- Dennis Quaid is playing The Happy Face Killer in a new series
- It will premiere on Paramount Plus on March 20
- The series is adapted from a podcast and autobiography written by the killer’s daughter, Melissa Moore
Paramount Plus has a lot of great true crime and after seeing the new trailer for Happy Face, it has the potential to add another one to our list of the best Paramount Plus shows. I’m so excited to stream this series, especially since it has the talented Dennis Quaid in the titular role of the Happy Face Killer. We saw him recently in The Substance, which we crowned the best body horror of 2024, and recently got nominated for Best Picture 2025, so we know he’s got a knack for playing a creepier role.
While real-life men in powerful positions inspired his performance in The Substance, this time, Quaid is stepping into the shoes of a very specific person: Keith Hunter Jesperson, a serial killer who became known for sending letters featuring smiley faces to the authorities, hence his name. The series follows his crimes as well as his daughter, Melissa, who ended up caught in the middle of it all.
Take a look at the trailer ahead of its release on March 20.
What else do we know about Happy Face?
Annaleigh Ashford stars alongside Dennis Quaid as Melissa Moore, the killer’s daughter, so the series will focus primarily on these two roles. Inspiration from the series came from the iHeartPodcasts true-crime podcast Happy Face by Moore, as well as her autobiography Shattered Silence, co-written with M. Bridget Cook. So a lot of this has come from material she produced herself, giving viewers a first-hand look at what happened.
The official synopsis teases: “After decades of no contact, he finally finds a way to force himself back into his daughter’s life. In a race against the clock, Melissa must find out if an innocent man is going to be put to death for a crime her father committed. Throughout, she discovers the impact her father had on his victims’ families and must face a reckoning of her own identity.”
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