The most hair-raising part of Inventing Anna has nothing to do with the fake heiress' scams, and everything to do with her tech bro boyfriend's hypothetical dream data-harvesting app. As Val puts it, "Everyone else is woke, but Chase is Wake." As that gag-inducing introduction indicates, Anna's boyfriend is the actual worst, but he's also mostly fabricated. The identity of Anna Delvey's real futurist boyfriend remains a mystery, but internet sleuths have narrowed down the field to two viable suspects.
Jessica Pressler's 2018 New York Magazine article "Maybe She Had So Much Money She Just Lost Track of It" on which the Netflix series is based mentions Delvey's boyfriend in passing. Pressler described the unnamed boyfriend as "a futurist on the TED-Talks circuit who'd been profiled in The New Yorker." Just like on the show, he and Delvey spent their time together wooing high profile people who the futurist hoped would invest in his app.
The app, which wasn't Wake, thank the deity of your choice, never happened, and the tech bro ended up moving to the Emirates. While it sounds like he's little more than a footnote in Delvey's story, Pressler's article states that they dated for two years. That suggests whoever this mystery man was, he played a large role in the fraudster's life — even if it was only for a short time.
Who Was The Futurist (And Also What Is A Futurist)?
First things first, allow me to breakdown what a futurist is to the best of my knowledge, because quite frankly it sounds like a made-up job. According to Thrillist, a futurist is basically a "trend forecaster," someone who analyzes data in hopes of getting ahead of the next big thing. For Chase, this means selling people on the idea that dream data can be used for everything from self-improvement to marketing schemes.
It's unclear what kind of app Delvey's actual boyfriend was peddling, but whatever it is, it never showed up on the market. Still, this guy was a big deal (and could still be a big deal) in the tech world. As Pressler teased, he was profiled in The New Yorker at some point prior to 2018, but his actual identity remains a secret.
That hasn't stopped the internet from trying to solve this tantalizing blind item though, and the general consensus is the futurist who dated Delvey was either the now 73-year-old Ray Kurzweil, or the 52-year-old David Shing, better known as Shingy. Both men have been profiled by The New Yorker, and they've both given TED-talks. However, there's no evidence that either of them has lived in the Emirates.
Either man would be a far-cry from Chase, who is portrayed as an eager young tech bro with a talent for stretching the truth. But since this portion of Delvey's life is one big question mark, Shonda Rhimes had plenty of room to exercise her creative license. But of the two most-predicted internet suspects, Shingy would be the most fun.
Until 2019, the Australian futurist was known as AOL's "digital prophet." Not only does he have a wild persona that includes outrageous hairstyles and let's call them creative ensembles, he's also wonderfully weird in a way Delvey would surely appreciate (just take a look at his entirely black and white Instagram feed). Is the artsy tech guru/singer-songwriter Delvey's ex-boyfriend? Sadly, that remains unclear, but whoever the futurist was, I just hope his app idea wasn't as ridiculous as Chase's.
Images: David Giesbrecht/Netflix; Netflix