How the Inventing Anna Cast Looks Compared to Their Real-LIfe Counterparts

Julia Garner – Anna Delvey/Anna Sorokin

Ozark fans know Garner very well, as she’s played the show’s best character, Ruth Langmore, for the entirety of the show—and has won two Emmys for her work. She also starred in the underrated drama The Assistant and played a smaller role in Netflix’s Maniac. Delvey was briefly released from prison in February 2021 before returning the next month due to a Visa issue. She’s been doing interviews recently, including one with the New York Times, reacting to the Inventing Anna release.

Arian Moayed – Todd Spodek

Anyone who watches Succession knows Moayed as Stewy, Kendall Roy’s not-at-all-to-be-trusted but super charismatic friend (and major shareholder in Waystar/Royco). He’s also shown up in Love Life, and has a series, The Accidental Wolf, that he runs himself. Moayed is fantastic in Inventing Anna, particularly in the last episode (and it’s a blast to see him paired with his Succession co-star Caitlin Fitzgerald!). The man he plays, Delvey’s lawyer Todd Spodek, is still a practicing attorney, and lives in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife and children. Moayed and Spodek met up during production of the show.

Anna Chlumsky – Vivian Kent (Jessica Pressler)

Anna Chlumsky was always best known for her role as the child star of My Girl…until her role in Veep as the ambitious politico Amy Brookheimer (which netted her six Emmy nominations). The character she plays in Inventing Anna, Vivian Kent, is a fictionalized version of journalist Jessica Pressler, who wrote the New York story upon which the series is based. She is still with New York.

Laverne Cox – Kacy Duke

Cox is an LGBTQ+ icon and a four-time Emmy nominee for her role in Orange Is The New Black. She also appeared in a key role in Emerald Fennell’s Oscar-nominated Promising Young Woman, among many other roles. She plays Kacy Duke, a real “celebrity fitness expert,” whose clients include Denzel Washington, Bebe Rexha, Bruce Willis, and Dakota Johnson.

Anthony Edwards – Alan Reed (Andy Lance)

Anthony Edwards made his name on ER, starring in the show’s first eight seasons and earning four Emmy nominations; he’s also appeared in movies such as Zodiac, Revenge of the Nerds, and Top Gun. He plays Alan Reed, who is a fictionalized version of the real-life lawyer who was working with Anna Delvey named Andy Lance.

Katie Lowes – Rachel Williams

Lowes is best known for appearing in 124 episodes of Shonda Rhimes’ hit show Scandal, and has also popped up in movies like Super 8 and Zootopia. She’ll appear next in the CBS comedy series Smallwood. The real Williams, meanwhile, sold her story to Vanity Fair, as depicted in the show, and also wrote a book about the whole Anna situation—and sold the rights to that book to HBO. We’ll see if an adaptation of that winds up getting made. Williams also wrote a piece for TIME about her experience before the Inventing Anna release, and after the debut of the show told Vanity Fair in an interview that she didn’t agree with the message of the series.

Alexis Floyd – Nefftari Davis

Floyd has had a recurring role in The Bold Type and has popped up in Apple TV+’s Dickinson, but playing Neff in Inventing Anna is certainly her biggest role yet. The real Neff—Nefftari Davis—is currently on Instagram at @filmcolors, and pursuing a career in filmmaking, just like the show said. The real Neff actually shared an Instagram photo with Floyd, and both seem to really get along.