Amy Mackelden in Bazar:
Netflix’s Baby Reindeer became an instant hit with viewers after it debuted earlier in April, with Variety calling the seven-episode limited series “shocking, hilarious, painful, and devastating,” and The New York Times dubbing it a “mesmerizing, complex drama.” The series follows Donny (played by creator Richard Gadd), a struggling comedian and bartender whose life is thrown into disarray when a customer named Martha (Jessica Gunning) comes into the bar. Soon she is sending him hundreds of emails, before her unwanted contact escalates even further. While attempting and failing to stop his stalker, Donny is also reminded of a period in his life during which he was violently abused by a mentor, Darrien (Tom Goodman-Hill).
While Baby Reindeer draws on events that occurred in Gadd’s real life, the series is also a work of fiction. Here’s what you need to know about the true story behind the Netflix hit.
Scottish performer Richard Gadd is as the writer, creator, and star of Baby Reindeer, and the Netflix series is the culmination of almost a decade of work. While the show takes its title from his one-man play of the same name, which debuted as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019, his previous work also inspired the series. In 2016, Gadd took home the Edinburgh Comedy Award for his show Monkey See Monkey Do, in which he revealed the catastrophic sexual violence he experienced as a young comic at the hands of a mentor.
More here.