Anna Sorokin, the Real-Life ‘Inventing Anna’ Con Artist, Joins Dancing With The Stars
- Con artist Anna Delvey to compete on Dancing with the Stars
- Delvey will wear an ankle monitor during the show due to house arrest
- She scammed over $200,000 by pretending to be a wealthy socialite
Anna Sorokin, the con artist whose life inspired Netflix’s Inventing Anna, is set to appear as a contestant on the U.S. version of Strictly Come Dancing, Dancing With The Stars. Sorokin, known by her alias Anna Delvey, gained notoriety for posing as a wealthy socialite in New York City.
The upcoming season of Dancing With The Stars will also feature notable personalities, including Team USA Olympians Ilona Maher and Stephen Nedoroscik, actress Tori Spelling, Oscar nominee Eric Roberts, and Real Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks.
Sorokin will be partnered with professional dancer Ezra Sosa. However, she will be competing while wearing an ankle monitor, a condition she has been under since 2022 due to house arrest while contesting a deportation order, according to AP. Her spokesperson, Juda Engelmayer, mentioned that Sorokin could travel within a 70-mile radius of her home and throughout New York City under previous conditions, though he could not confirm any recent changes to these rules.
Sorokin’s criminal history includes a 2019 conviction for theft of services and grand larceny, having defrauded banks and luxury hotels of more than $200,000 (£145,000). She falsely claimed to have a $60 million (£46 million) trust fund and an ambitious project to establish an arts foundation. In reality, she was a recent magazine intern from an ordinary family of Russian immigrants in Germany. Sorokin used expensive hotel stays and a curated Instagram presence to perpetuate her deception and have others cover her expenses.
Her story gained international prominence following a 2018 feature in New York Magazine by writer Jessica Pressler. It was later adapted into a Netflix series produced by Shonda Rhimes, where Sorokin was portrayed by Julia Garner. Sorokin was compensated $320,000 (£230,000) for the series, but due to New York laws prohibiting criminals from profiting from their crimes, she was unable to retain the entire amount.
“I never asked for Netflix to buy my story, it just happened,” Sorokin said in a 2021 BBC interview after her release from prison. “And everything else, it just spun out of my control.”
