Baby Reindeer: The real people behind the Netflix hit everyone's talking about

Earlier this month Netflix released the new seven-part drama Baby Reindeer and ever since, people haven’t been able to stop talking about it. The series tells the story of a man who is stalked and sexually assaulted in his twenties.

Baby Reindeer is based on a true story. Writer and star Richard Gadd plays Donny, a character who goes through the same things as he did years earlier.

Following the release of Baby Reindeer Gadd has openly talked about his own experiences of stalking. The series is an adaptation of an autobiographical one-man show he’d done in 2019. Get the best user experience with WalesOnline’s Premium app on Apple or Android

READ MORE: Baby Reindeer's real-life Martha claims she'll sue Netflix and blasts 'fat actress' playing her

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Donny Dunn

As mentioned the character of Donny Dunn is based on the actor portraying him, Richard Gadd. The writer, actor and comedian turned his own story into a play and then a series.

Previously speaking to The Guardian about the ordeal, Gadd said: “I was getting told off for harassing the police about being harassed. I’ve been through two police investigations in my life and they’ve both been hilarious, fly-on-the-wall terrible. Honestly, my advice to someone who ever thought of pressing charges would be: 'It’s a f**king nightmare process, and it takes years'.” You can read the full story that inspired Baby Reindeer here.

Martha Scott

During an interview with The Independent, Gadd shared that his real-life stalker – whom the character of Martha Scott is based on – 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." Elsewhere in the interview he said: "It would have been wrong to paint [my stalker] as a monster, because she’s unwell, and the system’s failed her.”

Following the release of Baby Reindeer, Gadd took to Instagram to ask viewers to stop actively searching for the real-life people whom the series is based on, including the real Martha. "People I love, have worked with, and admire... are unfairly getting caught up in speculation," he penned. "Please don’t speculate on who any of the real life people could be."

Speaking about concealing his stalker’s identity, Gadd 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."

The woman who the series is allegedly based on has spoken out against Baby Reindeer. She told The Scottish Sun: "There's a fat actress that's supposed to be me." And she added: "I am very attractive. He's not Brad Pitt." She continued: "I have a claim against Netflix as this is being billed as part of a true story. People are probably saying I'm a mass murderer. This can't continue. I will kick their a**es."

The woman has also declared her readiness to represent herself in court against Netflix. "I'm a highly competent lawyer. I'd have to do it myself. I'm very good," she said, the Mirror US reports. She added: "I have a photographic memory and can memorise huge files. I was top in my school at everything." In a further interview with The Daily Record, the woman said: "I'm the victim here, not Richard Gadd. I've had death threats as a result of his show despite the fact that a lot of the things he claimed are just not true.

"Someone online said 'If I find you I will kill you'. A guy in North Carolina said that he and other people were going to stalk me like I am supposed to have stalked Gadd." Denying Gadd's allegations that she stalked him, she added: "I was in Richard Gadd's company on occasions but I didn't stalk him like he claims. His story is a gross intrusion into my privacy. I haven't seen him for 12 years."

Darrien O'Connor

Baby Reindeer viewers have also been theorising who the real Darrien O’Connor is. In the series Darrien (played by Tom Goodman-Hill) is an older writer working on a television show that Donny admires. Donny soon realises that he is being abused by Darrien when the pair take drugs together and he passes out.

Much like he has for the ‘Martha’ character, Gadd has kept the real Darrien’s identity a secret. He has revealed that the scenes featuring Darrien are based on true events though. Speaking to The Guardian, Gadd said: “It’s a true story, based on my early 20s when I went through some pretty crazy thing. There’s a flashback episode where we actually go back in time to Donny going to the Edinburgh Fringe and meeting someone in the industry who helps them in their career but goes on to abuse Donny and that’s obviously taken from my real-life experiences.

“It was a hell of a thing to write and shoot. It shows a side of abuse that I don’t think we’ve seen before. I still think there’s an idea that sexual abuse is a pill in a drink and dissolves and someone wakes up and doesn’t know where they are and that does happen, and it’s a big problem, but a lot of abuse occurs in very intimate relationships.I wanted to show how complicated and psychologically messed up situations could get to.”

Baby Reindeer is available to stream on Netflix now. You can keep up to date with the latest TV and showbiz news by signing up to the newsletter here.