EXCLUSIVE: Singer and actress Hayes Warner has been set as a series regular of Ryan Murphy’s FX TV series The Shards, sources tell Deadline. The project, from 20th Television and Ryan Murphy Productions, is based on Bret Easton Ellis‘ prep school thriller novel of the same name.
First unveiled as a serialized audiobook before hitting bookstands in 2023, The Shards is a dark coming-of-age tale with semi-autobiographical facets for Ellis. Set in Los Angeles in 1981, the story follows a 17-year-old version of Ellis during his final year at the elite Buckley prep school. Upending the character’s world is the arrival of a mysterious new student, Robert Mallory, whose unsettling presence coincides with the activities of a serial killer known as The Trawler.
Warner will play Debbie Shaffer, a rich prep school girl with the right connects, we hear.
She joins the previously announced cast that includes Kaia Gerber, Igby Rigney, Homer Gere, Graham Campbell, and Hayes Warner.
FX and 20th Television declined to comment.
Deadline announced the project was in development at FX back in May, with Max Winkler set to direct. The sale came months after Murphy had teamed with Ellis to adapt his novel for TV earlier this year. Previously, Ellis tried to get a different incarnation of The Shards off the ground at HBO since 2023. He was attached as a writer to that version, which he was to executive produce alongside Nick Hall, Brian Young, and Kathleen McCaffrey. Prestige filmmakers Luca Guadagnino (Challengers) and Kristoffer Borgli (Dream Scenario) both flirted with directing the project for a time. Ultimately, it didn’t go forward.
Rising to fame in the 1980s as one of the defining voices of Generation X, with his debut novel Less Than Zero, published when he was 21 years old, Ellis remains best known for American Psycho, which Guadagnino has been set to direct for Lionsgate, in a reimagining of the 2000 classic starring Christian Bale.
The Shards will be produced by 20th Television in association with studio-based Ryan Murphy Productions. Murphy, Ellis and Winkler executive produce alongside Nick Hall, Kathleen McCaffrey and Brian Young. A writer has yet to be announced.
Born and raised in New York City, singer and actress Hayes Warner is a graduate of Northwestern University’s musical theater program. Named one of People’s Emerging Artists to Watch, her music has climbed the Top 40 U.S. radio charts and garnered millions of streams across platforms worldwide. Outside of her solo career, Warner has composed music for Disney, Netflix, Nickelodeon, Paramount, and Fox.
Warner has written music for The Barbie Chronicles (Netflix), WWE, The Descendants Franchise (Disney), and Ferguson & Rebecca (Netflix). Warner is represented by CAA, Grytte Entertainment and Gang Tyre.