Hulu's latest entry, The Dropout, based on the real-life Theranos scandal, is already garnering a solid fanbase and a lot of them want to know who the breakout character Ana Ariola is. Is he based on a real person? And did he actually tell Steve Jobs that the black turtleneck look was the way to go?
The answers are, a little yes, a little no, and, well, maybe. Ariola is very real, but she's not actually the person being portrayed onscreen, although they're definitely on the same page.
Grateful for your friendship, the 🔥 and sass you’ve captured in frame 🎬— @haihaiyes and I are excited to see the series (surreal) and have you part of our queer familia @MxNickyE 🌈 https://t.co/3XRAeu1RA0 pic.twitter.com/qQ21P5Rth6
— Ana Arriola (they/them or she/her) (@arriola) February 25, 2022
Yes, Ana Ariola is a real person. He was Theranos' chief design architect, selected and recruited by Holmes himself to lead his efforts to design and manufacture the rapid blood testing machine, which he promised to revolutionize the medical industry. At the time Holmes recruited her, Ariola was senior product line manager at Apple, where she helped develop the iPhone. But that didn't work for Holmes for very long.
According to Decider, upon realizing that Theranos was built on a house of cards, Ariola "understood his fraud and left Theranos". "When I took on Elizabeth's job as vice president and chief design architect, I was a keen employee who was blinded by the fame and opportunity and the cult of working for Elizabeth. She was moving fast, reassuring everyone. That his science fiction project was real and could change the world."
Ariola not only left Theranos, but was one of the first to work with The Wall Street Journal reporter John Carrerou on the company's own 2018 exposé. He is currently the Director of Product Design and Research for Microsoft's PhysOps Studios.
Talking about the onscreen version? Well, that's pretty accurate. Ariola is featured in The Dropout by One Day at a Time, Nikki Andress, an Asian-American non-binary transfeminine queer actor, while Ariola describes herself on her LinkedIn page as "a queer mom of three, trans and non-transfeminine." Latinx homosexual of the binary experience". , our professionals are working within a multicultural global community." (Ariola uses both the pronouns they/them and he/she). It seems Arriola is a master of her online illustration, even The actor also sent a Twitter shoutout welcoming him into "our queer family".
So, about the turtleneck thing? Well, Ariola wasn't giving Jobs any fashion advice, but she did give Holmes some advance fashion advice. In the series, Stylish Anna points to the then-rumored Holmes that she doesn't appear to be the part of a CEO. In a 2019 interview with Elle, Ariola admitted that she passed on the name of Jobs's turtleneck designer to Holmes. "I'm like, 'Hey, this is the one who designed [her turtleneck], this is the beauty, and we can get behind that,'" Ariola said. "And, of course, he did."