How The Inventing Anna Cast Compares To Their Real-Life Counterparts

Netflix’s Inventing Anna drama series tells the real-life story of Anna Sorokin, a Russian-born German woman who scammed hotels, banks, and her friends out of thousands of dollars from 2013 to 2017 while posing as a rich German heiress named Anna Delvey.

Adapted from a 2018 New York article by journalist Jessica Pressler, the Shondaland series’ characters are based on Sorokin and her actual acquaintances, and the convicted scammer has publicly commented on her portrayal. Here’s how each actor compares to their real-life counterpart.

While preparing to play the convicted fraudster, actor Julia Garner visited her in prison. “She's actually really sweet... But then her voice gets less soft-spoken when she wants something,” she recently said, revealing Delvey asked to hear the accent she’d use when playing her.

Sorokin was released from prison early last year before a March 2021 arrest for overstaying her visa landed her ICE custody. “For a long while I was hoping that by the time Inventing Anna came out, I would've moved on with my life,” she told Insider.

“So, no — it doesn't look like I'll be watching Inventing Anna anytime soon,” she told the publication. “Even if I were to pull some strings and make it happen, nothing about seeing a fictionalized version of myself in this criminal-insane-asylum setting sounds appealing to me.”

Anna Chlumsky (Veep) is stepping into the role of journalist Vivian, a character based on Pressler. The series will follow the writer’s efforts to break the story, but per Netflix, “the more Vivian pursues the truth about Anna, the more attached to Anna she becomes.”

Pressler is a producer on Inventing Anna, which marks her second New York Magazine story to receive an onscreen adaptation after her 2015 article “The Hustlers at Scores” provided the basis for 2019’s Hustlers starring Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu.

Arian Moayed of Succession fame appears as Sorokin’s lawyer Todd Spodek. In the series, Todd takes on Anna’s case in hopes of increasing his stature in the legal field — and communicates with Vivian in the process, which could cause tension with his client.

While defending Sorokin in 2019, Spodek insisted her actions weren’t criminal. “You have to put yourself in her shoes,” he told the court. “Every day you hear about people risking it all for business [and] taking advantages of opportunity. Isn’t that what Miss Sorokin did?”

As for the scamming victims, Laverne Cox plays Kacy Duke, a personal trainer hired by the pseudo-heiress. “[Rhimes] has a way of writing that pulls you in, and you can’t look away,” Cox said. “Then you can't believe what's happened next, even when it's based on a true story.”

In real life, Sorokin hired Duke and even brought her on a Morocco vacation, which the scammer infamously couldn’t pay for. A few months later, Duke reportedly held an intervention for Sorokin about her dishonest ways.

Katie Lowes (Scandal) plays Rachel, who befriends and trusts Anna until their bond nearly destroys her career, finances, and life. “I've never played a real person before, and Rachel was out doing her press tour for her book,” she said of preparing. “So I was able to find a lot.”

The character is based on Rachel DeLoache Williams, an ex-Vanity Fair staffer whom Sorokin left to pay a $62,000 bill for the Morocco vacation. Published in 2019, Williams’ book My Friend Anna recounts their friendship and how she eventually helped authorities track down Sorokin.

Alexis Floyd of The Bold Type plays an aspiring filmmaker named Neff, who meets Sorokin while working the front desk at a luxury hotel. The two characters become fast friends, as her scamming doesn't negatively affect Neff, but instead provides her with free clothes and meals.

She’s based on Neffatari Davis, who remains close to Sorokin to this day. “Even though I don’t agree with all the things you’ve done in this lifetime, I could never be shady and forget about you,” Davis wrote in a celebratory birthday post for her on Jan. 23.