Is ‘Wayward’ a True Story? All About the Thriller’s Real-Life Inspiration

The only thing more chilling than Wayward is the fact that it is based on reality.

Following its release on Sept. 25, the eight-part Netflix series quickly rose to the streaming platform’s Top 10. The show was created by Mae Martin, who also stars alongside Toni Collette, and explores a troubled teen institute called Tall Pines Academy.

Ahead of its release, Martin told The Bare Magazine that they hope Wayward allows viewers to “tap into their inner rebellious teen, and to reconnect with a sense of vitality, empathy, and righteous indignation that we all feel as teenagers and somehow gets dampened over time as we become adults.”

The creator and star explained that the show is “special” because it’s a premise they’ve “wanted to explore for so many years.”

So, is Wayward based on a true story? Here’s everything to know about the real-life inspiration behind the Netflix thriller.

What is Wayward about?

Wayward explores a so-called “therapeutic” school in Vermont known as Tall Pines Academy that “helps” troubled youth. In reality, the facility subjects its students to physical and psychological torture, breaking them down until they become obedient shells devoted to the school’s leader, Evelyn Wade (Collette).

Inside Tall Pines, a group of teens — Abbie (Sydney Topliffe), Leila (Alyvia Alyn) and Rory (John Daniel) — discover that the only way to “graduate” and reenter society is to complete “the leap,” a sadistic practice that takes place in the school’s basement. There, Evelyn uses psychedelic drugs and psychological manipulation to brainwash them into joining the local community, which is, in fact, just a commune of Evelyn’s cultists.

Meanwhile, local police officer Alex (Martin) begins to uncover just how deeply the entire town is tied to Tall Pines, including his pregnant wife Laura (Sarah Gadon), who was once one of the brainwashed students herself.

Is Wayward based on a true story?

As Martin told Forbes in September 2025, Wayward is based on their best friend, Nicole, who was sent to a school similar to Tall Pines Academy — and who served as a consultant in the writers’ room, per Deadline.

“We were so codependent and hysterical all the time, and she was sent to one of these schools. She was taken over the border and handcuffed in the middle of the night, and she was gone for two years,” Martin told Forbes. “She ended up ultimately escaping on bare feet through the woods and hitchhiking across the state, and was in a very dangerous situation.”

Martin went on to say that they had “a lot of guilt” that they should have been sent with or instead of Nicole, and always imagined what it would have been like.

“Abby and Leila’s friendship is based on ours,” Martin added. “I would be more like the Leila character, and I wondered what would have happened if I’d followed her.”

After hearing stories similar to that of Nicole’s, Martin felt inspired to continue exploring these schools through Wayward.

“In talking to a lot of survivors of these places, there’s a lot of trying to unpack and figure out who you really are underneath, before you were 14 and someone told you that you were a sociopath,” they said.

As for bringing the series to life, according to Tudum, Martin and co-showrunner Ryan Scott pulled inspiration from films like Girl, Interrupted, Get Out and Fargo.

Is Tall Pines Academy a real place?

In Wayward, Tall Pines Academy is advertised as a school that uses “groundbreaking therapeutic techniques, rigorous academics and a transcendent connection with nature to solve the problem of adolescence.”

Although the school is fictional, Martin told Tudum that it is inspired by “one of these troubled teen institutes” attended by their best friend.

During their conversation with Forbes, Martin emphasized that Tall Pines Academy is not a literal depiction of the real-life schools that exist.

“This is used as a framework for a pretty wacky thriller, but it’s something that I care deeply about, and if it can start conversations about that industry, then that’s really helpful,” they said.

Which cults inspired Wayward?

Martin told Deadline in September 2025 that they wanted to use self-help cults of the ’70s, such as Synanon, and the troubled teen industry they sparked, as “a useful metaphor for all of the sort of oppressive systems that we are seduced by.”

“Alex is a character who’s desperate for acceptance, and he finds this what seems like a liberal utopia, the way a lot of those cults in the ’70s did seem to promise all of the right things,” Martin said. “And he’s definitely someone who’s seduced by and yearning for that kind of heteronormative hypermasculinity and a nuclear family. So, it was juicy to explore that.”

Martin told Deadline that their friend’s school ended up getting shut down for “abuse and neglect,” which led them to further research the troubled teen industry — a term used to describe a system of underregulated residential youth treatment facilities that operate primarily in the United States, per the University of New Hampshire.

“I just had no idea that they all spawned from self-help cults in the ’70s, and it kind of writes itself,” they said. “And a lot of this stuff that seems very heightened and thriller-y in the show actually does have a lot of truth in it, like the cult Synanon, that ultimately turned into the germs of the troubled teen industry, and they use a lot of this attack therapy and behavioral modification and things like that.”

Synanon is a notorious cult from the 1970s that originally began as a drug rehabilitation program. According to a 2018 Los Angeles Magazine examination of the cult, “Synanon did much to convince the American public that addicts could be saved” using methods such as “tough love” therapy.

Where can I watch Wayward?

All eight episodes of the limited series are now streaming on Netflix.