Many of the wild events of the Shonda Rhimes limited series Inventing Anna are pulled directly from the life of the real Anna Delvey/Sorokin. Still, as the Netflix series freely admits at the start of each episode, the content includes plenty of fiction along with the facts of Anna’s story.
As Anna (played by Julia Garner) ingratiates herself into the upper echelons of New York society and pulls out all the stops to try to start her own exclusive social club for artists (The Anna Delvey Foundation, or ADF), she makes some pretty extreme moves. While much of the plot is true, some events are stretched or made up – and some aren’t even as strange as the truth. So how much of Inventing Anna is true?
Inventing Anna
Drama
- Release Date
- February 11, 2022
- Cast
- Anders Holm , laverne cox , Julia Garner , Anna Deavere Smith , Terry Kinney , Arian Moayed , Anna Chlumsky , Jeff Perry , Katie Lowes , Alexis Floyd
- Seasons
- 1
- Creator
What's Happened Since 'Inventing Anna' - A Timeline
February 2021
The ending credits of the series informed us that Anna Sorokin was released from prison in February 2021, before being picked up a month later by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for overstaying her visa. Her legal representation continues to push for her release, and she has maintained that her support system is in New York and has resisted efforts to deport her to Germany. The popularity of the Netflix series has inspired pop culture references and a flurry of press regarding Anna's thoughts.
Also in February, multipleoutlets reported that Sorokin was paid by Netflix for her Inventing Anna story – a sum totaling $320k. She used the money for the following:
- $199k in restitution
- $24k in state fines
- $75k in attorney fees
May 2022
Anna has also continued to chase her artistic pursuits, even while incarcerated. An exhibition of the drawings she has done in ICE detention titled "Allegedly" debuted at the Public Hotel on New York's Lower East Side in May 2022. It featured twenty sketches that apparently reflect Anna's experience before, during, and after her trial. The event was well-attended and, while some reviews weren't glowing, sales were lucrative. She may be imprisoned, but Anna still seems capable of drawing attention and uniquely gifted at getting people who have money to part with it. Allegedly.
October 2022
Anna Sorokin has been released from a New York jail. Sorokin, 31, is still fighting deportation from the United States after overstaying her Visa nearly two years ago. The court ordered her to post $10k bail, stay confined at home, and possibly most noteworthy, she's forbidden from using social media.
February 2023
Anna Sorokin is set to film a reality TV series titled Delvey’s Dinner Club during her house arrest. The unscripted series comes from Wheelhouse and Butternut, the production set up by Courtney White. The upcoming show is set to be filmed inside Sorokin's New York City East Village apartment, with the press release detailing how the episodes will feature "invitation-only, intimate dinners at [Sorokin's] home," which are part of her efforts at "reinvent[ing] herself and her name." No release date has been announced, but it's already (and unsurprisingly) getting attention online.
August 2023
Sorokin may be under house arrest, but that hasn't stopped her from dropping a debut single with TikTok celebrity Brooke Butler. The song, titled "What The Hell?" has vocals from Delvey, which include a phone call from prison. It's the intro and theme song to The Anna Delvey Show, which is already stirring up controversy among listeners.
February 2024
New court papers reveal that Sorokin is renegotiating the conditions of her house arrest, claiming that the social media ban imposed on her infringes upon her freedom of speech and is far too "restrictive." This comes after the ruling for her house arrest that sees her staying in her apartment 24/7 for over a year now, not to mention the risk for deportation. The filing also claims that Sorokin's limited access to social media has "unnecessarily caused severe emotional distress and stress" to the infamous criminal.
10 Vivian Kent's Behavior is Sensationalized
Vivian Kent: Played by Anna Chlumsky
Vivian Kent (Anna Chlumsky), the reporter who writes the infamous piece on Anna Delvey, is fictional, as is Manhattan Magazine. However, Kent is based on New York Magazine writer Jessica Pressler with a few fundamental differences. Pressler never assisted the defense with the case or relied on other journalists to do her research. And she insists that she definitely never tried to break into Anna’s parents’ German home.
However, Pressler really was pregnant during their interviews and while writing the article. Perhaps most disappointing: that conspiracy mapping wall Vivian Kent sets up in her baby’s nursery on the show? It was a much less exciting series of spreadsheets in real life.
9 Some Names Have Been Changed to Protect the Rich
Wealthy Characters: Nora Radford, Talia Mallay, Henrick Knight
-14.jpg "'Inventing Anna': 10 Things the Show Changed From the Real Story (4)")
While some names of people and places are real in the series (Anna and her friends and attorney, and a few of the hotels she stiffed, for example), other identities depicted in Inventing Anna were changed or made up. Some characters, like Anna’s mentor Nora Radford (Kate Burton) and financial attorney Alan Reed (Anthony Edwards), are likely based on real people or an amalgam of several people.
Anna Delvey really did have contact with Billy MacFarland of the ill-fated Fyre Fest, as well as Pharma Bro/pre-convicted felon Martin Shkreli. The scene where Shkreli plays tracks from Lil Wayne’s "Tha Carter V" album before its release is allegedly based on truth as well.
8 Not Much is Known About the Boyfriend
Chase Sikorski: Played by Saamer Usmani
-16.jpg "'Inventing Anna': 10 Things the Show Changed From the Real Story (5)")
Anna’s relationship with Chase Sikorski (Saamer Usmani), inventor of a dream-mining app called Wake, is a big part of the earlier episodes in the series. He is fictional, but theories have been shared about whom he might be based. Though his name doesn’t appear in Pressler’s article, the show postulates that he agreed to give his side of the story if she left his name out.
Anna did have a boyfriend with whom she traveled extensively, but not much is publicly known about their relationship. She has said that she came up with the idea for ADF after they broke up, rather than during their relationship as Inventing Anna depicts.
7 Interviews at Rikers Aren't So Cushy
Anna Spent 19 Months in a Rikers Island Jail Cell
It turns out that even Anna Delvey has to slum it when she’s in jail. While the series shows Anna shaming Vivian into setting up official media visits, so they can get “VIP” treatment, in real life Anna says there was “def no tea at Rikers!” Instead, there was a cash-only coffee machine and not a porcelain cup in sight. The courtrooms in the series are also fancier than the court where Anna was really tried.
However, the depiction of the complicated multi-bus route required to get to Rikers Island for a regular visit? Apparently pretty accurate. That said, there's no telling how correct the representation of the actual interviews were on the show.
6 Anna Planned Vivian’s Trip to Germany
Main Location: North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
In episode 8, Vivian visits Anna's home country to get a feel for her upbringing and environment. Soon, she's spotted sneaking around Anna's parents' property, which leads to a very awkward introduction to the con artist's parents.
Vivian actually did travel to Germany, but Anna helped her plan the trip, and the parties she visited knew she was coming. There was no creepy lurking, and, in fact, Sorokin suggested where the journalist should go, which included her parents' home and her childhood hang-out spots. It wasn't exactly a puzzle Vivian had to piece together, after all.
5 That Accent, While Iconic, is Flawed
A Mix of German, Russian and American
Anna’s accent in the series is unique, to say the least. According to many who have heard the real Anna speak, it doesn’t quite match hers. While it may not be the worst fake accent, it is a bit confusing. But perhaps that works for a fake heiress with a fuzzy transcontinental backstory.
Garner did get to meet with the real Anna to try to get a sense of the accent but was mostly left to piece it together. She incorporated what is known of Anna’s European history as well as the cosmopolitan identity she was trying to convey in New York. The result may be muddled and hard to place, but the same could be said about Anna herself. Her take on it? Since it’s difficult to tell where Garner’s Anna is from, “she got it right in a way”.
4 There Wasn't a Fake German – There Were Two Fake Germans
Alan Reed: Played by Anthony Edwards
At least one detail of the series was less wild than real life. Inventing Anna sees Anna inventing a German accountant, Peter Hennecke, who supposedly represents her trust. In the series, she uses a voice-changing app and fake email addresses to fool Alan Reed and other financial parties into believing they’re talking to Hennecke when it’s in fact Anna herself.
According to the prosecution’s case at Anna’s real trial, she also invented Bettina Wagner, a second German accountant who Anna impersonated to try to placate Rachel DeLoache Williams, a former friend who claims Anna stuck her with a huge Morocco hotel bill. Who knows how many accountants Anna could have invented if she had been able to work toward ADF for longer?
3 Anna’s Family Was Supportive
Vadim Sorokin: Played by Peter Kurth
Throughout the show, Anna's family is depicted as cold, distant, and basically just tired of their daughter's antics. They don't seem that surprised when Vivian visits, but also refuse to offer their support in any capacity – and audiences can't really blame them for it.
In real life, while the Sorokin family wasn't present during the trial, her parents did write a letter as a form of support to the judge. Their complicated relationship did not stop Sorokin's parents from still expressing their desire to not see Anna behind bars, despite their daughter admitting that she "never really needed [their] approval."
2 Some of Anna’s Escapades Were Made Up or Exaggerated
Storylines: Overstaying on a Yacht, Using Someone Else's Credit Card
-11.jpg "'Inventing Anna': 10 Things the Show Changed From the Real Story (11)")
Plenty of the bizarre events of the series are real, but a few storylines are aggrandized or completely fabricated. Anna doesn’t recall overstaying her welcome on an acquaintance’s yacht or racking up $400k on someone else’s credit card at Bergdorf Goodman.
Of course, compared to the things it’s likely she did do, these don’t actually seem that far-fetched. She did help herself to a private jet without paying for it, she stayed at multiple hotels without settling her bills, and she allegedly left Williams hanging for over $60k in Morocco (though she was found not guilty of that charge). Some storylines in Inventing Anna may be made up, but they don't seem much more fantastical than her actual story.
1 Anna Could Be Ashamed of Her Crimes
Parole Board Hearing: October 6, 2020
Anna never really apologized or expressed remorse about her crimes and the people she hurt along the way in the show, and for the most part, that was true for her real-life counterpart as well.
What the series doesn't show is that the con artist does indeed eventually apologize for her actions, specifically during a parole board hearing, where Sorokin states: "I just want to say that I’m really ashamed and I’m really sorry for what I did [...] I completely understand that a lot of people suffered when I thought I was not doing anything wrong." Of course, it's impossible to tell if she's being sincere or just trying to improve her chances of staying out of jail.
NEXT:Shows Like 'Inventing Anna' For More Con Artists and Millionaire Schemes
