Is Netflix's Maid based on a true story?

4 October 2021, 14:29 | Updated: 6 October 2021, 12:45

Watch the trailer for MAID on Netflix

Maid is based on a book written by Stephanie Land - find out how much of the Netflix series is a true story.

New Netflix series Maid tells the story of a young mother living in poverty in America, and it's proved a huge hit with viewers and critics since its release last month.

It follows a 23-year-old named Alex (played by Margaret Qualley), who struggles to support her young daughter after escaping an emotionally abusive relationship.

Alex finds work as a maid for an exploitative cleaning service, and the series explores the horrific struggle that many women have found themselves in.

• How many episodes of Maid are there on Netflix?
• Where was Maid on Netflix filmed?
• All the TV shows and films coming to Netflix UK in October

Is Maid a true story?

Maid is based on a memoir named Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother’s Will to Survive, which was written by Stephanie Land.

Much of Alex's story is based on what Stephanie went through herself. She also struggled to make ends meet after escaping an abusive relationship with her child, and became a maid before working her way to Montana’s Creative Writing program.

Stephanie recently opened up about her experiences on MSNBC, revealing that she was told - Like Alex - that taking her child out of an emotionally abusive home was tantamount to ripping her out of a stable environment in the eyes of the court.

Much of the series stays true to the book, and the showrunner Molly Smith Metzler recently told Decider: "One of the things I’m very proud of about the show is that I think it’s emotionally very true to the memoir…There’s characters and big storylines that aren’t in the memoir, but I think emotionally, the show is telling a similar story to the book in that we are both chasing the same ending and chasing the same message.

"I will say, when you sign on to adapt something like this just as a writer, a screenwriter, I think the big thing to look at is you don’t work for the book, right? You work for an audience, and so that part of it is really freeing and fun and also really challenging."

She added: "With Maid, I did a ton of research. I read the book eight times. I highlighted the passages that had an emotional effect on me. And then you have to put all that aside and say, ‘How do I make this its own thing, its own entertainment? How do I make sure my cousin in Ohio has to watch this show?’ So it’s a really fun job to try to translate it."