Baby Rena: creator asks fans to stop looking for the stalker’s identity in real life

Released on April 11th in the Netflix catalogue, Baby Reindeer caught the public’s attention by telling the fictional story of comedian Donny Dunn (Richard Gadd), who is pursued by Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning). In its seven episodes, it shows how this growing obsession results in violence and a series of abuses.

Although the story told on screen is fictional, the fact that it is inspired by real-world events is what has stuck in the minds of many viewers. In some cases, they are dedicating themselves to investigating the events that actually happened to discover and expose the identity of the stalker who inspired Martha — something the series creator doesn’t want to happen.

Creator asks Baby Rena fans to control their emotions

Responsible for creating Baby ReindeerRichard Gadd himself used his personal Instagram account to ask the public to stop looking for the real-life stalker. According to him, many people are crossing the line and are not understanding that the objective of the series is not to encourage anyone to persecute.

He highlighted that speculation has already resulted in losses for one of his colleagues, who was wrongly identified as responsible for the abuses. “People I love, worked with, and admire (including Sean Foley) are being unfairly implicated in speculation. Please do not speculate about who any of the people might be in real life.”, he stated.

Before becoming a Netflix series, Baby Reindeer was the theme of an autobiographical comedy show that Gadd presented for the first time in 2019. Awarded at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the play was temporarily canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but was shown again months later, winning the Olivier Award.

Gadd prefers to be discreet about his abusers

Before making the request to fans, the creator had already emphasized that considered it very important to protect the real identities of the figures he portrayed. To do this, he not only changed names, but also changed details of his personal history to prevent these people from being identified.

According to Gadd, the real-life Martha was an “idiosyncratic” figure who began sending a lot of messages and showing obsessive behaviors. Unlike the series, the real story did not end in a lawsuit. However, the actor prefers not to go into detail about the matter, limiting himself to stating that he considers it to be something completely resolved.