News about Benjamin King

Only 84 people a night were able to squeeze into the tiny venue to see Richard Gadd's Edinburgh Fringe play Baby Reindeer, which ran for nearly four weeks in 2019. But that low-key play - the basis of the smash-hit television show Baby Reindeer - could end up costing the TV streaming service Netflix anything up to $120 million (£92 million), plus legal fees. In June, lawyers acting for Fiona Harvey, the real-life inspiration for stalker Martha, launched a no-holds-barred legal assault on Netflix, demanding $170 million (£130 million), claiming she had been defamed 'at a magnitude and scale without precedent'. She was also suing for, among other things, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and gross negligence.

Baby Reindeer's Richard Gadd and Jessica Gunning had the night of their lives at the 2024 Primetime Emmys in LA on Sunday. The Netflix smash hit scooped four awards at the ceremony held at The Peacock Theater, and its stars Gadd and Jessica Gunning showed off their haul in behind the scenes snaps. Gadd won the awards for Writing for a Limited or Anthology series or Movie and Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology series or Movie for the Netflix phenomenon - based on his own harrowing experiences of being stalked.

Back in the days when he was a penniless, struggling comedian, Richard Gadd could never have imagined the TV series he was penning at home in his tiny flat would end up a global hit. This week, the creator, director and star of the Netflix series Baby Reindeer said he was 'crying with happiness' at news from the US that the controversial show, which has been viewed more than 85million times and purports to be a 'true story', had received not one but 11 Emmy nominations; three of them for him alone. 'You have made a little boy from a tiny Scottish town's dreams come true,' gushed the 35-year-old in a statement in which he thanked members of America's National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Baby Reindeer stars Richard Gadd and Jessica Gunning brushed off the furore surrounding the bombshell Netflix drama to attend a SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations event in New York on Thursday. After it was revealed that the 'real-life Martha' Fiona Harvey was suing the streaming platform for $50 million, the pair took to the stage at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Robin Williams Center. Jessica, who played Donny's stalker Martha in the series, opted for a green satin jumpsuit as she posed for snaps with co-star Richard.

Fiona Harvey, who claims the lead character of Baby Reindeer, Martha, is based on her life, is seeking at least £133 million in a lawsuit filed against Netflix. Harvey has accused the streaming platform of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gross negligence, and violations of her right of publicity in the lawsuit filed in a US court. In the new lawsuit filed on Wednesday, Harvey has accused Netflix of spreading 'brutal lies', including that she is a 'twice convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison'.

Fiona Harvey, who claims the lead character Martha is based on her life, denies ever going to prison or to court, as the character is seen doing. Harvey alleges Netflix allowed viewers to track her down in real life and connect the dots to her identity, according to legal dossiers.

A legal showdown now looks set between Netflix and the woman who claims her supposed depiction in Baby Reindeer is untrue. Fiona Harvey, who says the stalker depicted in the show - Martha - is based on her, denies ever going to prison or to court, as the character is seen doing. It can now be revealed that the writer and star, Richard Gadd, who based the show on his own experiences, told makers Clerkenwell Films that his stalker was never convicted.

'Real-life' Baby Reindeer stalker Fiona Harvey today vowed legal action against 'all those who have lied about me' to make millions of pounds. Ms Harvey issued an excoriating statement warning Netflix and the show's creator Richard Gadd she was coming for them in the courts. She declared she was clearly the person depicted as sick stalker 'Martha' in their drama series which has taken the TV world by storm. The seven-part miniseries, in which comedian Gadd, 34, plays the main character who is tormented by an older woman plaguing him with thousands of emails and phonecalls, is billed by Netflix as a 'true story' - yet it portrays 'Martha' as pleading guilty and being jailed for nine months which she says never happened. Ms Harvey, 58, insists it is complete fantasy and therefore paints a 'dishonest and false picture of me', because it took internet sleuths no time to identify her as the real 'Martha' from the story.

With its 60 million views and worldwide acclaim, it would be easy to imagine Baby Reindeer's creator Richard Gadd must be celebrating his good fortune. But the comedian wore a decidedly pensive expression when he was spotted walking along a North London street earlier this week. Perhaps a month's worth of raging controversy is taking its toll. The seven-part mini-series based on his experiences of being stalked, in which he plays the lead role of Donny Dunn, has brought 35-year-old Gadd overnight fame, fortune... and, now, a lot of potential trouble. For the next instalment in this all-too-real saga threatens to eclipse even the original story. In past interviews, Gadd has said that the episode with his stalker - whom he has never named - was 'resolved' and that 'the situation... with the person who stalked me is certainly over'. So maybe he hoped Fiona Harvey, who has outed herself as the true-life inspiration for stalker 'Martha', would melt away.

Baby Reindeer is a drama written by a comedian (who also plays the lead character) based on his real-life experiences with a female stalker - the fallout of which is now turning into a phenomenon that threatens to eclipse the original story. But one thing is indisputable in this tangled web of claim and counter claim: Gadd's upbringing could not be in starker contrast to the chaotic and traumatic experiences charted in Baby Reindeer. As the Mail has discovered this week, Gadd's 'happy', middle-class childhood, growing up on the shores of the River Tay in Scotland, was anything but tortured.

A Netflix executive has claimed producers took every precaution to protect the real life people who inspired the characters of Baby Reindeer after viewers managed to identify Richard Gadd's stalker. Speaking in parliament,  policy chief Benjamin King said that Netflix and Clerkenwell Films - who made the hit show - took 'every reasonable precaution in disguising the real-life identities of the people involved in that story.' Mr Gadd, who plays the lead in the series, and has said it is based on his own experiences of being stalked and sexually abused by a high profile comedy agent has urged fans not to look for the characters' real-life counterparts. However, since the show aired, fans have gone crazy over potential theories on who each of the characters could be in reality. Pictured Richard Gadd and Jessica Gunning in the show.