“American Hustlers,” the wild story of the downfall of the so-called “Gay Grifters” crime ring — led by Kaushal Niroula and Danny Garcia — is in development at Warner Bros. Television for Hulu. Niroula and Garcia mostly engaged in financial scams as they posed as art dealers, real estate developers, and in Niroula’s case, Nepalese royalty. Their schemes were largely nonviolent until they targeted Palm Springs art dealer Cliff Lambert, resulting in his December 2008 murder.
According to the project’s logline, “‘American Hustlers’ is inspired by the popular true crime podcast and the book ‘Until Someone Gets Hurt’ by Sherrie Lueder. The series chronicles the exploits of Kuashal Niroula and Danny Garcia as they are roped into an impressive group of eccentric, like-minded con artists to form the ‘gay grifters’ swindling a bevy of unsuspecting victims out of millions in cash and property over a decade plus. Even when they escalated to murder they seemed unstoppable… until one unassuming everyman — Tyson Wrensch — decided to quit his job and devote his life to bringing them to justice.”
Jim Campolongo (“The Blacklist,” “The Sandman”) is creating the series based on Frequency Machine’s popular 2025 podcast “American Hustlers,” hosted by Kim Kanter and Julie Golden, and Lueder’s 2013 book, which told Wrensch’s story of his encounters with the Gay Grifters — specifically Garcia, who attempted to rob Wrensch of all his money. Rachel Kaplan (“La Brea,” “Our Boys”), via Absecon Entertainment, and Alex Beattie (“HAPPYish,” “Outsourced”) are executive producers. Stacey Book, through Frequency Machine, is consulting on the project as an executive consultant.
After being scammed by Garcia, Wrensch became a citizen detective, and has brought attention to this story for years, most recently in an October 2025 “Dateline.” At SXSW last month, Wrensch appeared on a panel at Variety‘s True Crime Summit presented by Investigation Discovery, and shared his experiences with Garcia and Niroula. “I realized I had to be the one to release that shame and just come out and tell the story,” Wrensch said during the panel. “And it turns out it’s a really crazy story.”
In the aftermath of Lambert’s murder, it took years to bring the co-conspirators to justice, especially because the convictions of Niroula and Garcia were overturned in 2020, resulting in 2023 retrial.
Kaplan was previously the head of scripted at Keshet Studios. Beattie, who is director Ken Kwapis’ producing partner, has worked with Frequency Machine to develop their podcasts since the company’s 2020 launch. Campolongo is represented by Stan Spry & John Tomko at Evoke Entertainment, CAA and Dave Ryan and Patti Felker at their new law firm. Kaplan is also represented by Felker. Beattie is represented by Kim Stenton at Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Younger & Light LLP.
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