After making devoted audiences weep week after week with her career-defining performance as Dr. Meredith Grey in the small-screen sensation Grey’s Anatomy, the talented Ellen Pompeo is wading into new TV waters and is starring in the spine-tingling drama miniseries Good American Family. The eight-episode Hulu original tells the real-life story of Natalia Grace, a young Ukrainian orphan with a rare form of dwarfism who was adopted by an Indiana couple but was shockingly abandoned after they accused her of being a full-grown woman and not a seven-year-old child.
The engrossing show will explore the many convoluted sides of the salacious story that first took the world and media by storm in 2019, with the drama largely being based on the 2023 documentary The Curious Case of Natalia Grace. Good American Family will be available to stream on March 19, 2025, and is sure to take audiences on a wild ride full of stunning twists and turns, leaving them hooked until the very last scene. Let’s take a closer look at the disturbing true origins of the miniseries.

Ellen Pompeo Stars in the Chilling & Provocative Miniseries

After two decades of playing the brilliant Dr. Meredith Grey on the fan-favorite medical hit Grey’s Anatomy, Ellen Pompeo is setting down the scalpel and venturing into new TV territory by headlining the upcoming drama miniseries Good American Family, a chilling eight-episode Hulu original that is based on a harrowing true story. Pompeo appears as Kristine Barnett, who, along with her husband Michael (Mark Duplass) adopts a 7-year-old Ukrainian girl with a rare form of dwarfism, only to begin questioning whether she is actually a child at all as she becomes integrated within their household.
Based on the 2023 documentary The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, the gripping miniseries will explore the shocking chain of events that led to the Barnetts abandoning Natalia Grace (Imogen Faith Reid) in 2013 and leaving her alone in an apartment after they claimed she wasn’t actually born in 2003 and was actually born in 1989. Good American Family sheds light on the shocking psychological warfare that went on within the Barnett home as Kristine makes it her mission to protect her three biological children from Natalia Grace and reveal the girl’s true age and intentions, with an explosive legal battle ensuing.
Good American Family tells its story from various points of view in order to “reflect the conflicting narratives of its central characters” and present the perplexing case from all angles. Pompeo also executive produced the thrilling miniseries despite her initial reservations about agreeing to portray the complicated and controversial Kristine, with the TV staple revealing in a Variety Q&A that her agent encouraged her to tackle the unsettling project:

“I was sent the pilot, I read it, and I said, ‘This story is incredible. Why would I ever want to do this? I would have to be crazy!’ Then my agent said, ‘You should definitely do this.’ The last time he said that to me was on a show called Grey’s Anatomy.”

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The Shocking True Story Behind ‘Good American Family’

While the premise of Good American Family sounds extremely far-fetched and plucked right out of a Hollywood movie (the 2009 horror hit Orphan touted a similar ominous storyline), Natalia Grace is in fact a real person who was adopted by the Indiana family in 2010 at the age of seven, only to be abandoned by the Barnetts a few short years later. Born in Ukraine to Anna Volodymyrivna Gava on September 3, 2003, she was diagnosed with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita and placed in an orphanage before being brought to the United States in the spring of 2010 when she was adopted by Kristine and Michael Barnett.
The couple would later claim that they noticed strange things about Natalia, alleging that she was far more developed than the other children her age and that she had already begun menstruating, adding that she possessed a sophisticated vocabulary for someone so young and that she couldn’t properly understand Ukrainian. In 2012, the Barnetts consulted with a doctor and petitioned the Marion County court to change Natalia’s Ukrainian birth records, successfully altering her date of birth from 2003 to 1989.

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The Barnetts later alleged that Natalia demonstrated sociopathic tendencies, claiming that she made violent threats against the family and that she had even attempted to poison Kristine’s coffee; Natalia always maintained that she was a child and not a fully-grown woman and refuted the couple’s claims. They would subsequently move Natalia to an apartment in Indiana before Kristine and Michael packed up their children and left their lives behind for Canada, with Natalia remaining alone in Lafayette, Indiana. Cynthia and Antwon Mans went on to take her in after noticing she was struggling to live by herself, with the pair standing by the abandoned girl.
Natalia would end up going to court after the Bartnetts were charged with neglect of a defendant, though Michael was acquitted in 2022 and the charges against Kristine were dismissed in 2023; the couple has since divorced. Cynthia Mans would later claim that Kristine was inspired to change Natalia’s age by the film Orphan, with the Manses saying that Natalia never showed any sociopathic behavior while in their care. Natalia’s biological birthdate was subsequently restored to 2003, and she currently lives with Nicole and Vince DePaul, who both have dwarfism and have helped her move past the trauma she endured during the ordeal with the Bartnetts.