Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen new podcast investigates long running scam
Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen is an investigative podcast series exploring one of the strangest and longest-running scams in recent memory — a scam that’s plagued Hollywood for the better part of a decade.
New audio production studio Campside Media has partnered with Sony Music Entertainment for the new podcast, which tells the evolving story around the ongoing hunt for a notorious and cunning scam artist who for many years impersonated powerful female film producers to prey on ambitious up-and-comers from the film industry.
In this new series, journalists Josh Dean (host and co-creator of “The Clearing”) and co-creator Vanessa Grigoriadis, (host of “Tabloid”) dive into the scam’s inner workings – one that’s fooled trainers, make-up artists, security guards, screenwriters, and actors, and dragged in some of the most powerful women in entertainment industry.
Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen takes listeners on a journey around the world, from Los Angeles to Jakarta, Indonesia, as Dean and Grigoriadis work to track down the notorious culprit.
The podcast explores how people fell for the trap over six years. Victims would receive a phone call or email offering the job of a lifetime like a key role on a major film, or TV show. The offer supposedly comes from a powerful woman — one of the biggest producers or studio executives in the industry but they don’t exist, it’s all a fraud.
In episode one and two Josh and Vanessa talk to Eddie and British makeup artist Heather revealing their experiences with the con artist(s). Heather’s trap was far more harrowing which resulted in her fearing her life.
Speaking about the new podcast series Josh Dean says: “Vanessa and I have been doing this a long time. We’ve both investigated con artists, but we’ve never encountered a scam as perplexing, or as well constructed as this one.
“The Hollywood con queen’s highly specific trail of deception has led us down a bizarre rabbit hole to find the culprit, and we can’t wait for listeners to join our journey. There are a lot of mysteries in Hollywood, but this is one of the great ones.” Episodes one and two of Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen are available now, with future episodes released each Thursday and available on Apple, Spotify, Acast and all major podcast providers.