Is Addison Rae in Ed Gein's story? Everything to know about her character

Ed Gein is central to Monster: The Ed Gein Story, and Addison Rae’s character sits right where viewers will search for the connection. She plays Evelyn Hartley, a small-town babysitter whom Netflix’s show depicts as a target of Ed Gein. That choice is dramatic rather than documented.

In real life, Evelyn vanished on October 24, 1953, in La Crosse, and her case is still unsolved. Investigators questioned Ed Gein after his 1957 arrest and found no proof he was involved.

The season premiered on October 3, 2025 and features Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein and Laurie Metcalf as Augusta, created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, with direction from Max Winkler across multiple episodes.

Rae has said she researched the real Evelyn and found limited public detail, which the writers used to frame an energetic teen who returns to normal life after illness and then collides with Ed Gein’s fixation. The trailer even shows Ed Gein taunting her, setting up one of the season’s most intense stretches.

Who does Addison Rae play in Monster: The Ed Gein Story?

What the show changes is clear. Evelyn disappeared while babysitting in La Crosse in 1953. After Ed Gein was arrested in 1957, police questioned him, and he denied involvement and passed a lie detector test. Authorities found no link.

The series treats a rumored connection as a narrative thread to examine panic around Ed Gein. Major outlets confirmed the case remains unsolved. Netflix’s show also includes direct dialogue that signals its approach to viewers. At the end of the trailer, Ed Gein breaks the fourth wall, and Charlie Hunnam’s Ed Gein says,

“You’re the one who can’t look away.”

That line frames how the season wants audiences to interrogate their own fixation while watching Ed Gein.

Evelyn Hartley’s arc in the series and what is fact versus fiction

Early episodes present Evelyn as upbeat and active, including a recovery stretch that involves a period leg brace. Rae mentions learning to move with the brace to ground the performance. As per the Tudum report dated October 7, 2025, she stated,

“My first day on set, I got to roller-skate, which was really fun,”

and also said,

“There’s actually not much about her,....They don’t really know exactly what happened in real life”

She described how she leaned into a minimal public record. A midseason babysitting sequence escalates after an awkward “magic” bit with the children, which gets Ed Gein fired and fuels his fixation. The show then depicts stalking, abduction, and death, which provide closure for the narrative. The real Evelyn was never found, and there is no proven tie to Ed Gein.

Addison Rae: What she said, and why this role matters

Addison Rae is an American creator and recording artist who moved into acting with He’s All That and the slasher Thanksgiving before taking on Evelyn in Monster: The Ed Gein Story. Her casting places a widely known pop figure inside a grounded true-crime frame that interrogates Ed Gein’s legacy in culture. As per the Tudum report dated October 7, 2025, Rae stated,

“Everyone [who was] involved, that was a really big draw for me,”

praising the detail in hair, makeup, costume, and sets, and calling the environment “really inspiring.” That intent connects to co-creator Ian Brennan’s season brief. As per the Tudum report dated September 23, 2025, Brennan remarked,

“Once we talked about how influential he was and how his crimes, you can find threads of them through pop culture and through horror films — I think that’s when we knew we had a show.”

This is where Evelyn fits thematically. She is the lens through which the season examines small-town paranoia around Ed Gein and the echo chamber that has followed his name for decades.

Stay tuned for more updates.