Inventing Annais named after a singular person, but the Netflix miniseries' storyline is definitely more of a group project.

The nine-part series tells the tale of Anna Delvey, real name Anna Sorokin, a con artist who spent years living as a wealthy German heiress among New York's elite. All the while, she was fleecing friends and banks to fund it.

Watch: The Inventing Anna trailer. Post continues below video.

Each episode, the ensemble cast shine a light on Anna, so we can learn who she is. Or at least, who they thought she was.

Here are the show's biggest characters, and the real people they represent.

Anna Delvey/Anna Sorokin.

Julia Garner stars are Anna Delvey, a.k.a Anna Sorokin, a Russian-German who spent years pretending to be a rich German heiress while living it up large alongside New York's elite.

Really, she was a middle-income German immigrant who developed an obsession with the lives she saw in magazines likeVanity FairandVogue, and conned her way into one just like them.

In 2018, Anna was arrested and in 2019, a jury found Anna guilty of eight charges, including grand larceny in the second degree, attempted grand larceny, and theft of services.

She was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison, fined US$24,000 and ordered to pay restitution of about US$199k.

She was released in February 2021, and is now being held in an immigration detention centre for overstaying her visa.

Vivian Kent - Jessica Pressler.

Anna Chlumsky plays journalist Vivian Kent, who is based onNew YorkMagazinejournalist Jessica Pressler. It's not her first work to be turned into damn good entertainment. She's also the writer behind the article The Hustlers at Scores, which is the basis of the 2019 Jennifer Lopez filmHustlers.

The show'sManhattan Magazineis a fictionalised version ofNew Yorkmag, which includes sitesVultureandThe Cut. Pressler's celebrated piece was published in The Cut in 2018, and is the basis ofInventing Anna.

While Vivian was a fictionalised version of Jessica, there were many parts that reflected her story.

She was, for example, heavily pregnant while writing the Anna story.

"I was enormously pregnant. I'd finished the story weeks away from having a baby, and it was just this avalanche of phone calls from everybody I've ever admired in the entertainment industry," she told Shondaland about the process of writing and publishing the article, which led to Shonda Rhimes and Netflix securing rights to the story.

But of course, there was creative license.

"The time lines are different, and the way that it unfolds is different. It's one of those things that parts of it are very real, and then there are bits that are totally made up. So, in many of the interviews that happen, the characters in the show are saying things that people absolutely said to me, but the situation is different, and the way that it's set up in the show is different."

Neff Davis.

The Bold Type's Alexis Floyd plays hotel concierge Neffatari Davis, who becomes Anna's BFF after they meet in 2017. Unlike others in the series, we saw Neff remain loyal to Anna despite all her legal troubles - and Neff was importantly the only one Anna ever paid back.

In real life, Neff really was a hotel worker with film career dreams. She's since moved to LA to follow those dreams, and yes, she has stayed friends with Anna.

"Anna is my friend and always will be," she told Bustle. "We had to get to know each other again and develop healthy boundaries. We have blocked and unblocked each other, cried, and laughed. I get her."

She said she'd stayed loyal because that was what Anna always was to her.

"It's not every day you meet a woman that tells you she will make you rich and fund your film career if you stick by her side. In a weird and sick way, she kept her word. That's loyalty."

Rachel DeLoache Williams.

FormerVanity Fairphoto editor Rachel DeLoache Williams initially 'scooped' Vivian (and IRL, Jessica) when she published an article about her friendship with Anna and how it all went wrong during their trip to Morocco.

Rachel ended up paying US$62,000 (AU$87,000) for the holiday after Anna had credit card problems and spent the next six months trying and failing to get Anna to pay her back.

Rachel was part of the sting that led to Anna's arrest in Los Angeles, and she testified against her in court.

As briefly mentioned in the show, Rachel sold her story to HBO for $35,000 and signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster for $300,000. Most of the credit card debt was forgiven. Her book,My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress, was released in 2019 and was listed as one ofTime's 100 Best Books of the Year after its release.

She has been vocal about her displeasure at the Netflix series, which is not very flattering towards her character, played by Katie Lowes. She wrote about her unease forAir Mail.

"Because of Netflix, Anna emerged from behind bars financially net positive, with legions of followers and a level of notoriety from which she’ll presumably continue to profit," she said.

In another story forTime, she wrote: "Millions will watch as Anna is portrayed as a complex anti-heroine fighting against her personal demons and a world that constantly underestimates young women. It will be seen by more people than will ever meet Anna or do the work to understand her real nature or what really happened. And that is a dangerous reality."

Kacy Duke.

Laverne Cox plays personal trainer to the stars, Kacy Duke, who trains Anna and accompanies her and Rachel on the holiday to Morocco. Kacy really is a celebrity trainer, with her website's client list including Kate Beckinsale, Dakota Johnson, Lenny Kravitz, Gwen Stefani, Bruce Willis, Iman, Julianne Moore, Denzel Washington and more. So yeah, she'slegit.

"We had a four-hour lunch where she told me her whole entire life story, which is incredible," Laverne toldEntertainment Tonight. "There should be a Kacy biopic [because] she has lived a life, honey. She has stories."

Now 65, Kacy is still a trainer and co-hosts a podcast,Real Ass Woman.

Unlike Rachel, she has thrown her support behind the series.

"So proud. Everybody should watch it," she said on Instagram.

Todd Spodek.

Anna's lawyer Todd Spodek - played bySuccession's Arian Moayed in the miniseries - famously invoked the story and lyrics of Frank Sinatra during Anna's trial, comparing how they both created a "golden opportunity" in New York.

In an interview withInsiderat the time of the trial, he said he believed Anna's intentions were pure.

"I believe wholeheartedly that her intent was pure, to pay every single person back. Did she take advantage of people who wanted to believe she's a German heiress? She took advantage of the opportunity that presented itself."

These days, Todd is still a lawyer. He is married to another lawyer, Victoria Spodek, and they're st