The Netflix series Baby Reindeer took the world by storm when it introduced legions of viewers to the thinly veiled semi-autobiographical tale of Donny Dunn (Richard Gadd) and his stalker, Martha Scott. According to the Daily Record, Martha’s real identity has now been revealed.
While the seven-episode series is terrifying as fiction, Baby Reindeer is based on a true story, which adds new shades of horror to the story. The show’s writer and creator, Richard Gadd, plays a fictionalized version of himself, and the experience Gadd says he had in 2015 when the real Martha Scott (played by Jessica Gunning) started stalking him.
Like any film or television show that claims to be based on a true story, internet sleuths tried to crack the case around who the real-life version of Martha might be shortly after the show premiered. The quest to uncover her identity was heightened by the fact that Baby Reindeer includes news articles referencing her former stalking victims as well as emails received by Dunn that seem directly pulled from Gadd’s real inbox.
All the while Gadd has refused to answer the ultimate question, despite his show’s resounding success: Who is the real-life inspiration for Baby Reindeer’s Martha? Now, according to the Daily Record, the mystery has been solved.
Martha Scott’s real name is Fiona Harvey
It wasn’t Richard Gadd who revealed Martha Scott’s real name, but Fiona Harvey herself — i.e., the woman who said she’s the real person the character is based on, and Harvey takes issue with several points in the show compared to what she says really happened.
Harvey told the Daily Record, “I give you my permission to name me because people have to know what is going on.” In Baby Reindeer, the Martha Scott character spends time behind bars both before and after she stalked Gadd’s character, Donny Dunn, but according to Harvey, she never went to jail.
“Gadd needs to prove I went to jail which just didn’t happen. I’ve never been sent to jail. That is blatantly obvious,” Harvey told the outlet. “Police at your door would be the first thing, then you’d be charged, then you would have a trial. Then you’d be fined or something or go to prison. This is all made up and hyperbole. There are no restraining orders, injunctions, or interdicts anywhere. There’s just no way. I’ve not had the police at my door about any of these things.”
But like the fictional Scott, Harvey says she’s a lawyer. She told the Daily Record she planned legal action against Gadd and Netflix. “It’s a load of rubbish,” Harvey said, referring to the show. “I don’t have any money, but I’m a perfectly capable lawyer so I will represent myself.”
Some online sleuths figured it was Fiona Harvey all along
News that Fiona Harvey is the real Martha Scott likely came as no surprise to some online sleuths. Much of the online chatter around Martha’s real identity had already pointed to Harvey when X/Twitter posts from 2014 were uncovered, in which she mentions Gadd by name multiple times, and claims to have appeared at his stand-up comedy sets — as the character of Martha does on the show.
Making the case more convincing, Harvey’s posts have similar spelling errors as those depicted in Martha’s emails on Baby Reindeer. Additionally, many of Harvey’s social media posts mention visiting a pub in Camden — the same location as on Baby Reindeer — while her Facebook bio claims she is a lawyer.
Perhaps the most damning evidence came from a post on X in 2014, in which Harvey wrote that she needs her “curtains hung badly.” This is a direct reference to early episodes in Baby Reindeer, when Donny makes the same joke and kickstarts Martha’s infatuation with him. Another name put forward by internet sleuths in relation to Martha’s identity is Helen Faure, a stalker who was convicted last year for harassing a civil litigation barrister in the U.K.
While Faure’s case feels eerily similar to the one depicted in Baby Reindeer, fans were quick to point out that Faure would have been in prison around the time that the events of the show took place in 2015.
In any case, Gadd himself had refused to name the real-life inspiration for Martha, reiterating the woman’s mental illness and saying the character presents “an emotional truth, not a fact-by-fact profile of someone … We’ve gone to such great lengths to disguise her to the point that I don’t think she would recognize herself.” Gadd did say that given how events played out in real life, he isn’t concerned that Baby Reindeer will elicit a response from the real-life Martha.
Perhaps more pressing than the real-life counterpart of Martha is that of the character Darrien ( Tom Goodman-Hill); however, defamation laws in the UK will prevent him from being publicly named. Either way, Baby Reindeer chatter won’t die down anytime soon, especially now that the real Martha Scott has spoken publicly.
