EXCLUSIVE: Leslie Grossman (American Horror Story) 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.
Grossman will play Judalon Smyth, who was Dr. Jerome Oziel’s former patient and mistress who found herself entangled in the Menendez case, and who ultimately played a key role in Lyle and Erik’s arrests.
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, with Ari Graynor as Leslie Abramson.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story will debut in 2024.
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.
The 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.
Grossman has appeared on the last five seasons of Murphy’s American Horror Story. Her other TV credits include recurring roles on Love, Victor, The Goldbergs, Goliath and The Good Place, among others. She’s repped by Innovative Artists and Framework Entertainment.
