Paramount+ today announced that Emmy-nominated and Tony Award-winning actress Annaleigh Ashford (Welcome to Chippendales, Impeachment: American Crime Story) will star in the new original drama series HAPPY FACE. Michael Showalter (The Dropout, The Eyes of Tammy Faye) has been tapped to direct the first episode. The eight-episode first season will begin production this year and premiere exclusively on Paramount+ in 2025. HAPPY FACE is executive produced by Jennifer Cacicio –who also serves as showrunner – and Robert and Michelle King, Liz Glotzer, Melissa Moore, Conal Byrne, Will Pearson, Michael Showalter and Jordana Mollick.
Ashford will play the lead role of Melissa in the series, which is inspired by the true-life story of Melissa Moore; the critically acclaimed Happy Face podcast from iHeartPodcasts and Moore; and the autobiography Shattered Silence, written by Moore with M. Bridget Cook. At 15, Moore discovered that her beloved father was the prolific serial killer known as “Happy Face.” As an adult, she has changed her name and guarded her secret while her father has been serving life in prison.
Jumping off from Moore’s true-life story, in HAPPY FACE for Paramount+, Melissa’s father contacts her to take credit for another victim, pulling her into an extraordinary investigation of her father and his crimes. As she discovers the impact her father had on his victims’ families, she must face a reckoning of her own identity.
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