Netflix's Griselda: Which characters are based on real people and which are not?

Netflix's crime drama Griselda has viewers on the edge of their seats. But Griselda isn't the only real character people are curious about.

The Netflix release of Griselda, a fictionalised rendition of the life story of Griselda Blanco, features an unusual character – a ruthless Colombian female drug lord who leveraged her invisibility as an ordinary housewife to command the streets of Miami. The show opens with a quote that lets us know that Blanco was even feared by the likes of Pablo Escobar.

Kristen Maldonado, the TV and film critic behind Pop Culture Planet, tells BBC Culture that "what makes Griselda Blanco's story so interesting is that she's someone who was very prominent in the drug trade industry of the '70s and '80s, but isn't as well-known as her male counterparts – because she was a woman".  

Similarly, onscreen, Blanco's story is told largely through the lens of other women – friends, employees, and opponents. Some of these characters are just as real as Griselda. And the actresses behind the characters also play a role in the show's appeal. "While seeing Latinos as drug dealers and maids and other stereotypes have been overplayed, I think it will be interesting to see this story of a real Colombian woman, played by a Colombian actress," says Maldonado.  

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Many viewers of the show are wondering: among Griselda's cast of compelling characters, who's based on a real person and who's not? Here is a breakdown of some of the key female characters in the series – and whether there's a real person behind the personality.

Although Griselda Blanco Restrepo (1943-2012) began and ended her life in Colombia, her rise and fall happened in the US. In the show, Blanco comes to the US in hopes of giving her sons a better life – but her life and theirs are mired by bloodshed and drugs. Her unique life story is believable in the drama series – so much so that her only surviving son, Michael Corleone Sepúlveda Blanco, is now suing Netflix and Sofía Vergara for using this material without compensation or attribution.

Parts of Blanco's life were previously shared in the Cocaine Cowboys documentary films (2006-2008) and the Cocaine Godmother (2017) crime drama, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones. She is mentioned by Michael in his three seasons on VH1's Cartel Crew and is the focus of The Godmother, which is currently in pre-production, with Jennifer Lopez as the lead.

June Hawkins is the Miami police officer who helped bring down Griselda. She's played by Juliana Aidén Martinez, a 2020 Yale drama school grad and 2021 alum of Lena Waithe's mentorship programme to advance marginalised people in the film industry. 

In a 2017 episode of the podcast Law Enforcement Talk, Hawkins herself shared more nuance about her career in what's now known as the Miami-Dade police department. When asked about male chauvinism on the force during her tenure from 1975 to 2004, she said, "once they [male officers] realised that I was really sincere… and this wasn't just a lark for me, then they became my big brothers". 

In the show, Hawkins is shown as equally as underestimated as Blanco. Her hunches are dismissed, her reports go unread, and her relationship with her young son suffers. In real life, Hawkins described herself on Law Enforcement Talk as a "tough old broad" with an iron stomach. Despite the many horrific things she witnessed over her 30-year career, including the dramatic track-down of Blanco, Hawkins shared on the podcast that seeing the police footage of her own adult son, Eric Reynolds, being shot in the line of duty (he survived), was more difficult than anything else she experienced. 

"I have been to homicide scenes, horrible death scenes involving children, babies, unbelievable stuff we all have seen and experienced… But when it is your own child… if you are a mother, you are a mother first, I guess," Hawkins told the Law Enforcement Talk host.

While there's no singular real woman associated with Carla, a sex worker-turned-drug mule who is integral to Griselda's start in the US, other depictions of Blanco's rise point to many Colombian women who helped Blanco smuggle in drugs. 

Although she's not 100% real, Carla has viewers talking because of how believable she is and because of the actress who played her. This is Karol G's breakout role.

In real life, Karol G (born Carolina Giraldo Navarro) is a reggaeton artist and a hit maker in her own right: she has more than 67 million followers on Instagram and holds five Guinness World Records for her music. She earned the most recent in 2023 for being the first female vocalist ever to reach Billboard's No 1 spot with an album in Spanish. 

Karol G transformed for the role of Carla. On camera, she shed her signature pink hair in both the acting role and at the Miami film premiere. Fans look forward to seeing her back to her old self at her tour of Latin America in February.

In the show, we see a woman, credited as the District Attorney (DA), catch another having phone sex with the prosecution's main witness against Blanco. While it's unlikely that real events played out as shown on screen, the fact is that at least one secretary in the DA's office was recorded having phone sex with Blanco's main hitman. 

Although the character isn't named in the series, the DA at the time was Catherine Vogel. Eva La Dare plays her role in the show. The scandal around Vogel's office presents a crucial turning point in the final episode and the case.   

Who was the secretary? It's hard to say. News clips from the 1998 incident show multiple women were temporarily suspended, others were fired, and one was cleared in the phone sex scandal.

In the end, the conflict of interest weakened the state's case. A special prosecutor was appointed and, eventually, Blanco negotiated a plea that led to her release. Later, she was deported to Colombia, where she was killed in 2012.

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