Is ‘The Dropout’ Based on a True Story? The History of Elizabeth Holmes’ Theranos (2025)

Craving some white collar crime this spring? Hulu has you covered thanks to its latest limited series, The Dropout. Starring Amanda Seyfried and Naveen Andrews, this eight-episode saga explores what happened when one Silicon Valley darling moved too quickly and too recklessly.
Even on a surface level, The Dropout is one of the wilder shows to be based on true story. There’s bad dancing, a randomly deepened voice, and awkward Star Wars quotes as far as the eye can see. But that’s what makes this series so fascinating. Almost everything in The Dropout has been taken directly from real life. Consider this your quick and dirty guide to the many lies and crimes of Elizabeth Holmes, Sunny Balwani, and Theranos.

Is The Dropout Based on a True Story?

It certainly is, and it’s a crazy one. The Dropout details the rise and fall of the now-defunct health company Theranos. It also hails from more direct source material. The Hulu miniseries is an adaptation of Rebecca Jarvis and ABC Audio podcast of the same name.

What Is The Dropout About?

Buckle up because we’re about to jump aboard one of the wildest rides in tech. In 2003, Elizabeth Holmes was poised to almost single-handedly change the world of medical technology. That was the year Holmes founded her health technology company Theranos, a corporation that revolved around one central invention. What if instead of countless trips to the doctor with big scary needles, a machine could run hundreds of tests using a single drop of blood? It was an invention that could have made basic health care cheaper, more accessible, and less stressful for the average consumer.
It was also an idea that people quickly got behind. By 2015, Theranos had received a $9 billion valuation. Forbes named Holmes the youngest and wealthiest self-made female billionaire in America. The company also had deals with major institutions such as Safeway, Walgreens, and the U.S. government with plans to put Theranos’ patented blood testing machine — the Edison — in more than 40 Walgreens locations.

If all this sounds too good to be true, you’re catching on. The Edison never worked. On its best day, the machine could generously run 12 tests, a far cry from the 1,000 tests Theranos claimed it could handle. This entire empire came crashing down thanks to academia and journalism. In 2015, Stanford professor John Ioannidis was the first to write that no peer-reviewed research from Theranos had ever been published in any medical research literature. But it was really The Wall Street Journal’s John Carreyrou who pushed the first domino. He was the first to report that Theranos was using traditional blood testing machines instead of their patented Edison. And that was only the beginning of this company’s messy lies.

It was later revealed that Holmes and her then-boyfriend and COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani would routinely staged tours to make it look like the Edison actually worked. Then Vice President Joe Biden even went on one of those tours in an attempt to boost the company’s credibility. For Biden, an entirely fake lab was created. They also consistently faked demonstrations, presented potential investors and government officials with misleading numbers, and even committed wire fraud. In May of 2018, John Carreyrou reported that business and government leaders lost more than $600 million by privately investing in Theranos.

That’s without touching on the human cost of this fraud. Ian Gibbons was a British biochemist who was the chief scientist of Theranos. Gibbons often butted heads against Holmes, arguing that they couldn’t move forward because the technology wasn’t working. In 2011, he was sucked into a patent theft case that involved Holmes and Richard Fuisz. Gibbons became depressed after he was subpoenaed for the case. The day before he was supposed to testify, Gibbons took a combination of medicine and alcohol. He died in the hospital from liver failure roughly a week later.
Then there are the, frankly, odd details about this case. Holmes almost exclusively drank green juice. She spoke in a consciously deepened voice and would often quote Yoda. So, yes. All of the bizarre, heart-breaking, infuriating details in The Dropout basically happened. Carreyrou’s book, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, serves as an excellent deep dive into this stranger-than-fiction story.

Is There an Elizabeth Holmes Documentary?

There’s a chance you’ve watched this story before. In 2019, HBO and director Alex Gibney released the documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley.It’s considered to be a companion piece to Carreyrou’s Bad Blood. If you want to watch something that clearly explains the crimes Holmes and Balwani committed, The Inventor is a great option. Watch it before you dive into The Dropout so you can fully understand how chilling Amanda Seyfried’s monologues are.

What Happened to Theranos?

Though the lies that built Theranos were uncovered in 2015, the company lasted three more years. Following The Wall Street Journal‘s reports, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services inspected one of the company’s facilities and declared that it posed “immediate jeopardy” to patient health. Around the same time, Walgreens and Capital BlueCross announced that they would be suspending Theranos tests. Then came the SEC. The company came under fire for allegedly misleading investors and government officials about its tech.
Theranos officially shut down on September 4, 2018. An email was sent to investors stating that the company would cease operation and that any remaining assets and cash would go to its creditors. As for the SEC investigation, Holmes reached a settlement that required her to pay $500,000, forfeit 19 million shares of company stock, and be barred from having a leadership position in any public company for 10 years. Balwani did not settle.

What Happened to Elizabeth Holmes? Is Elizabeth Holmes in Prison?

We’ve covered the crimes, so what about the punishment? In January, Holmes was found guilty of four counts of defrauding investors. Those included three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Holmes did catch a break in her trial. She was found not guilty on four charges of defrauding patients.
Homes is currently waiting for her sentencing, which will take place on September 26 of this year. She faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison as well as a fine of $250,000 plus restitution for each count of wire fraud. Until her trial, Holmes is walking as a free woman on bail. Forget hot girl summer. Now’s the time for Holmes girl summer.

Watch The Dropout on Hulu