Ella Beatty to play Lizzie Borden in Monster season four

Netflix has announced the lead actress for the fourth season of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's Monster anthology series.Ella Beatty will play Lizzie Borden, the infamous woman accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an axe — and then acquitted in a trial that captivated the nation.



Ella Beatty (pictured)—the daughter of Warren Beatty and Annette Bening—made her television debut in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, also directed by Murphy, and now returns as the complex Lizzie Borden.

Starring alongside her are Rebecca Hall (Tales from the Loop) as Abby Borden, Lizzie's stepmother, and Vicky Krieps (Das Boot) as Bridget Sullivan, the family's housekeeper.

All three actresses have worked with Murphy before: Beatty in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, Hall in the upcoming FX series The Beauty, and Krieps in season three of Monster, where she stars opposite Charlie Hunnam as serial killer Ed Gein.

The Lizzie Borden case became a media sensation in the United States in the late 19th century. Although Lizzie was acquitted, public fascination with the murders persisted, and the mystery lives on in American culture.

The Monster series was developed by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan for Netflix. The fourth season once again draws on a true crime story, featuring a cast of familiar faces from Murphy's creative universe.