Keeper Pictures, the Dublin-based scripted production company whose credits include The Gone and Striking Out, has optioned the exclusive TV adaptation rights to RT Documentary on One's true-crime podcast series Finding Samantha. Under the deal, Keeper Pictures will adapt the hit podcast into a eight-episode drama series. Experienced UK screenwriter, playwright and novelist Emilia di Girolamo has been signed to the project as showrunner.
Finding Samantha documents the stranger-than-fiction story of Australian con artist Samantha Azzopardi, who has created more than 100 false identities since she embarked upon her career of fraud and deception as a 14-year-old girl in Brisbane. The gripping seven-part series has been one of RT Documentary on One's most successful ever podcasts, drawing in millions of listeners from more than 100 countries. Since its release in May 2023, Finding Samantha has hit the number one spot on both Apple Podcasts and Spotify in Ireland. In an unprecedented first for an RT podcast, it also featured in the top five in the Apple Podcast charts in both Australia and New Zealand.
Both the podcast and forthcoming TV adaptation start in 2013, when a distressed 14-year girl was picked up outside the General Post Office in Dublin city centre. Swiftly nicknamed The GPO Girl' by the media, the teenager appeared to be too traumatised to speak. She was duly taken to a children's hospital by the Garda , who assumed that she was a victim of child trafficking. However, after an intense month-long investigation into her identity produced no leads, the police released a photograph of the mute teenager. That resulted in an astonishing call from the other side of the world, which revealed that The GPO Girl' was, in fact, a 25-year-old Australian called Samantha Azzopardi, a sophisticated serial con woman - and a psychological enigma.
Emilia di Girolamo's credits include a string of successful true-crime adaptations. She wrote and executive produced Channel 4 UK's drama Deceit for Channel 4 in the UK, based on the controversial honeytrap at the heart of the investigation into the 1992 murder of Rachel Nickell. She was also head writer and showrunner on The Tunnel: Vengeance for SKY and Law & Order UK for ITV/NBC. Most recently, she created, wrote and show ran Amazon Prime Video's critically acclaimed Montreal-based detective series Three Pines, starring Alfred Molina.
Hugh Ormond, RT Head of Podcasting said This is very exciting for RT and reflects the outstanding growth of the Documentary on One podcast slate over the last 5 years. Partnering a compelling story like Finding Samantha with a drama production house of Keeper's calibre is something we hope to see more of in the coming years .
Emilia di Girolamo said I'm thrilled to partner with Keeper Pictures and the brilliant RT Documentary on One journalists to bring this extraordinary story to screen. Samantha Azzopardi embodies a new breed of 'emotional con woman' trading in attention and sympathy, and her story sits perfectly within our cultural fascination with complex female criminals. Like the podcast, the drama is a psychological excavation that explores the driving forces behind her compulsive deceptions, as well as the damage she inflicted on her many vulnerable victims. The series also delves into the cat-and-mouse games Samantha played with the podcast team, creating a multi-layered narrative that's as much about the pursuit of truth as it is about deception itself .
Yvonne Donohoe, Creative Director and Producer at Keeper Pictures said: Alongside listeners from around the world, we at Keeper Pictures were captivated not only by Samantha Azzopardi's story but also the nuanced and balanced way this podcast, and these journalists in particular, interpret, understand and tell this knotty, fascinating, intense, emotional and thrilling true crime story. We are delighted to have secured the screen rights for the podcast and to be collaborating with a brilliant showrunner who shares our passion for this story but also wants to treat the material with sensitivity and integrity as we bring this story to life in an ambitious, engrossing, water-cooler limited TV drama series.
ENDS
Date: 25 June 2025
For Information:
Maureen Catterson | RT Communications Manager TV, Radio and Online
maureen.catterson@rte.ie
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
26/06/2025
Berklee in Puerto Rico 30th Anniversary Celebration Culminates in Awarding $3.74...
26/06/2025
PITTSBURGH NEP Group has launched Supershooter 10, its' latest IP-powered mobile production unit, which is now supporting major broadcast production around ...
26/06/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. The HDMI Forum has released Version 2.2. of the HDMI Specification with 96Gbps bandwidth and next-gen HDMI Fixed Rate Link technology to provid...
26/06/2025
LAS VEGAS Sphere Entertainment Co. has released new details around the sound, score and infrasound haptic seats for The Wizard of Oz at Sphere, a fully immersiv...
26/06/2025
Registration closes on 8 July 2025
The deadline for entires into the fifth annual MIDI Innovation Awards is now just two weeks away. Product submissions are...
26/06/2025
Entire plug-in range updated
Waves have announced the launch of Waves V16, the latest version of their extensive plug-ins collection. Along with compatibili...
26/06/2025
Keeper Pictures, the Dublin-based scripted production company whose credits include The Gone and Striking Out, has optioned the exclusive TV adaptation rights t...
26/06/2025
This July, RT presents The Phone Box Babies, a documentary revealing new insigh...
26/06/2025
Editor's note: This blog is a part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused o...
26/06/2025
Mark Theriault founded the startup FITY envisioning a line of clever cooling products: cold drink holders that come with freezable pucks to keep beverages cold ...
26/06/2025
This GFN Thursday rolls out a new reward and games for GeForce NOW members. Whether hunting for hot new releases or rediscovering timeless classics, members can...
25/06/2025
Aubrey Plaza getting ready for My Old Ass (photo by George Pimentel/Shutterstock...
25/06/2025
On the set of Leslie McCleave's The Shamrocks with Mount Timpanogos as a backdrop during the 1999 Directors Lab. Photo by Sandria Miller...
25/06/2025
Last week, content creators from all over the world flocked to Anaheim for VidCon 2025, one of the largest creator conferences in the U.S. As an official sponso...
25/06/2025
The combination of L3Harris Falcon radios and Project 25 Trunking waveform delivers a critical interoperable communications capability for the U.S. National Gu...
25/06/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
25/06/2025
YouTube Extends Lead and Tops All Media Distributors for Fourth Consecutive Mont...
25/06/2025
Copenhagen, Denmark - 25 June, 2025 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measu...
25/06/2025
LONDON The IBC Show on Tuesday unveiled plans for its 2025 event, scheduled for Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam....
25/06/2025
Covert Brings Boss' VFX To New Lenovo Legion Campaign
Brie Clayton June 25, 2025
0 Comments
Creative studio Covert recently contributed VFX to A...
25/06/2025
Study Reveals Stark Gender Gap in Jazz Education A new report from the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice and researcher Lara Pellegrinelli finds th...
25/06/2025
Olivia Trusty was officially sworn in to the Federal Communications Commission by Chair Brendan Carr on Monday....
25/06/2025
KRK introduces the Kreate Series Studio Monitors, the newest addition to the brand's wide range of audio offerings. The Kreate monitors bring extraordinary ...
25/06/2025
Collaboration with space-branded real estate specialist brings next level offshoring agility to broadcasters, OTT platforms, media tech and software companies ...
25/06/2025
Sales proceeds from 25 - 26 June 2025 donated to Lambda Legal
Soundtoys have announced that 100% of all sales made on 25 and 26 June 2025 will be donated to...
25/06/2025
No Apollo or UAD hardware required
Universal Audio have announced that their software recreation of Dolby's renowned multiband enhancer - which was laun...
25/06/2025
Recreates AKGs sought-after C24
Warm Audio have announced the launch of a new stereo valve microphone that offers a modern take on AKG's sought-after C2...
25/06/2025
TBS Drama Series Extremely Inappropriate! Uses DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 25, 2025
0 Comments
Tokyo Broadcasting System's hit comedy...
25/06/2025
ESPN said ABC's telecast of the Oklahoma City Thunder's victory over the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals on June 22 was the most-watched fina...
25/06/2025
CLAREMONT, N.C. CommScope has unveiled its new FiberREACH product and has launched the CableGuide 360 platform. Both fall within CommScope's SYSTIMAX 2.0 po...
25/06/2025
LOS ANGELES Allen Media Group streaming platform Local Now today launched 23 news, sports and entertainment channels from Warner Bros. Discovery....
25/06/2025
LONDON Electric Sheep has launched a new AI-powered platform that is designed to provide creators with the hands-on ability to iterate, edit and produce pro-lev...
25/06/2025
NUGEN Audio will host Can You Hear Me Clearly, an online panel discussion on speech intelligibility and why it matters, on Tuesday, July 8 at 2 p.m. EDT (7 p....
25/06/2025
Utelogy Corporation, a global leader in connected workspace management, monitoring, and analytics, is excited to bring Legrand | AV into its Utelligence Allianc...
25/06/2025
Save up to 50% on Kontakt instruments
Emergence Audio have announced that their Infinite Summer Sale promotion is now live, with savings of up to 50% applie...
25/06/2025
How Tulpa Studio Built a Broadcast Ready Workflow on a Budget
Brie Clayton June 24, 2025
0 Comments
Founder Michelangelo Ingrosso reveals how Blackmag...
25/06/2025
Covert Promotes Ben Dubois To Executive Producer/Head Of Client Partnerships
Brie Clayton June 24, 2025
0 Comments
Creative studio Covert has promoted...
25/06/2025
Content Credentials are now available in Adobe Premiere Pro
Colin Smith June 24, 2025
0 Comments
This tutorial demonstrates how to incorporate content...
25/06/2025
The Secret of Resolve's Missing Blend Mode
Simon Ubsdell June 24, 2025
0 Comments
Uncovering an important blend mode missing from both Resolve and...
25/06/2025
CBC Real Estate, a division of Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC), announced tod...
25/06/2025
Jazz at the Fort Returns, Featuring Yoron Israel and High Standards The performance is part of Berklee's Summer in the City concert series.
By
Kelly Won...
25/06/2025
SVG College Summit 2025: Select Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY Tackling the latest in college sports video: NIL, live production, virtual productio...
25/06/2025
ESPN Is Set To Bring AR Graphics to Wimbledon, Revamps Bunker and Studio 18 VO B...
25/06/2025
Rohde & Schwarz selected by Collins Aerospace to upgrade oceanic communications ...
25/06/2025
Back to All News
Teaser for Action Thriller Series Trigger' Unleashes Tens...
25/06/2025
Back to All News
Love, Conflict and Family Drama: Netflix Drops The Trailer For...
25/06/2025
Back to All News
The Ripple Effect of K-Content: How Netflix Viewers Are Embracing Korean Culture
A giant Young-hee presides over the Red Light, Green Light g...
Keeper Pictures, the Dublin-based scripted production company whose credits include The Gone and Striking Out, has optioned the exclusive TV adaptation rights to RT Documentary on One's true-crime podcast series Finding Samantha. Under the deal, Keeper Pictures will adapt the hit podcast into a eight-episode drama series. Experienced UK screenwriter, playwright and novelist Emilia di Girolamo has been signed to the project as showrunner.
