Summary
- Richard Gadd's real stalker's identity remains a mystery in Baby Reindeer, as he uses the pseudonym "Martha" for the character's name and seems to have changed revealing details about her.
- Baby Reindeer focuses on the harrowing effects of Martha's stalking through technological and in-person harassment, excluding the physical gifts Richard Gadd received.
- Richard Gadd's 2016 comedy show Monkey See Monkey Do is not a plot point in Netflix's Baby Reindeer, despite the overlapping timeline.
This article contains spoilers for Baby Reindeer (2024) and heavy mention of stalking, harassment, and sexual assault.
Baby Reindeer may be based on creator and star Richard Gadd's real-life stalker, but the hit Netflix miniseries leaves out some details from the true story. Before it was adapted for the small screen, Gadd's Baby Reindeer began as a one-man show that premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe back in August 2019. The autobiographical performance consisted of the then-30-year-old Scottish comedian doing a dramatized re-telling of his real-life experience with a female stalker. Gadd first met the older woman, for whom he uses the pseudonym "Martha," when he served her a free drink at a pub in his 20s.
After winning multiple awards and doing a five-week run at The Bush Theatre in London before moving to the Ambassador’s Theatre (which was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic), Baby Reindeer was eventually reworked into a seven-part miniseries that was released on Netflix on April 11, 2024. In addition to writing all seven episodes of Baby Reindeer, Gadd continued to play the fictionalized version of himself named Donny Dunn in the miniseries. Now that it was no longer a one-man show, the unseen characters from the stage production were cast in Baby Reindeer, with Jessica Gunning playing Martha.
Baby Reindeer is the #1 show on Netflix's Top 10 chart at the time of writing.
While "the skeleton of the story is absolutely true" in Baby Reindeer both onstage and onscreen, Gadd admits that he amped up the thrill factor to dispel the "relentless tediousness and frustration" that actually accompanies getting stalked and harassed more often than not (via The Guardian). When the story took on the medium of television in a limited format, the reality of the situation ended up getting altered even more. Although Gadd insists that the miniseries still "never moved too far from the truth” (via GQ), some elements of Baby Reindeer's true story were left out.
All seven episodes of Baby Reindeer are available to stream on Netflix.
5 Baby Reindeer Does Not Include Richard Gadd's Real Stalker's Name
Gadd Used "Martha" As A Pseudonym For His Stalker In Baby Reindeer
In Baby Reindeer, Donny's stalker's first name is revealed to be Martha almost right away and her last name is confirmed to be "Scott" later in the miniseries. While "Martha" is the same pseudonym Gadd used in the original one-man show, "Martha Scott" is not the name of Gadd's actual stalker in real life. In fact, Gadd has never revealed this woman's real name at all, first or last.
Other details about Gadd's real stalker may have been altered in Baby Reindeer to further conceal her true identity, like her former profession as a lawyer or aspects of her overall appearance.
It appears as though her name isn't the only thing that Gadd changed, either. "We’ve gone to such great lengths to disguise her to the point that I don’t think she would recognize herself," Gadd told GQ about the portrayal of his stalker in Baby Reindeer. He went on to say that the character of Martha is "not a fact-by-fact profile of someone," all of which suggests that other details about Gadd's real stalker may have been altered in Baby Reindeer to further conceal her true identity, like her former profession as a lawyer or aspects of her overall appearance.
When dealing with fictionalized depictions of true events, "you need to change things to protect people," which seems to extend to his stalker in this case.
It's possible that these efforts to obscure his stalker's real identity were to avoid getting sued or simply stoking the fire, but it seems to stem more from Gadd's empathy for this woman, which he's spoken about at length. Gadd has stated many times that he believes that "stalking is a mental illness" and that his own stalker was a victim herself. “I saw someone who was unwell, needed help, [and] was quite vulnerable," he told Radio Times. “I wasn’t dealing with someone who felt calculated or insidious," he echoed to GQ.
As Gadd noted himself, when dealing with fictionalized depictions of true events, "you need to change things to protect people," which seems to extend to his stalker in this case. In his view, "Martha" was not a villainous criminal who deserves to be called out, so exposing the real "Martha" in any capacity would have only caused further harm to someone who's already vulnerable and unstable. “She needs help, but she’s not getting any," he told The Guardian.
4 Baby Reindeer Does Not Specify The Exact Total Number Of Times "Martha" Contacted "Donny"
Gadd's Stalker Sent Him An Alarming Number Of Emails, Tweets, Facebook Messages, Letters, & Voicemails
One aspect of the theatrical production that the Baby Reindeer miniseries kept was the use of Gadd's real-life messages from "Martha" in both audio and written form. In the stage show, the barrage of texts and emails from her were shown onscreen and the seemingly endless voicemails were broadcast over the speakers. Although the phone calls don't arrive until the finale of the miniseries, each episode of Baby Reindeer opens with a typo-ridden email from Martha, in which she calls Donny the titular pet name.
Martha's incessant harassment of Donny via technology is made evident through these storytelling devices.
More of these messages appear against the same black backdrop throughout the episode, giving Donny and the viewer a glimpse into Martha's state of mind at that given moment. Donny's inbox would also occasionally be shown on his laptop screen, flooded with dozens upon dozens of unread e-mails from Martha. Once she gets ahold of his phone number in the finale after he absentmindedly sent it out in a mass email, Martha starts leaving Donny nonstop voicemails, too, which he begins to obsessively dissect. Martha's incessant harassment of Donny via technology is made evident through these storytelling devices.
In reality, Gadd's stalker sent him a total of 41,071 emails, 744 tweets, and 46 Facebook messages. She also wrote him letters totalling 106 pages and left him a total of 350 hours of voicemail messages.
However, Baby Reindeer never reveals the exact total of each type of message the real "Martha" sent during the years she spent stalking Gadd. In reality, Gadd's stalker sent him a total of 41,071 emails, 744 tweets, and 46 Facebook messages. She also wrote him letters totalling 106 pages and left him a total of 350 hours of voicemail messages (via The Independent). The point still gets across, but including the astronomically high count in the police investigation or during her plea hearing would have served to emphasize the sheer degree of her obsession and put it into perspective for the audience.
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