Amanda Seyfried to play disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in Hulu’s The Dropout

Amanda Seyfried is following up her acclaimed role in Mank and her first Oscar nomination with a starring role as the disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.

The 35-year-old actress will play the lead role in Hulu’s upcoming limited series The Dropout, which is based on the ABC News/ABC Radio podcast of the same name, Deadline reported on Monday.

SNL star Kate McKinnon had originally signed on to play the role of the alleged fraudster before dropping out in February.

Ripped from the headlines: Amanda Seyfried, 35, will star as disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in Hulu’s The Dropout, Deadline reported on Monday; seen in 2019 in Venice

Seyfried will do double duty as one of the miniseries’ executive producers, in addition to starring in it.

The original ABC podcast documented Holmes meteoric rise from a Stanford University dropout to founding Theranos. 

The company, which was shut down in September 2018, claimed to have developed a breakthrough technology allowing it to do blood tests using much smaller samples than is normally required.

The tests would have helped those with fears of needles, and the company also claimed to have automated machines that could test the blood quickly. 

Disgraced: Theranos went from dropping out of Stanford to founding the blood testing company Theranos, though its claims about requiring less blood than other methods were found to be false; seen in 2015 in San Francisco

Disgraced: Theranos went from dropping out of Stanford to founding the blood testing company Theranos, though its claims about requiring less blood than other methods were found to be false; seen in 2015 in San Francisco

Moving on: SNL star Kate McKinnon had originally signed on to play the role of the alleged fraudster before dropping out in February; seen at the Gold Globes in January 2020

Moving on: SNL star Kate McKinnon had originally signed on to play the role of the alleged fraudster before dropping out in February; seen at the Gold Globes in January 2020

Theranos raised hundreds of millions from investors and was valued at $10 billion in the mid-2010s. 

However, a series of investigative pieces by John Carreyrou in The Wall Street Journal and the work of medical researchers John Ioannidis and Eleftherios Diamandis revealed that the company’s claims about its tests were false.

Holmes agreed to pay a fine of $500,000 to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and gave up all of her Theranos stock after she was accused of fraud, reducing her personal net worth to essentially zero.

In 2018, the US Attorney for the Northern District of California indicted her on wire fraud and conspiracy charges, though her trial has been delayed multiple times due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Holmes was able to charm several high-profile people into becoming board members, including former Secretaries of State George Schultz and Henry Kissinger and retired general James Mattis, who served as the first secretary of defense to President Donald Trump. 

Liar liar: Theranos raised hundreds of millions and was valued at $10 billion in the mid-2010s, but Holmes was indicted on fraud and conspiracy charges after reporting in The Wall Street Journal revealed her deception; seen in 2015 on Squawk Box

Liar liar: Theranos raised hundreds of millions and was valued at $10 billion in the mid-2010s, but Holmes was indicted on fraud and conspiracy charges after reporting in The Wall Street Journal revealed her deception; seen in 2015 on Squawk Box

First time: Seyfried's new role comes after she had a blockbuster year in which she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars for David Fincher's Netflix film Mank; seen in 2019

First time: Seyfried’s new role comes after she had a blockbuster year in which she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars for David Fincher’s Netflix film Mank; seen in 2019

Seyfried’s new role comes after she had a blockbuster year with her supporting role in the Oscar hopeful Mank.

The film stars Gary Oldman as the screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who co-wrote the classic film Citizen Kane with its star and director, Orson Welles.

Mankiewicz shared the films only Academy Award, for its screenplay, with Welles. 

Mank, directed by Se7en’s David Fincher, follows Mankiewicz from his work in the 1930s on political campaigns and propaganda films to his collaboration with Welles on Kane.

Seyfried appears in the film as Marion Davies, the actress and lover of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, who served as the inspiration for Welles’ title character in Citizen Kane.

The film has received plenty of critical acclaim and was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor, along with a host of technical nominations.

Hollywood: Gary Oldman stars as Citizen Kane co-screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, shown on political projects in the 1930s and while working on Kane with Orson Welles in the early 1940s

Hollywood: Gary Oldman stars as Citizen Kane co-screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, shown on political projects in the 1930s and while working on Kane with Orson Welles in the early 1940s

First time: Seyfried appears as Marion Davies, the actress and lover of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, who was the inspiration for Welles' film. Her Oscar nom is her first ever

First time: Seyfried appears as Marion Davies, the actress and lover of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, who was the inspiration for Welles’ film. Her Oscar nom is her first ever