It seems Ellen Pompeo is ready to step out of the hospital. The Grey’s Anatomy star has been announced to be starring in and executive producing a currently untitled series for Hulu. The series, inspired by a story that became national news in 2019, will follow a family who begins to suspect their adopted daughter is actually an adult con artist.
The real-life story started in 2013 when an American couple adopted a young girl with a rare type of dwarfism from the Ukraine. The couple was then charged with neglect in 2019 after allegedly abandoning the child. The couple’s defense was that they had come to believe the child was actually an adult sociopath who was threatening their lives.
Pompeo will star as half of a Midwestern couple who decide to adopt a young girl with dwarfism to raise alongside their three biological children. However, the family slowly starts to question whether the young girl is all they think she is. The couple then struggles as “they’re confronted with hard questions of their own about the lengths they’re willing to go to defend themselves, falling into a battle that’s fought in the tabloids, the courtroom, and ultimately their marriage.” Currently, Pompeo is the only cast member announced.
Starring in this series is a surprising move from Pompeo. The actress has remained very loyal to her show Grey’s Anatomy since it began in 2005. Since 2005, Pompeo has had three acting credits outside the series, a Taylor Swift music video, an episode of Doc McStuffins, and a couple of episodes of the Grey’s Anatomy spin-off Station 19. This casting has her fans excited to see the actress in a completely new role. Surely, there must be something special about the series to get Pompeo to trade in her scrubs for the first time in eighteen seasons.
The series, which is begins described as a “limited drama series”, has been written and created by Katie Robbins. Robbins is best known for serving as a writer on the Showtime drama The Affair and on the Prime Video drama The Last Tycoon. Erin Levy will be serving as the showrunner on the series. Executive producers on the series will include Pompeo, Robbins, Laura Holstein, Mike Epps, Dan Spilo, Niles Kirchner, and Andrew Stearn.
Stay tuned to Collider for any future updates on this project.