Kate McKinnon Leaves ‘The Dropout’ Elizabeth Holmes Hulu Limited Series – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Kate McKinnon gave up The dropout, Hulu’s limited drama series based on the ABC News / ABC Radio podcast about the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos.

McKinnon had been attached to the project from the start. Hulu has The dropout a series a direct order from the series almost two years ago, in April 2019, with the winner of Emmy Saturday Night Live veteran as a star and executive producer.

The dropout moving forward without McKinnon, sources say. The search is underway for a new actress to play Holmes, the disgraced prodigious entrepreneur, with production targeting an early summer.

Meanwhile, McKinnon remains determined to play another notorious character ripped from the headlines in a podcast-based limited series; she should play the role of Carole Baskin in Exotic Joe, which will air on NBC, USA and NBCUniversal’s Peacock.

Produced by Disney’s Searchlight Television, The dropout is produced by podcast host / creator Rebecca Jarvis and producers Taylor Dunn and Victoria Thompson.

The dropout launched as a podcast in late January 2019 and turned into a two-hour documentary aired on ABC News’ 20/20 in March of the same year.

Holmes, a chemical engineering prodigy, left Stanford to start a health technology company promising to revolutionize blood testing, which became Theranos. The high-flying tech startup was ultimately denounced as a “massive fraud” and, in 2018, a federal grand jury indicted Holmes and the former CEO of Theranos with nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by wire for the distribution of blood tests. with falsified results for consumers.

McKinnon is one of NBC’s most popular actors Saturday Night Live where she has been since 2012. She has earned seven Emmy nominations for her work on the sketch comedy program, winning in 2016 and 2017.