EXCLUSIVE: Catriona Chandler (Disney+’s Rivals) has landed the title role in HBO‘s true-crime limited series, The Trial of Louise Woodward, Deadline has learned.
Also newly set for a role is Downton Abbey‘s Joanne Froggatt, who will play Louise’s mother, Susan.
Created by Matthew Barry, who serves as showrunner, writer and exec producer, The Trial of Louise Woodward tells the shocking true story of how, in 1997, an 18-year-old British au pair was accused of shaking to death a baby left in her care by her American host family, setting off an international media firestorm as the trial unfolds in full view of both the British and American public.
We recently announced the series order, along with the casting of Meghann Fahy and Sagar Radia as Deborah and Sunil Eappen — parents of the victim, Matthew Eappen.
Watch on Deadline
Other exec producers include Susanne Bier, who directs all episodes, as well as Big Light Productions founder Frank Spotnitz, Emily Feller, Tobi de Graaff, Antoine Douaihy, and Anton TV.
Production kicks off this month.
Chandler is best known for starring in Rivals, the period comedy-drama for Disney+ and Hulu, based on the Rutshire Chronicles novels by Jilly Cooper, which returned for its second season this year. Recently, she’s also been seen in Wild Cherry (BBC) and The Wives (Channel 5), with additional credits including FX’s Pistol and Netflix’s Enola Holmes 2. She is repped by Curtis Brown Group and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.
A Golden Globe winner and three-time Emmy nominee, Froggatt is known for her role as Anna Bates, head housemaid at Downton Abbey — both in the lauded British historical drama of the same name, which ran for six seasons, and in the trilogy of films that followed, which brought in over $389 million worldwide. Froggatt has more recently been seen starring in Paramount+’s MobLand, from director Guy Ritchie, and is now filming a role alongside Matt Dillon in the MGM+ series The Magnificent Seven. She is repped by Conway van Gelder Grant, Paradigm, and Principal Entertainment LA.
