Paramount+ orders Robert and Michelle King's Happy Face true-crime podcast adaptation

The Hollywood Reporter

The streamer has given a straight-to-series order to an adaptation of the podcast Happy Face, which itself is an adaptation of Melissa Moore's book Shattered Silence: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer's Daughter. "Both the book and podcast are based on the true-life story of Melissa Jesperson-Moore when, at age 15, she discovered her father was the serial killer known as Happy Face," per The Hollywood Reporter. "As an adult, Jesperson-Moore changed her name, guarded her secret and cut off all ties to her father, who is currently serving life in prison. The Kings’ take on Happy Face will use Jesperson-Moore’s story as a jumping off point and explore what happens when her father contacts her to take credit for another victim and how Melissa is pulled into an investigation of her father and his crimes. The series will follow her as she discovers the impact her father’s crimes had on the families of his victims, which ultimately leads to a reckoning of her own identity." Robert and Michelle King, creators of Evil, The Good Place and The Good Fight, said of Happy Face: "We’re obsessed with true-crime podcasts, and Happy Face is the best we’ve heard. Melissa’s story screams out to be dramatized, and Jen is exactly the showrunner to do it.”