Swarm: Is Andrea Greene a real person?

Swarm, a brilliant new thriller on Prime Video, follows an obsessive fan as they transform into a serial killer – so, is Andrea Greene a real person?

“Who’s your favorite artist?” Andrea, better known as Dre (Dominique Fishback), asks unwitting victims throughout Swarm. If they say anyone apart from Ni’Jah, her Beyoncé-esque goddess, she barrages them with stats about her superior Grammys track record.

Oh, and there’s a high chance she’ll murder them too, either by bludgeoning them to death, stabbing them, throttling them, or on one occasion, getting someone else to do her dirty work for her.

In Episode 6, Swarm turns into a true-crime documentary about the real Andrea Greene – but is she real, or is it all fictional?

Is Andrea Greene from Swarm a real person?

Andrea Greene is not a real person. Her character is entirely fictional, but her crimes have real-world inspirations.

Episode 6 plays an incredible trick. The whole episode follows a detective investigating Dre’s murders, but Dre and her late “sister” Marissa are played by different actresses. As the credits are about to roll, text appears on the screen which reads: “Loretta continues to push for the arrest of Andrea Greene.

“She suspects Andrea is linked to at least eight murders, making her one of the most prolific female serial killers. The Houston and Nashville PDs reopened their respective murder cases. The Little Rock PD is expected to reopen their case as well. Andrea Greene has been named as a person of interest in all of these cases.”

It gets weirder: we then see a clip of Donald Glover, who co-created the show with Janine Nabers, discussing “this show I’m working on right now with Chloë [Bailey] and Damson [Idris] and Dom Fishback”, while screenshots of articles explain they acquired the rights to Greene’s murders.

Many will have believed the show is based on a true story and real person, which is entirely understandable – but it isn’t. That said, there’s a reason each episode comes with the disclaimer: “This is not a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is intentional.”

“This story is 100% taken from real events and real internet rumors and real other things, true crimes that have happened between the years of 2016 and 2018,” Nabers told Entertainment Tonight.

“That is why we see that disclaimer, ‘This is not a work of fiction.’ Because after you see the show and you go to the internet, you will see that a lot of it holds up in terms of just the stories that you will see and this character of Andrea Green.”

Swarm is available to stream on Prime Video now. You can find out more about Billie Eilish’s character here and check out the rest of our coverage here.