How The Staircase Cast Compares To Their Real-Life Counterparts

The Staircase, HBO Max’s new limited series, is a dramatized take on Jean-Xavier de Lestrad’s true-crime docuseries of the same name. The story follows Michael Peterson (played by Colin Firth), a novelist who’s accused of murdering his second wife, Kathleen (Toni Collette).

Kathleen died on Dec. 9, 2001. Michael claims that he found Kathleen unconscious at the bottom of a staircase in their home, but investigators concluded that her death wasn’t an accident. Michael was identified as the prime suspect, and he was convicted for murder in Oct. 2003.