Unbelievable & Dopesick

Two real-world stories, two women failed by institutions — and the performances that earned her Golden Globe and Emmy nominations.

Marie Adler in Unbelievable (Netflix, 2019)

Dever plays Marie Adler in the Netflix miniseries adapted from a Pulitzer Prize-winning ProPublica investigation, alongside Toni Collette and Merritt Wever. Marie is a teenager who reports a sexual assault and is then disbelieved, pressured and criminalised by the system meant to help her. Dever's performance — praised for refusing to editorialise the character's pain — earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film, plus Critics' Choice and BAFTA Rising Star nominations.

Betsy Mallum in Dopesick (Hulu, 2021)

In Dopesick, the limited series about the opioid crisis and Purdue Pharma's role in manufacturing it, Dever plays Betsy Mallum, a young coal-country woman whose life is derailed by addiction after being prescribed OxyContin. The performance earned her a second Golden Globe nomination and her first Primetime Emmy nomination (Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series, 2022), plus a win at the Astra TV Awards for the same role. Where Marie Adler's story is about being disbelieved, Betsy's is about being failed slowly — and Dever plays both with the same refusal to make suffering legible in the conventional television way.

Why these two roles define her

Neither role asks for glamour or for the audience's easy sympathy. Both ask for sustained, interior work across a full limited series — and both were recognised by the major awards bodies. For casting directors, the pair is the proof of concept: Dever can carry the hardest material on television without ever reaching for effect.