Baby Reindeer: The True Story Behind Netflix's Breakout Hit

Netflix's Baby Reindeer was an instant hit with viewers, with Variety calling the series "shocking, hilarious, painful and devastating," and The New York Times dubbing the show a "mesmerizing, complex drama." The series follows Donny, a struggling comedian whose life is thrown into disarray when a woman named Martha enters his life and starts sending him hundreds of emails a day. 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 named Darrien.

While Baby Reindeer draws on events that occurred in creator Richard Gadd's real life, the series is also a work of fiction. Here's what you need to know about the true story behind Netflix's hit TV show Baby Reindeer.

Baby Reindeer is based on a play of the same name

Richard Gadd serves as the writer, creator, and star of Baby Reindeer, and the series is the culmination of almost a decade of work. While the Netflix show takes its title from his debut theater offering 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 comedian.

Discussing the success of Baby Reindeer's Edinburgh run, Gadd wrote in a Netflix press release, "All I ever wanted to do was capture something complicated about the human condition. That we all make mistakes. That no person is ever good or bad. That we are all lost souls looking for love in our own weird way."

Yes, the real Martha left a lot of voicemails

In the Netflix series, Donny first connects with Martha after she wanders into the bar where he's working. He makes her a free cup of tea in an attempt to cheer her up, but Martha takes the kind gesture to heart in a big way. Before long, she's turning up at the bar daily, commenting on his Facebook posts, and sending him a slew of emails. When she starts invading Donny's real life by attending his comedy shows and harassing his trans girlfriend, it becomes clear that Martha may pose a legitimate threat. Eventually, the character acquires his phone number, and repeatedly leaves him voicemails, something the real Martha did, too.

During an interview with The Independent, Gadd shared that his stalker had sent him "41,071 emails, 350 hours of voicemail, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages, 106 pages of letters, sleeping pills, a woolly hat, a pair of brand new boxer shorts and a cuddly reindeer toy." With such a deluge of communication, it's perhaps unsurprising that Gadd needed to write a theater show to make sense of the experience.

Writing in a press release, Gadd said of Martha's voice messages, "I would go to bed at night and still hear her in my ears. Her voice swirling around my head. Her words leaping around my eyelids as I tried to sleep." He also began categorizing the voicemails, much like Donny does in the show, and hoping to find evidence of wrongdoing in one of the messages.

Importantly, Gadd wanted viewers to realize that the violence perpetuated by the real-life Darrien left him vulnerable to Martha's advances. "I wanted to show what Darrien did was perniciously evil whereas Martha’s behaviour came from a place of deep vulnerability," he told GQ.

While Martha is sentenced for stalking Donny in Netflix's Baby Reindeer, it's unclear whether the writer's real-life stalker faced any legal consequences. "The laws surrounding harassment and abuse are so stupid," Gadd explained to The Independent, suggesting that Martha's actions were conducted largely within the law. He also has made it clear that the real Martha is a victim, too. "It would have been wrong to paint her as a monster, because she’s unwell, and the system’s failed her," he told The Independent.

No, you shouldn't search for the real Martha

As Baby Reindeer is based on a true story, some viewers have endeavored to uncover the real identities of the show's characters. Unfortunately, the police were forced to get involved after viewers started accusing people of being the real Darrien online. In an Instagram Story (via Deadline), Gadd said, "People I love, have worked with, and admire... are unfairly getting caught up in speculation." He continued, "Please don’t speculate on who any of the real life people could be."

Jessica Gunning, who plays Martha in Baby Reindeer, also urged fans to avoid Googling the real people behind the show's characters. "I think it is quite sad and I would urge them to watch the show again and see that that was not the point of the show at all," she told the BBC.

Gadd has also repeatedly noted that he wanted to conceal the identity of his stalker, so as not to harm her. As the writer told GQ, "We’ve gone to such great lengths to disguise her to the point that I don’t think she would recognise herself. What’s been borrowed is an emotional truth, not a fact-by-fact profile of someone."

Richard Gadd feared sharing something so personal

Writing and acting in Baby Reindeer was a difficult experience for Richard Gadd, who told Tudum, "You are revisiting a period in your life, which was the worst period of your life. So it’s running back towards an awful fire you’ve been in."

The TV series sticks pretty closely to the truth, too, with Gadd noting the importance of accurately telling the story. "It’s pretty truthful," he told GQ. "Any time it veered too much into embellishment I would always want to pull it back. It’s extremely emotionally truthful." However, he also noted that it was important to change certain details to protect the identities of the people involved.

Nava Mau, who plays Donny's girlfriend Teri in Baby Reindeer, praised the accuracy of her character's arc, telling Tudum, "[I]t felt like the first time reading a character that was written by someone who actually had known and loved a trans woman." She continued, "There’s a light that I think pulsates out of that kind of vulnerability, and so all of the characters in the story then are cast in that light. And I felt that in that first read of Teri."