Why People Still Can’t Stop Talking About Elizabeth Holmes

Anyone else feel like their entire social media feed has been obsessed with Elizabeth Holmes for years?

If that name sounds familiar to you, it’s not because she’s that girl from your hometown who just got engaged. And no, she’s not one of the Bravo reality stars who got caught up in “Scandoval.” Rather, she founded Theranos, the company once reputedly valued at $10 billion that was about to revolutionize the health care system…except it never did because it was all based on false promises.

The epic rise and fall of Theranos and Holmes, 39, has all the makings of a classic Hollywood tale: secret office romances, fake voices, many lies, lots of money and, of course, a compelling anti-hero at the center of it all—one who reported to prison on May 30 to begin an 11.25-year sentence for lying to some of the investors who pumped roughly $1 billion into her blood testing company. 

Since the scandal broke in October 2015, Hollywood definitely took notice of Holmes’ story, which has gone on to receive the pop culture version of an EGOT: It inspired a best-selling book (Bad Blood), the HBO documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, a hit podcast called The Dropout, and, of most recently, Hulu’s limited series based on said podcast that earned Amanda Seyfried an Emmy in 2022 for her portrayal of the controversial figure.