The mysterious case of Natalia Grace – a Ukrainian orphan with dwarfism accused of lying about her age and ‘tormenting’ her adoptive parents – has baffled true crime fans for more than a decade.
Even British actress Imogen Faith Reid, an acting newcomer set to star as Natalia in new Disney+ series, Good American Family, admits ‘it’s hard to get to the truth’ of the story.
The miniseries, which airs in the UK this week, fully embraces both sides of the narrative – with the first four episodes following her adoptive mother Kristine Barnett (Ellen Pompeo), who believes a 22-year-old has infiltrated her family while claiming she’s only six.
But halfway through the series its sympathies suddenly change: now, Faith-Reid plays a Natalia cruelly mistreated and abandoned by her adoptive parents – who fight in court to legally change her birth date from 2003 to 1989.
In 2013, the Barnetts abandoned Natalia in an apartment and moved to Canada, in the belief she was actually an adult woman, before accusing her of being a ‘sociopath’ and even trying to kill them.
Later DNA tests confirmed Natalia was a minor when adopted by the Barnetts in 2010, and they were charged with neglect in 2019 – though Michael was found not guilty and charges against Kristine were dropped.
A newcomer to acting, 27-year-old Imogen has now found herself at the centre of one of the most baffling stories this decade.
Hailing from Greenwich in London, Imogen measures just 4ft 3in, also a singer and dancer who has previously held minor parts in shows such as The Witcher and Lord Of The Rings.
Imogen Faith Reid has landed her first major acting role as Natalia Grace in Disney’s Good American Famliy
The case of Natalia Grace (pictured, in real life in 2024) has baffled true crime activists for years
She also previously worked as a stand-in and body double in The One And Only Ivan and The Rings Of Power The Third Day and The Famous Five, according to IMDB, as well as theatre work.
She was cast in Good American Family after submitting a self-taped audition, but never believed she would land the role, believing they would cast an ‘American actress’ instead.
‘I went for it anyway because there was nothing to lose,’ she told TODAY. ‘And I think I had done about 400 takes of that self-tape, and my sister was helping me.’
When the official casting was announced in August 2022, Imogen ‘didn’t have words’ to express her gratitude.
Taking to Instagram at the time, she said: ‘I’m so EXCITED to not only be starring in my first series or going to L.A but working alongside Ellen Pompeo, the fact that I’m obsessed with greys anatomy and now get to work with Meridith Grey I’m so excited, nervous, anxious ahhhh… I guess I’m going to LA!’
Like Natalia, Reid also has a form of dwarfism – but in a different form.
She has Russell-Silver Syndrome (RSS), a rare condition characterised by slow growth before and after birth – meaning she has curved pinky fingers and was born with blonde hair.
Natalia was born with a bone growth disorder named spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasia, which causes short stature, skeletal abnormalities and problems with vision.
Imogen plays Natalia in Good American Family, which is premiering in the UK this week (pictured in the show)
She is starring alongside Mark Duplass and Ellen Pompeo, who are playing her adoptive parents
The actress, 27, hails from Greenwich in London and is also a singer and dancer
To prepare for her role, Imogen worked with a dialect coach and to adopt Natalia’s physicality.
Imogen’s co-star Mark Duplass, who plays her adoptive father Michael, said: ‘You add in that her form of dwarfism is different than Natalia’s dwarfism, so she had to learn a specific physicality that could work inside of her body and feel true to her. She had to build that whole thing out.’
Imogen herself told the outlet: ‘I think the biggest thing is I’m a little person, and as a little person, I understand the daily struggles that we go through and the judgment that we perceive in everyday life.’
However, she admitted she didn’t reach out to the real Natalia before working in the project, saying she wanted to play her ‘own version’.
Speaking to PopSugar previously, Imogen explained how being a little person has affected her life.
‘People don’t often know that I am a little person and just think I am a child,’ she said. ‘I think this is because of the lack of information there is out there about dwarfism and that there are different types that people just don’t know about.’
‘This type of dwarfism makes me in proportion. My family explain[s] it to people as me being similar to Thumbelina, as she is just a tiny character.’
Known as Immi to her friends, Imogen has up to now enjoyed a relatively unstarry life before landing her first major role, enjoying watching re-runs of Ru Paul’s drag race while ‘eating cr**’ with her friends.
Imogen has so far led a relatively unstarry life – and Good American Family is her first major role
According to her Instagram feed, she enjoys attending concerts with friends
To prepare for her role (pictured) as Natalia, Imogen trained with a dialect coach
Posting on her Instagram story today, as she opened parcels she said: ‘Guys, I’m very transparent when I come onto my social media. It’s not all glam, do you know what I’m saying?
‘I haven’t even brushed my teeth yet, and it’s like, 11.30am. I’m just being so for real.’
She’s been open about the tough ‘challenge’ of playing the controversial character.
To encapsulate Natalia, Imogen has needed to be seen both as a child and as a potential adult – playing the sympathetic victim while implying there’s more to the story.
In an interview with TV insider last month, she said she enjoyed playing ‘both sides of the story’, but admitted it’s ‘hard to get to the truth’.
She said: ‘As Natalia, my version is very manipulative and always one step ahead and things like that. And we move onto my POV where we see her struggle, the abandonment, and I think that was, as an actor, fun to play with both.
‘I mean, the first four episodes were so much fun, and I just unleashed that image, just ready to come out … my villain era. It was so much fun to play, but I do prefer Natalia’s point of view because it was so heartbreaking, and that’s a nuanced story. It’s hard to get to the truth.’
The first four episodes follow the perspective of Natalia’s former adoptive mother Kristine Barnett – who believes her family has been infiltrated and that her new daughter has been lying about being a ‘fully grown woman’.
Imogen said she never expected to land her role as Natalia as she assumed it would go to an American actress
Like Natalia, Imogen also has a form of dwarfism and says people often assume she is a ‘child’
She’s hoping her role as Natalia will give her more exposure for roles in the future
In a recent Instagram story, Imogen admitted her life behind the scenes isn’t ‘all glam’
The second half envisions the events from Natalia’s perspective – a victim of cruelty who is mistreated and abandoned.
When Kristine and Michael Barnett decided to adopt a six-year-old girl in 2010 in the hope of expanding their family after years of struggles, they felt nothing but ‘overwhelming love’ for their new daughter.
Ukrainian orphan Natalia Grace had already been adopted once before just two years previously – but the parents had subsequently rescinded their rights, citing her ‘disruptive’ behaviour.
Drawn in by the need to ‘help another person in the world’, Kristine and Michael still decided to raise Natalia – who has a rare form of dwarfism called Diastrophic Dysplasia – as their own, alongside their three biological sons in New Hampshire.
The following years saw a shocking breakdown in the relationship – with Kristine and Michael accusing her of being a ‘sociopath masquerading as a child’ and lying about her real age – even claiming she tried to kill them. After seeking advice from a family physician, they fought to have her birth date changed from 2003 to 1989, claiming she was an adult when they adopted her.
Natalia has denied all accusations against her – and the couple were charged with neglect after moving to Canada and allegedly dumping her at an apartment in Lafayette. They were eventually acquitted of the charges.
For years, Natalia was defended by Bishop Antwon and Cynthia Mans, who eventually became her third set of adoptive parents in June 2023.
Natalia’s story is now inspiring Disney’s new miniseries – though some events shown have been dramatised. Pictured: Imogen Reid, Christina Hendricks and Jerod Haynes
Natalia Grace, 21, now lives in New York city after being adopted three times
Natalia’s adoptive mother Kristine accused her of lying about her age (pictured together)
Natalia was born with a bone growth disorder named spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasia. Pictured as a child while living with the Barnetts
But speaking in a rare interview with PEOPLE Magazine in January, Natalia, now 21, revealed that the relationship had soured as she shared an update on her situation.
She said: ‘It’s a blessing to be alive today because looking back at my 7-year-old self, I should have been dead.’
‘Learning everything that I have about how to live with my dwarfism—it’s been a great experience. I love it. I mean, of course, I still miss my siblings and everything. But I love it. I feel free.
In January 2024, she wrote on a GoFundMe page, revealing she’d moved out and was trying to raise money for spinal surgery.
‘I recently moved out and I’m saving money to get my own house so I can have a personal place of my own,’ she wrote. ‘I am wanting to start my own photography business to create a fun and awesome way to have fun and do what I love which is taking pictures and creating memories for myself and other people!’
She also explained that the spinal surgery she wants to have done isn’t covered by her medical insurance and costs ‘in excess of $500,000.’
‘I have a type of dwarfism called Diastrophic Dysplasia – a form of dwarfism that has many serious issues which often require surgery,’ she wrote. ‘The first treatment I need is to have my spine corrected as if I leave it too long it could lead to paralysis and incontinence.’
In her interview with People Magazine, Natalia said she is now living with friends in New York, is learning to drive and is studying for her GED in the hope of becoming a teacher.
Kristine Barnett was accused of neglect although she was acquitted of charges
Michael Barnett accused Natalia of trying to hurt and even kill the family
She’s also in a serious long-term relationship with her boyfriend Neil, from the UK, whom she met on Facebook while living with the Manses.
Her first adoption from Ukraine was in 2008 by Dyan and Gary Ciccone – but just two years later, they relinquished their parental rights, citing her behaviour as the reason.
The Barnetts, experienced foster parents who ran a children’s day care from their Westfield, Indiana home, collected the curly-haired youngster from Florida in May 2010.
Natalia’s birth certificate said she was born in 2003 but her parents began to doubt her age and said she began displaying threatening behaviour towards them and their three biological sons, Jacob, Wesley and Ethan.
Kristine Barnett even gave an interview with the Daily Mail in 2019, alleging that Natalia had terrorised them ‘for years’ and accused her of threatening to stab them in their sleep, pushing her towards an electric fence and pouring bleach in her coffee.
She also alleged that Natalia was far older than her six years of age, claiming she had pubic hair and had started her periods, while using an advanced vocabulary.
‘The movie ‘Orphan’ is exactly what happened,’ she said, referring to the 2009 thriller where a youngster tries to murder her family when it’s revealed she’s actually 33.
‘She would make statements and draw pictures saying she wanted to kill family members, roll them up in a blanket and put them in the backyard.
‘She was standing over people in the middle of the night. You couldn’t go to sleep. We had to hide all the sharp objects.
‘I saw her putting chemicals, bleach, Windex something like that, in my coffee and I asked her, what are you doing? She said, ‘I am trying to poison you.’
‘The media is painting me to be a child abuser but there is no child here,’ said Barnett.
‘Natalia was a woman. She had periods. She had adult teeth. She never grew a single inch, which would happen even with a child with dwarfism.
‘The doctors all confirmed she was suffering a severe psychological illness only diagnosed in adults.
‘She was jumping out of moving cars. She was smearing blood on mirrors. She was doing things you could never imagine a little child doing.’
Natalia was first adopted in 2008 but her parents relinquished their rights just two years later
She has denied all accusations against her and has accused Kristine and Michael of neglect
The Barnett family had believed she was a six year old child when they picked her up from Florida in 2010.
‘I always wanted to have a larger family and I had very severe complications in my pregnancies and was unable to have more children,’ Barnett explained.
‘I also at that time had a very privileged life. I felt that if I had the ability to help another person in the world then I wanted to do it.’
She hadn’t enquired after finding out her previous adoptive parents had given her up for undisclosed reasons, feeling that she wanted to do a good deed.
But her suspicions were raised when they took Natalia on a family beach day and she ran into the ocean, despite saying she couldn’t walk.
Barnett grew more alarmed when she saw the little girl naked for the first time.
‘I was giving her a bath and I noticed that she had full pubic hair. I was so shocked. I had just been told she was a six year old and it was very apparent she wasn’t,’ she added.
She also said Natalia shunned toys and dolls, sought the company of teenager girls and used vocabulary beyond her age. She also believed Natalia had started her period after finding bloody clothing in the trash.
Natalia appeared on Dr Phil in 2019 (pictured) speaking about the accusations from her parents. Through tears, she said: ‘It’s not true at all’
Natalia befriended Antwon and Cynthia Mans in Canada, who fought by her side for years (pictured together). However, in December 2023, she fled their home
She sought the help of a family physician who ordered bone density tests to confirm her age, with results suggesting she was at least 14.
By 2011 Barnett said that Natalia was smearing bodily fluid on walls, making death threats and hearing voices as her mental health broke down.
In June of 2012 the Barnetts successfully applied to Marion County Superior Court in Indianapolis, Indiana to have Natalia’s age ‘corrected’ so she could receive the appropriate psychiatric treatment for an adult.
In documents seen by DailyMailTV, Judge Gerald S. Zore accepted the couple’s allegations were ‘true’ and revised Natalia’s date of birth to September 4, 1989 – changing her age from eight to 22.
At this stage, Barnett points out, Natalia was considered an adult by the state of Indiana and was legally responsible for herself.
Even so, Barnett says she and her husband rented an apartment for Natalia when she was discharged from secure psychiatric care in August 2012 and placed under the supervision of state healthcare provider, Aspire Indiana.
They further helped her get a social security number, apply for benefits, food stamps and an ID.
When Natalia caused problems at the property and was evicted they stepped in again to prevent her from being homeless, renting a new apartment for her in Lafayette, Tippecanoe County.
Natalia, now 21, eventually managed to get her birth date changed back to 2003
Barnett said she was communicating daily with Natalia and even came up with a plan for Natalia to enroll in college to get her high school diploma and study cosmetology.
After moving to Canada, they cut off all contact with Natalia. Initially, local child safety authorities received a report of an abandoned child in an apartment – which was soon discarded due to the change in her birth date.
Natalia has long maintained that she was just a child when her parents left her. In 2023, after years of medical testing and DNA analysis, her original birth date was restored to 2003.
Police say the girl was left to fend for herself for three years despite having a rare form of dwarfism that means she is 3ft tall and has problems walking.
Years later, in 2019, Kristine and Michael, who had since divorced, were charged with neglect.
Three weeks before Kristine Barnett’s trial was due to start, her charges were dismissed, citing ‘insufficient evidence’, while Michael was also acquitted of any charges.
That year, Michael gave an interview with Good Morning America, accusing Natalia of ‘violence’ towards the family and said she was intent on killing them.
He said: ‘We were told by doctors, This person is a sociopath. This person is a con artist. You are all in danger.’
In January, she posted a GoFundMe page for major spine surgery, giving a rare life update
He said she would place clear thumbtacks on the stairs in a bid to cause the family pain.
‘She attempted to kill my wife for a second time, this time by trying to pull her into an electric fence,’ Michael explained.
Natalia appeared on Dr Phil in 2019 speaking about the accusations from her parents. Through tears, she said: ‘It’s not true at all.’
Dr Phil queried: ‘You say you’re 16… are you a 33-year-old scam artist?’
‘No, no, no. I promise you I’m not.’ Natalia said.
Natalia befriended Antwon and Cynthia Mans in Canada, who helped her fight to rectify her situation between 2014 and 2017 by applying for guardianship.
The Mans family initiated the adoption process of Natalia in 2016, which meant they would have to prove she was a minor and restore her original birth date.
They were able to legally adopt her in 2023 after years of fighting by her side and describing her as a ‘genuine and loving young lady.’ Natalia joined their strict religious lifestyle, living with her ten new siblings.
But in 2024, when her docuseries had aired, relations had soured.
In The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter, neighbours and friends claimed they’d witnessed the Manses whipping Natalia with her belt and assaulting her.
Natalia managed to ‘flee’ the Manses in 2023 after reaching out to her friends
Natalia told People that Antwon had taken her phone away after finding explicit texts on her phone to her boyfriend Neil.
In her docuseries, producers asked her to comment on the allegations against the Manses, but she declined.
‘Something ain’t right with Natalia,’ Antwon said in a call to the producers of the show, per People Magazine. ‘This girl is tweaking. I feel like she’s the enemy in the house.’
‘Natalia is stabbing her family in the back, over a complete lie!’ Cynthia added.
Antwon also seemed to suggest that Natalia may have a romantic interest.
‘She’s got this dude online,’ he said. ‘He turned her against us. She’s ready to go to hell with gasoline panties on.’
The Mans family said they were ‘done’ with Natalia in a previous documentary that aired in January 2024.
Kristine Barnett gave an emotional interview to the Daily Mail in 2019 (pictured)
Natalia managed to ‘flee’ the Manses in 2023 after reaching out to her friends Nicole DePaul and her husband Vince, who had previously tried to adopt her in 2009.
She has lived with them ever since – and though they’ve admitted there’s been ‘ups and downs’, they say she’s never been violent. They did, however, admit that they’d once found her secretly recording them in their home.
Natalia’s story is now inspiring Disney’s new miniseries – though some events shown have been dramatised.
Ellen Pompeo, who plays Kristine, told Variety: ‘We’re coming up with our own version of what this story could have been, so this isn’t sort of a beat-for-beat of what their experience was.
‘It’s really what we do here, I guess, in Hollywood. We make entertainment that hopefully provokes thought, and we take a set of circumstances and put our spin on it.’
‘This compelling drama is inspired by the disturbing stories surrounding a Midwestern couple who adopts a girl with a rare form of dwarfism, a description of the show reads.
‘But as they begin to raise her alongside their three biological children, mystery emerges around her age and background, and they slowly start to suspect she may not be who she says she is.
‘As they defend their family from the daughter they’ve grown to believe is a threat, she fights her own battle to confront her past and what her future holds, in a showdown that ultimately plays out in the tabloids and the courtroom.’
Good American Family is premiering on Disney+ in the UK from April 9.
