Ryan Murphy has found success adapting true crime stories and high-profile events, which often results in backlash from the subjects of his shows.
Murphy’s sprawling TV universe started out with shows such as Nip/Tuck, Glee and American Horror Story. As the producer continued to find success, he expanded by taking on projects that highlighted real stories — starting with American Crime Story. The anthology show has chronicled the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, the killing of designer Gianni Versace and the sex scandal involving former President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.
From there, Murphy created the American Sports Story spinoff, which focused on the rise and fall of former NFL player Aaron Hernandez in its first season. Murphy’s most controversial spinoff has been the Monster anthology series. In 2022, the limited series centered on Evan Peters‘ portrayal of Jeffrey Dahmer, which received backlash from the families of the serial killer’s victims.
Peters, meanwhile, opened up about how his mental health was affected after taking on the complicated role. “I’m going to take a little break from darker roles and explore the light,” he told Variety in December 2022. “It would be interesting to me to play something that is a little closer to home, a little more mundane and to explore the details of those kinds of experiences.”
Season 2 faced similar backlash after Erik Menendez slammed Murphy’s portrayal of him and brother Lyle Menendez. Murphy, however, stood by his work and even claimed that Monsters created renewed support in the Menendez case, which ultimately led to them being resentenced to 50 years to life, which now makes them eligible for parole under California’s youthful offender law.
Keep scrolling for a breakdown of every time a show’s subject called Murphy out — and how he defended his work:
‘American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson’
The People v. O.J. Simpson reexamined the late athlete’s high-profile trial after he was arrested and subsequently charged in 1994 with the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. In one of the most talked-about verdicts of all time, O.J. was famously acquitted of the murders in 1995, but he was found liable for Ron and Nicole’s deaths in a civil trial three years later.
Brown and Goldman’s respective family members called out American Crime Story for not consulting them. Former detective Mark Fuhrman, who was involved in the case, also called his portrayal untruthful.
‘American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace’
The Versace family broke their silence on the show in a January 2018 statement, which read, “The Versace family has neither authorized nor had any involvement whatsoever in the forthcoming TV series about the death of Mr. Gianni Versace. Since Versace did not authorize the book on which it is partly based nor has it taken part in the writing of the screenplay, this TV series should only be considered as a work of fiction.”
Murphy stood up for his show by defending the journalist whose work inspired the project.
“The book that we based our show off of, that we own, Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth, has been out for nearly 20 years,” he said in a statement that same month. “And it’s a work of nonfiction. It’s been scrutinized and vetted for close to two decades. And a lot of if not all of Maureen’s reporting in that book was on the record, and it’s been sourced out, and we had our own sources.”
‘Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’
The first season of Netflix’s hit show debuted in 2022 and focused on Peters’ portrayal of Dahmer. Monster, which also starred Niecy Nash, came under fire after the families of Dahmer’s victims revealed they weren’t consulted for the show.
Eric Perry, a relative of victim Errol Lindsey, claimed in a September 2022 statement that the show was “retraumatizing [the families] all over again.”
“I want people to understand this is not just a story or historical fact, these are real people’s lives,” the statement continued. “[Lindsey] was someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s father, someone’s friend that was ripped from [our] lives.”
Murphy, for his part, previously said he and his team reached out to over 20 victims’ families and friends during their three and a half years of research and that “not a single person responded to us in that process.” He elaborated in a November 2022 profile about how he took Dahmer’s story on to address the racism and homophobia that defined the case because “it was the biggest thing I’ve ever seen that really sort of examines how easy it is to get away with things with the white privilege aspects.”
“What are the rules now? Should we never do a movie about a tyrant?” he added at the time.
‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’
When Monsters premiered in September 2024, episodes 4 and 5 received critical and fan praise for how they approached Erik and Lyle’s claims that they killed their parents in self-defense following years of alleged physical, emotional and sexual abuse. However, the show received backlash for other inaccuracies about the Menéndez brothers, including the insinuation that they were in an incestous relationship.
“I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show,” read a statement from Erik that was shared via Lyle’s Facebook page at the time. “I can only believe they were done so on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent.”
Murphy, meanwhile, questioned the backlash against the show when it played a part in the Menendez case receiving renewed public support. “We gave them their moment in the court of public opinion,” he told Variety one month later. “Basically, we did give them a platform.”
Murphy and the Menendez brothers intimately worked out their differences about the show amid the inmates’ successful attempt to get resentenced.
‘American Love Story’
Before American Love Story even premiered on FX, Murphy was criticized by the Kennedys for his plans to dramatize Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr.‘s story after their deaths in a 1999 plane crash. Kennedy Jr.’s nephew Jack Schlossberg accused Murphy in June 2025 of “grotesque[ly]” profiting off his late uncle’s death.
“Lately, my news feed has been filled with pictures of my uncle, John F. Kennedy Jr., a great man,” Schlossberg wrote via Instagram in June. “For those wondering whether his family was ever consulted, or has anything to do with the new shows being made about him, the answer is no. And there’s really not much we can do.”
Schlossberg continued: “For that matter, [JFK Jr. is] considered a public figure, so there’s not much we can do. I hope those making these shows about him take seriously what he stood for in his life, all that he achieved in it. And that they donate some of the profits [that] they’re making.”
In response, Murphy called out the “inflammatory” criticism and how it came before the show was released.
“I thought it was an odd choice to be mad about your relative that you really don’t remember,” Murphy said on Gavin Newsom’s “This Is Gavin Newsom” podcast one month later. “The days of civil discourse are over, and it’s very hard. And you kind of either get into the muck or you try and rise above it.”
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