Anthony Boyle (“Masters of the Air”) and Julia Garner (“Ozark”) have signed on to play the leads in “The Altruists,” a new Netflix limited series that will chart the real-life rise and fall of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange.
Boyle will play FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, while Garner will star opposite him as Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, the cryptocurrency trading firm co-founded by Bankman-Fried. For their roles in FTX’s implosion, both Ellison and Bankman-Fried were indicted on, among other crimes, counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Ellison is currently serving a two-year prison sentence for her crimes, while Bankman-Fried was sentenced in 2024 to 25 years in prison.
Netflix’s logline for “The Altruists” promises that the series will tell the story of how Bankman-Fried and Ellison, a pair of hyper-smart, ambitious young idealists, tried to remake the global financial system overnight only to seduce, coax and tease each other into stealing $8 billion. The eight-episode limited series comes from co-showrunners Graham Moore (“The Imitation Game”) and Jacqueline Hoyt (“The Underground Railroad”).
“For nearly three years now, Sam and Caroline’s story has been my daily obsession. I’m so grateful to my friends at Netflix and Higher Ground for loving this story not only as much as I do, but in the same way that I do,” Moore said in a statement. “We can’t wait to show all of you why.”
Moore and Hoyt are set to executive produce the limited series alongside Garner, Higher Ground Productions’ Vinnie Malhotra and Jessie Dicovitsky, New York Magazine/Vox Media Studios’ Scoop Wasserstein, Tonia Davis, Lauren Morelli and “Daisy Jones & The Six” director James Ponsoldt. In addition to executive producing “The Altruists,” Ponsoldt will also direct its first episode.
“The Altruists” is the latest project to come from the ongoing collaboration between Netflix and Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground, which has previously produced Netflix originals like “Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds,” “Starting 5,” “Leave the World Behind,” “American Symphony” and “Rustin.”
Garner, for her part, is no stranger to playing real-life convicted criminals. She previously portrayed infamous con artist and fraudster Anna Delvey in Shonda Rhimes’ Netflix miniseries “Inventing Anna.” Garner was nominated for an Emmy in 2022 for her performance in the series.
