The hunt for a notorious scam artist is chronicled in Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen, a new investigative podcast out Thursday. The series is a collaboration between Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment.
Hosted by journalists Josh Dean and Vanessa Grigoriadis, the podcast follows the trail of a con artist who impersonates powerful female producers, looking to scam photographers, make-up artists, actors, screenwriters and more in the industry — starting with a simple phone call. Dean and Grigoriadis aim to untangle the mysterious web, interviewing victims along the way.
The first two episodes of the series will be available on Thursday. In the clip above, taken from the second episode, the agents of make-up artist Heather Pitchford talk to the Con Queen in a recorded telephone call. The con artist is posing as a producer for a Chinese state-owned film company.
“Vanessa and I have been doing this a long time,” Dean said in a statement. “We’ve both investigated con artists, but we’ve never encountered a scam as perplexing, or as well constructed as this one. The Hollywood Con Queen’s highly specific trail of deception has led us down a bizarre rabbit hole to find the culprit, and we can’t wait for listeners to join our journey. There are a lot of mysteries in Hollywood, but this is one of the great ones.”
Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen will be available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.