Elizabeth Banks to Play Karen Read in Prime Video Drama Series

Prime Video has ordered a scripted drama series about Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman at the center of a high-profile murder case, with Elizabeth Banks set to play Read and serve as an executive producer, according to Variety and Deadline. Amazon has commissioned eight one-hour episodes of the still-untitled show, which was announced Thursday.

The series is inspired by “Karen,” a podcast from Law&Crime that is also an Audible Original. Justin Noble will write the show and serve as showrunner and executive producer, and Warner Bros. Television is the studio, Variety reported. The project was first reported to be in development in 2025; Deadline said it had announced the development deal in August.

Read was accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, on a snowy night in 2022. After a highly watched and discussed trial, she was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter but found guilty of other charges, Deadline noted. The official logline describes a Boston officer found dead in the snow during a blizzard, with “all eyes” on his girlfriend, who claims with her legal team that “she’s not only innocent, but that she’s the victim of a conspiracy protecting the real assailants.” The series, it adds, “explores society’s explosive obsession with true crime.”

Banks framed the project around the case’s impact close to home. “I grew up in Massachusetts, and like so many people there, we watched this case divide families, friends, and entire towns,” she said in a statement. “We have spent years with this material because the questions it raises go far beyond one courtroom: why we choose the stories we believe, and what happens when trust in our institutions breaks down.”

Noble, who co-created HBO Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls” with Mindy Kaling and has written for “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “Never Have I Ever,” said the case “has more twists and turns than any story I’ve ever consumed, real or fictional.” He added: “It makes M. Night Shyamalan look like Nora Ephron.” He said the story offers lessons “about a deeply imperfect justice system that urgently needs change” and “about a victim who deserves to be remembered.”

The show is not authorized by Read. When the project first surfaced in 2025, Read said in an interview with WRKO host Howie Carr, “I have nothing to do with that; it’s not authorized by me in any way,” The Hollywood Reporter recalled. Her attorney Alan Jackson said her story is “Karen Read’s story to tell,” and THR reported that Read is pursuing her own version through LBI Entertainment and a book deal.

Banks will produce through Brownstone Productions alongside Max Handelman and Krissy Wall. David E. Kelley and Matthew Tinker are executive producers for David E. Kelley Productions, joined by Audible’s Aaron Hart, Marshall Lewy, Jeni Mulein and Jen Sargent and Law&Crime’s Rachel Stockman and Dan Abrams. Variety noted it is Banks’ second TV starring role announced in recent months, after a comedy from Liz Heldens at Apple TV; she also starred in Prime Video’s “The Better Sister” in 2025 and directed “Cocaine Bear.” No premiere date has been announced. For more of today’s top stories, visit our Daily News page.

Verification: Series order, episode count, creative team, logline and statements come from Variety (Joe Otterson, Oct. 8) and Deadline (Rosy Cordero, Oct. 8). Read’s 2025 reaction and her attorney’s comment come from The Hollywood Reporter (Tony Maglio, Oct. 8).