EXCLUSIVE: Ari Graynor (Winning Time) has joined Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the second installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime anthology series for Netflix.
Graynor will play Leslie Abramson, one of the most prominent Los Angeles defense attorneys in the 1980s and 90s who became lead counsel for Erik Menendez.
On Monsters, Graynor joins Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch, who play Lyle and Erik, respectively, as well as Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny, who portray their parents. Nathan Lane also stars as Dominick Dunne.
Murphy and Brennan executive produce with Alexis Martin Woodall, Eric Kovtun, David McMillan, Louise Shore and Carl Franklin.
It was in 1989 that Lyle and Erik Menendez murdered parents Jose and Kitty in their L.A.-area home. Although not initially looked at as prime suspects, they came under investigation in the months following and eventually confessed to parricide, at the same time claiming that their actions stemmed from years of physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of their father.
Their first of two trials, broadcast on Court TV, had the nation in its grip, much like the 1994 trial of O.J. Simpson, and is believed to have played a part in the modern-day fascination with true crime. The prosecution argued that the pair were in fact seeking to inherit their father’s multimillion-dollar estate, and the Menendez brothers were convicted in 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole.
The first installment of the anthology, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, starred Evan Peters as the notorious serial killer. It debuted in September 2022 and became one of Netflix’s most popular English-language series ever, leading to Netflix’s green light of two follow-up installments, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story being the first.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story will debut in 2024.
Graynor was most recently seen in a key recurring role in Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty for HBO. Her other previous credits include Apple TV’s Surface, FX’s Mrs. America, Showtime’s I’m Dying Up Here and the legendary series, The Sopranos. Her film work includes For A Good Time Call, The Front Runner, The Disaster Artist, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist and more. Graynor is repped by UTA, Entertainment 360, and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler, Feldman & Clark.
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