A TV Show About Julia Child’s Secret Life as a Spy Is Coming Soon
Renowned TV personality Julia Child is known for her cookbooks, delicious recipes for French food, and her talents as a chef. But a lesser-known fact about the culinary legend’s life is that she was a spy. Specifically, Child was an agent for a World War II-era intelligence agency called the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), which preceded the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Yeah, she was kind of a badass.
Now, both parts of her professional life are coming to the silver screen in a fictional television series.
Developed by writer Benjamin Brand, the series will be an hour-long comedy-drama titled “Julia.” The show was greenlit by ABC Signature Studios. While the show is fictional, it’s based on two facts of Child’s life: She was once a spy and later a TV chef.
The premise of the series has taken creative liberty, as it shows the CIA roping Child back into the spy world at the height of her culinary career. Brand’s inspiration for the show stemmed from a 1990s PBS series he stumbled upon a few years ago. Called “Cooking for the C.I.A.,” Brand thought it would be about the government agency. Instead, it was about the Culinary Institute of America.
“Many years later, when I read the biography of Julia Child and learned about her experiences during World War II, working for the Office of Strategic Services — the precursor to the C.I.A. — the story of Julia quickly fell into place,” Brand tells Deadline.
There’s no word yet for when filming will begin and who will play the role of Julia Child.