Vera Farmiga to Star in Hurricane Katrina Series at Apple

Apple’s limited series about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has found its lead actress.

Vera Farmiga will star in Five Days at Memorial, based on a nonfiction book by Pulitzer Prize winner Sheri Fink. The show will reunite the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated actress with her Bates Motel showrunner Carlton Cuse, who is writing and executive producing Five Days at Memorial with John Ridley.

The limited series chronicles a New Orleans hospital in the five days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. Amid rising flood waters, stifling heat and failing power, exhausted caregivers at the hospital were forced to make life-and-death decisions that would haunt them in the years to come.

Farmiga will play Dr. Anna Pou, a physician at the hospital.

Farmiga is currently in production on Hawkeye, a Marvel series for Disney+ with Jeremy Renner reprising his title role. She earned an Emmy nomination in 2019 for Netflix’s When They See Us and one in 2013 for A&E’s Bates Motel. Her film credits include The Departed, Up in the Air (for which she scored an Oscar nod), the forthcoming Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark, and the Conjuring series. She is repped by CAA, Authentic Talent and Literary Management and Peikoff Mahan.

ABC Signature is producing Five Days at Memorial. Cuse and Ridley, who both have overall deals at the studio, executive produce and will also direct episodes. Author Fink is a producer.