Is The Crowded Room Based on a True Story? Here’s Everything We Know

New psychological thriller The crowded room is now available on Apple TV+ and viewers want to know if it’s based on a true story.

If you are a true crime addict and have been fascinated by what you are watching The Sixth Commandment on BBC or Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story on Netflix, you can then add this series to your “must watch” list.

With a star-studded cast including Spider Man’with Tom Holland, Mamma Mia! Amanda Seyfried and Strange things Will Chase, the 10-part drama, tells the disturbing story of a man named Billy Milligan and his involvement in a shooting in New York City.

Created by filmmaker Akiva Goldsman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter behind A beautiful mindThe crime thriller follows Holland’s character as he uncovers dark secrets about his past, while we examine whether it is based on a true story…

Is The Crowded Room based on a true story?

Yes, The crowded room is loosely based on the true story of Billy Milligan, who was acquitted of a series of disturbing crimes. He was the first person in U.S. history to be found not guilty by reason of multiple personality disorder (now known as dissociative identity disorder).

Milligan was involved in a high-profile court case in Ohio in the late 1970s. In 1977, at the age of 22, he was arrested for kidnapping, robbing, and raping three women on the campus of Ohio State University. He was on parole at the time after being imprisoned for rape and robbery.

Apple TV+ original follows award-winning 1981 book The Spirits of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes, and is inspired by the life of Billy Milligan.

The main character of M. Night Shyamalan’s 2016 film DivideKevin Crumb (played by James McAvoy) was also inspired by Milligan.

And more recently, his story was told in a 2021 Netflix documentary, Monsters Within: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan.

One of the victims identified Milligan from a mugshot lineup. He was jailed, assigned a lawyer, and evaluated by a psychologist. It was during these sessions that he told investigators that it was his other selves who had committed the heinous crimes.

Known as the “campus rapist,” Milligan told psychologists that “Ragen,” a 23-year-old man with a Slavic accent, robbed the women and that “Adalana,” a 19-year-old lesbian, raped them. In preparing his defense, psychologists diagnosed Milligan with dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder).

His lawyers pleaded insanity, arguing that two of his ten alternate personalities had committed the crimes without his knowledge. On December 4, 1978, Milligan was acquitted and, instead of being imprisoned, he spent a decade in mental hospitals.

Apple TV+’s 10-episode thriller is produced by and stars Danny Sullivan. The fictional miniseries loosely follows the story of Sullivan, who was arrested after a shooting in 1979. While the drama is set in New York, Milligan’s crimes took place in Ohio.

Told through a series of interrogations with interrogator Rya Goodwin (Seyfried), his dark past is revealed. You can watch the official trailer for Crowded Room below…

The Crowded Room Cast

The Crowded Room has a star-studded cast with Tom Holland – who produced the drama – Amanda Seyfried and Emmy Rossum And Go huntingSeyfried’s actor husband Thomas Sadoski also stars as Matty Dunne and the actor son of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman Levon Hawke plays Jonny.

Holland told The Hollywood Reporter that he had read The Life of Billy Milligan and was excited to be a part of the Apple TV+ series and work with filmmaker Goldsman.

“I read the book and was really impressed with the opportunity it presented for me as an actor. I immediately felt safe with Akiva. I trusted him. It was pretty easy from there.”

The Crowded Room Full Cast

• Tom Holland as Danny Sullivan (previous credits include Spider-Man, The Impossible, Captain America)

• Amanda Seyfried like Rya Goodwin (Mamma Mia!, Mean Girls, In Time)

• Emmy Rossum like Candy, Danny’s mother (Shameless USA, The Day After Tomorrow, Beautiful Creatures)

• Go hunting like Marlin Reid (Dopesick, Stranger Things, Nashville)

• Sacha Lane like Ariana ((American Honey, Conversations Between Friends, Hellboy)

• Zachary Golinger as young Danny Sullivan (Barry, A Quiet Place I and II, The Survivor)

• Henry Eikenberry like Doug (Frankenstein, Euphoria)

• Thomas Sadoski like Matty Dunne (The Press Room, The Last Word, Life in Pieces)

• Thomas Parobek like Ezra (Cobra Kai I love dogs)

• Lior Raz like Yitzhak Safdie (Hit & Run, Fauda and Segev)

• Nuala Cleary like Eden (Three anniversaries, Law & Order)

• Henry Zaga like Phillip (Beyond the Universe, The New Mutants, Trinkets)

• Levon Hawke like Jonny (Blackout, The Thicket)

• Christopher Abbott like Stan (Catch-22)

• Sam Vartholomeos like Mike (Bridge and Tunnel, Star Trek: Discovery)

• Emma Laird as Danny’s high school girlfriend (Mayor of Kingstown, A Haunting in Venice, The Brutalist)

Who is the character Danny Sullivan based on?

The character of Danny Sullivan is loosely based on Billy Milligan, who, as previously mentioned, was the first person in the United States to be acquitted of a crime by reason of insanity caused by dissociative personality disorder. Instead of being imprisoned, he was sent to a mental institution.

Before Milligan was tried, experts diagnosed him with 10 different personalities and suspected his mental illness was caused by the severe physical and sexual abuse he allegedly suffered at the hands of his stepfather Chalmer Milligan.

Both during his trial and in the Netflix documentary Monsters Within: The 24 Faces of Billy MilliganMilligan’s mother, brother and sister have spoken of the torment and brutality he endured at the hands of his stepfather. Chalmer, who died in 1988, has always denied the allegations.

Milligan was released from psychiatric care in 1991. He died of cancer at the age of 59 in 2014.

The Crowded Room Release Date

The Crowded Room was first released on June 9, 2023, and the final episode arrived on AppleTV+ on Friday, July 28, 2023. All 10 episodes are now available to stream on the platform.

In other TV news, we reveal Is the Sixth Commandment a true story?, Is The Bear Based on a True Story? and we took a look at the The Story of Jeffrey Dahmer.