How The Cast Of Bad Education Compares To The Real People

Extremely famous people play seemingly ordinary people in the cast of Bad Education, which drops on HBO Saturday, April 25 — that is, until you learn about their extraordinary crimes. While you may not recognize the figures in this Long Island educational scandal, the characters played by Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney are very real people who took part in a very real scandal.

In the early 00s, a school administrator and superintendent in Roslyn, New York conspired to elevate his districts schools and skimmed millions of dollars off the top of his increasing budget requests for themselves. As you see in Bad Education, plenty of people in town were complicit in the corrupt system, too. In the film and in real life, Jackman's character was a charismatic figure who was famous in Roslyn until the scandal broke and he became infamous.

The film also features stage actor Stephen Spinella (Spring Awakening, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), triple threat writer/actor/rapper Rafael Casal (Blindspotting), former Nickelodeon star Alex Wolff (The Naked Brothers Band), and Youtube personality Jimmy Tatro (American Vandal). The talent pool is really diverse, which is cool to see. Some of their characters are inspired by real people, but some of them are composites meant to represent private citizens.

Here are the major players in Bad Education and who they represent in real life.