Netflix has launched a documentary on Russell Brand.
The comedian was recently sentenced to prison for 10 years on charges of sexual assault.
Russell Brand: Open Secret is now streaming on Netflix.
Netflix has premiered Russell Brand: Open Secret, a new documentary chronicling the comedian’s ascent to stardom and his subsequent criminal conviction. The release follows Brand receiving a 10-and-a-half-year prison sentence after being found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault.
Focusing on the legal proceedings that commenced on October 14 at London’s Southwark Crown Court, where six women testified against Brand, the film maps the origins of the case. Specifically, it revisits the September 2023 joint investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches, The Times, and The Sunday Times, which spurred the complainants to step forward and ultimately nabbed the four convictions.
Helmed by director Olivia Isaacs, the project is backed by 72 Films, the production house previously responsible for Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story, which scrutinized how the late television personality dodged accountability while “hiding in plain sight.”
The synopsis states: "From comedy stardom to a criminal trial, the documentary charts the story of Russell Brand’s meteoric rise and steep fall following allegations of sexual offences."
Tracing a career crossing twenty years, the film parses Brand’s rapid climb from British stand-up comic and television host to a recognizable Hollywood figure with roles in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Hop, and the Despicable Me movies. Alongside his high-profile marriage to pop star Katy Perry and extensive work across radio, stage, and podcasts, Open Secret will investigate his early-2020s pivot into becoming a “political activist and YouTuber known for spouting conspiracy theories.”
Russell Brand Conviction
Brand was convicted of raping a woman—then 21—at his North London mansion in Hampstead, having met her at his 2009 Hammersmith Apollo stand-up show. His additional sexual assault convictions stem from three separate incidents: forcing a Channel 4 employee to give him a massage in 2009, groping a Capital Radio worker in a corridor in 2005, and assaulting a third complainant, though he was acquitted of subsequently raping her in a toilet. Ultimately, Brand was cleared of two counts of rape and a single count of attempted indecent assault.
