Baby Reindeer, the new hit Netflix thriller, is based on the true story of Richard Gadd’s harrowing stalking ordeal — so, where is “Martha Scott” now?
The seven-part limited series follows Donny (Gadd, playing an autobiographical version of himself, who also wrote and directed the show), a struggling comedian and bartender who unwitting makes a massive mistake: he offers a crying woman a free cup of tea.
Her name is Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning), and she becomes a nightmare from which he can’t wake up. He’s accosted in the pub and on the street, bombarded with emails and phone calls, and even physically attacked, forcing him to go to the police.
As the Netflix series is based on Gadd’s real experience with a stalker, many will be curious to know what happened to Martha Scott in real life — well, it’s not quite that simple. Here’s what you should know.
What happened to “Martha” from Baby Reindeer?
While Baby Reindeer is based on a true story, Martha Scott is a fictional character created to represent Gadd’s stalker. In the show, she’s given a prison sentence, but Gadd hasn’t disclosed any details — name, age, or where she is now — about his real-life stalker.
In the final episode, Martha sends Donny a particularly threatening voicemail. She’s arrested the next day and sentenced to nine months behind bars for harassing both Donny and his parents.
Speaking to The Times about the series, Gadd said the situation with his stalker had been “resolved” — but he didn’t provide any other information. “I had mixed feelings about it — I didn’t want to throw someone who was that level of mentally unwell in prison,” he said.
However, it’s important to note that all of the on-screen emails that punctuate Baby Reindeer’s story are all real, right down to the constant typos.
“It’s pretty truthful. Any time it veered too much into embellishment I would always want to pull it back. It’s extremely emotionally truthful. Of course, this is a medium where structure is so important, you need to change things to protect people… but I like to think, artistically, that it never moved too far from the truth,” he also told GQ.
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Gadd was also asked how he thinks his stalker would (or will) react if she watches it. “I honestly couldn’t speak as to whether she would watch it. Her reactions to things varied so much that I almost couldn’t predict how she’d react to anything. She was quite an idiosyncratic person. We’ve gone to such great lengths to disguise her to the point that I don’t think she would recognize herself. What’s been borrowed is an emotional truth, not a fact-by-fact profile of someone,” he said.
Baby Reindeer is streaming on Netflix now. You can find out what other shows are coming to streaming in April, and true crime documentaries you should add to your watch list.