 million views in the 26 days since its release, and received a total of 11 Emmy nominations.