Meet the cast of 'Monsters: The Lyle & Erik Menendez Story' and the real people they play
| 08/28/24
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After the popularity of Ryan Murphy's miniseries about Jeffrey Dahmer, he created a second season of Monster, this time about the Menendez brothers' murders. The first trailer for the upcoming Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story dropped today and gave us a sneak peek at the new miniseries about the double murder of a wealthy Beverly Hills couple and the subsequent trial, which ultimately convicted their two sons.
The Menendez brother's trial captured the nation's attention back in 1989, and now it's being recreated with a stacked cast, including heavyweights Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny. The trailer opens with the Menendez family posing for a picture-perfect portrait while ominous voiceovers reveal darkness hidden in the family.
Scroll through to check out the actors and the real-life people they're playing on Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, arriving on Netflix on Sept. 19.
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They/Them actor Cooper Koch plays Erik Menendez, one-half of the Menendez brothers, who triggered a media firestorm when their parents were found murdered in their Beverly Hills mansion, and Erik and Lyle Menendez became the prime suspects. Both brothers were eventually convicted of killing their parents.
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Soap opera star Nicholas Chavez plays Lyle Menendez, the older of the two brothers. The Menedez brothers were both convicted of murdering their parents and were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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Feud: Capote vs. The Swans actress Chloë Sevigny will play the Menendez brother's mother, Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez. The prosecution claimed the brothers killed their parents for the inheritance, but Lyle and Erik said it was to stop the abuse they suffered at the hands of their parents.
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Erik and Lyle Menendez have claimed that their father was physically, emotionally, and sexually abusive. Actor Javier Bardem will play the Menendez brother's father José Menendez.
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Famed gay funnyman Nathan Lane is set to play Dominick Dunne, who was an investigative journalist who covered the Menendez trial for Vanity Fair. Dunne also produced the pioneering gay film The Boys in the Band.
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The Disaster Artist actress Ari Gaynor will star as Lyle Menendez's lead counsel, Leslie Abramson. In the '80s and '90s, Abramson was a prominent Los Angeles defense attorney who went on to write a book and was hired by Phil Spector after he fired Robert Shapiro.
Screenshot via CourtTV; Free/Shutterstock
Frequent Ryan Murphy collaborator Leslie Grossman plays Judalon Smyth, the mistress and former patient of Erik Menendez's therapist Dr. Jerome Oziel. Smyth became a key prosecution witness because she said she overheard Erik and Lyle admit they had shot their mother's eye out, and she had an audio recording of a conversation the brothers had with their psychiatrist.
Screenshot via CourtTV; lev radin/Shutterstock
Insatiable star Dallas Roberts will play Erik Menendez's therapist, Dr. Jerome Oziel, who he starts seeing after his parents were killed. Erik's confession to Oziel became a huge part of the prosecution's case against the Menendez brothers.
Watch the teaser trailer below.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.