“American Hustlers,” a wild story about the fall of the so-called “Gay Grifters” criminal organization led by Kaushal Nirula and Danny Garcia, is in development at Warner Bros. Television for Hulu. Nirula and Garcia primarily engaged in financial fraud by posing as art dealers, real estate developers and, in Nirula’s case, Nepali royalty. Their plans were primarily nonviolent until they targeted and murdered Palm Springs art dealer Cliff Lambert in December 2008.
According to the project’s logline, “‘American Hustlers’ is inspired by the popular true crime podcast and ‘Until Someone Gets Hurt’ by Shelley Ruder. The series chronicles Quashal Nirula and Danny Garcia as they form the ‘Gay Grifters’, banding together an impressive group of like-minded, eccentric con artists to scam millions of unsuspecting victims.” Even when they escalated to murder, nothing seemed to stop them…until one unassuming, ordinary man, Tyson Rensch, decided to quit his job and dedicate his life to bringing them to justice. ”
Jim Campolongo (The Blacklist, The Sandman) is writing the series based on Frequency Machine’s popular 2025 podcast American Hustlers, hosted by Kim Cantor and Julie Golden, and Ruder’s 2013 book about Wrench’s encounter with the Gay Grifters, especially Garcia, who tried to steal all his money from Wrench. Rachel Kaplan (“La Brea,” “Our Boys”) via Absecon Entertainment and Alex Beatty (“HAPPYish,” “Outsourced”) serve as executive producers. Stacey Book consults on projects through Frequency Machine as an executive consultant.
After being scammed by Garcia, Wrench became a citizen detective and has brought attention to the story over the years, most recently on “Dateline” in October 2025. Last month at SXSW, Lenci appeared on a panel on Investigation Discovery’s True Crime Summit, where he talked about his experiences with Garcia and Nirula. “I realized that I had to release that shame and just come out and tell the story,” Rench said during the panel discussion. “And it turned out to be a really crazy story.”
In the aftermath of Lambert’s murder, it took years to bring the co-conspirators to justice, especially since Nirula and Garcia’s convictions were overturned in 2020 and retried in 2023.
Mr. Kaplan previously served as head of scriptwriting at Keshet Studios. Beatty, director Ken Kwapis’ producing partner, has been working with Frequency Machine to develop the podcast since its launch in 2020. Mr. Campolongo is repped by Stan Spry and John Tomko at CAA’s Evoke Entertainment and by Dave Ryan and Patti Felker at the new law firm. Mr. Kaplan is also represented by Mr. Felker. Beattie is represented by Kim Stenton of Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Younger & Light LLP.
