See the "Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox" cast sidebyside with the real people they play Randall ColburnAugust 24, 2025 at 12:00 AM Oli Scarff/Getty; Disney/Adrienn Szabo Grace Van Patten plays Amanda Knox in Hulu's new seriesKey Points The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox is a new series about the reallife ...
- - See the "Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox" cast side-by-side with the real people they play
Randall ColburnAugust 24, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Oli Scarff/Getty; Disney/Adrienn Szabo
Grace Van Patten plays Amanda Knox in Hulu's new seriesKey Points -
The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox is a new series about the real-life saga of Amanda Knox, an American exchange student wrongly convicted of murder in Italy.
Knox serves as an executive producer on the series, which stars Grace Van Patten, Sharon Horgan, and Francesco Acquaroli.
The first two episodes are now streaming on Hulu.
What happened to Amanda Knox was certainly twisted.
A subject of fervent tabloid fodder, the Seattle-born exchange student was wrongly convicted of murder in 2009 and imprisoned abroad for years before being exonerated in 2015.
The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, a limited series now streaming on Hulu, is the latest dramatization of her journey, but it's the first where Knox serves as an executive producer. K.J. Steinberg is the showrunner on the series, which stars Tell Me Lies breakout Grace Van Patten as Knox.
The project is one point in Knox's long quest to reshape her public image after she was arrested for the 2007 murder of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, with whom she lived while studying abroad in Perugia, Italy.
Throughout her trial, international media outlets sensationalized the proceedings while dubbing her "Foxy Knoxy." After her exoneration, an Italian court determined that the media attention "did not (facilitate) seeking the truth," and criticized the poor police work with which the case was handled.
Several real-life players in Knox's saga are portrayed in the series, from prosecutor Giuliano Mignini to her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who was also convicted and later exonerated for Kercher's murder. Below, we break down who's playing who (and provide side-by-side photos of
Read on to see the actors side-by-side with the real people they play.
01 of 06
Grace Van Patten as Amanda Knox
Pietro Crocchioni/EPA/Shutterstock; Disney/Andrea Miconi
Amanda Knox accompanied by security in on Sept. 26, 2008, in Perugia, Italy; Grace Van Patten as Knox on 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'
Grace Van Patten leads The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox as the titular American exchange student in Perugia, Italy, who's wrongly accused of murdering her British roommate.
Steinberg spoke with Entertainment Weekly about her approach to portraying Knox onscreen. Interestingly, she used Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amélie, the movie Knox says she and Sollecito watched the night of Kercher's murder, as a point of inspiration.
"I found that her connection to Amélie really was reflective of a worldview of the person she was before all of this happened," Steinberg said. "The innocence, the romantic idealism, the naiveté, the appetite for adventure — all of those things were very representative of who Amanda was and what was stolen from both Amanda and Meredith and their families, and the people surrounding them who were re-victimized by the injustice that ensued."
She continued, "It seemed only appropriate to help the audience get to know her as a person before the false imprisonment, before the false accusations, before the crime, because that's not who she is. That is what her story became, but that's not who she is as a human being."
Speaking with Elle, Van Patten, too, reflected on the importance of shining a new light on Knox. "It feels weird to even call it a role," she said. "It felt so much bigger and more important than that, because we were all helping somebody reclaim their story."
Though she's just 28 years old, Van Patten has been acting for two decades. Early parts on series like The Sopranos (2006) and Boardwalk Empire (2014) gave way to larger roles in films like Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories (2017) and David Robert Mitchell's Under the Silver Lake (2018).
A pair of starring roles on Hulu — Nine Perfect Strangers (2021) and Tell Me Lies (2022–present) — cemented Van Patten as a rising star.
02 of 06
Sharon Horgan as Edda Mellas
Giuseppe Bellini/Getty; Disney/Andrea Miconi
Edda Mellas at Amanda Knox's trial on November 30, 2009, in Perugia, Italy; Sharon Horgan as Mellas on 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'
Irish actress, director, and producer Sharon Horgan costars on The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox as Edda Mellas, Knox's mother.
"If you've ever questioned the portrayal of women in the media, especially young women who dare to have a sexuality then this will be eye opening," Horgan wrote in an Instagram post promoting the series. "At a time when the world is constantly dealing with the impact of misinformation, the show explores how bias shapes narratives."
The Emmy-nominated, BAFTA-winning Horgan has appeared in films such as Game Night (2018) and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022). She's also found success as the creator and star of comic series such as Pulling (2006–2009), Catastrophe (2015–2019), and Bad Sisters (2022–present), the latter an EW favorite.
03 of 06
John Hoogenakker as Curt Knox
Ray Tamarra/Getty; Disney/Andrea Miconi
Curt Knox on 'Good Morning America' on May 2, 2013; John Hoogenakker as Curt on 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'
John Hoogenakker appears in The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox as Curt Knox, Amanda's father.
Knox spoke about the support of her parents over the years in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "From the second I remember existing, my family conveyed that I matter, that I'm loved," she said. "Even when the world deconstructed me — past, present, future — and told me I don't matter, deep down I knew they were wrong. That love prepared me to endure and not be broken."
A veteran of the stage and screen, Hoogenakker is best known for his supporting turns on Amazon Prime's Jack Ryan (2018–2019) and Hulu's Emmy-winning series Dopesick (2021). He also played key roles on Castle Rock (2019) and Waco: The Aftermath (2023).
The actor has several projects in the works, including Paul Thomas Anderson's highly anticipated film One Battle After Another and a guest spot on season 4 of the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show.
04 of 06
Giuseppe De Domenico as Raffaele Sollecito
Franco Origlia/Getty; Disney/Andrea Miconi
Raffaele Sollecito on September 14, 2009, in Perugia, Italy; Giuseppe De Domenico as Sollecito on 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'
The Sicily-born Giuseppe De Domenico costars as Raffaele Sollecito, the Italian student who briefly dated Knox before getting swept up with her in the case of Kercher's murder.
"One thing I wanted to convey was the love-lost story between me and Raffaele," Knox told The Hollywood Reporter. "We'd met and were just eight days into young love before we were arrested."
An actor on the rise, De Domenico has primarily featured in Italian productions, including the Amazon Prime series Bang Bang Baby (2022) and Maura Delporo's Vermiglio (2024). The latter film won the Grand Jury Prize at the 81st Venice International Film Festival and was nominated for a Golden Globe.
05 of 06
Francesco Acquaroli as Giuliano Mignini
MARIO LAPORTA/AFP via Getty; Disney/Andrea Miconi
Giuliano Mignini at Amanda Knox's appeal trial on Sept. 23, 2011, in Perugia, Italy; Francesco Acquaroli as Mignini on 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'
Italian actor Francesco Acquaroli stars on The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox as Giuliano Mignini, the dogged prosecutor who painted Knox as a sex-crazed killer and compared her to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
Knox maintains a complex relationship with the real-life Mignini, with whom she eventually struck up an email correspondence. "I'm not a person whose faith, for example, compels them to forgive. That was not my goal," Knox told PEOPLE while promoting her latest book, Free: My Search For Meaning. "My goal was to understand him... there was this deep curiosity in me to try to understand this person who decided that I was a dangerous person, who deserved to spend the most years of my life in prison."
She even journeyed to Italy in 2022 to speak with him in person, a meeting that's reportedly dramatized on the series.
"I think the real trick and the real cool flip is how I went from being a pawn and powerless in his story and him having all of this agency over my well-being, as soon as we met, that flipped," Knox explained. "And suddenly I went from feeling utterly powerless to a superhero, and no one could stop me. And that has felt so good. That is being free."
Acquaroli, who many reviews have cited as a highlight of the series, has been acting in Italy and elsewhere for nearly 40 years. During his long career, he's worked with several acclaimed filmmakers, including Abel Ferrara (Pasolini) and Costa-Gavras (Adults in the Room). He also appeared on series like Netflix's Suburra: Blood on Rome (2017–2020) and FX's Fargo (2020).
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Roberta Mattei as Monica Napoleoni
Disney/Adrienn Szabó
Roberta Mattei as Monica Napoleoni on 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'
Roberta Mattei plays Detective Superintendent Monica Napoleoni, one of the first investigators to arrive at the scene of Kercher's murder.
Mattei has been a regular presence in Italian film and television for nearly two decades, with credits that include the sports drama Italian Race (2016), Netflix superhero series Zero (2021), and the eco-thriller Never Too Late (2024).
Where can I watch The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox?
Disney/Andrea Miconi
Grace Van Patten as Amanda Knox on 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'
The first two episodes of The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox are now streaming on Hulu. New episodes drop weekly through October 1.
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