Elizabeth Holmes is back in the spotlight but this time, the story of the disgraced Theranos founder is being examined by one of the most unconventional filmmakers working today. Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim have directed You Can See Everything, a documentary about Holmes that was kept largely under wraps before making its surprise debut at the 2026 Telluride Film Festival. A24 has released the first teaser, with the documentary set to arrive in theatres in October 2026.
The film reportedly began 34 days before Holmes was due to report to prison and eventually became a three-year filmmaking project. The teaser places Fielder and Holmes face-to-face, immediately creating an unusual dynamic between the filmmaker and his controversial subject.
But before watching You Can See Everything, it is worth revisiting the story that made Holmes one of the most notorious names in Silicon Valley.
So, who is Elizabeth Holmes, what happened to Theranos and why was she sentenced to more than 11 years in prison?
Who Is Elizabeth Holmes?
Elizabeth Holmes was born on February 3, 1984, in Washington, D.C. She later enrolled at Stanford University to study chemical engineering. In 2003, when she was just 19, Holmes dropped out of Stanford after filing her first patent for a wearable drug-delivery patch. She used money from her tuition to establish a company originally called Real-Time Cures, which was later renamed Theranos — a combination of “therapy” and “diagnosis.”
Her idea was ambitious. Holmes claimed that Theranos had developed proprietary technology capable of performing hundreds of medical tests using only a few drops of blood obtained through a finger prick.
The promise was simple: make medical testing faster, cheaper and more accessible.
How Did Elizabeth Holmes Build The Theranos Empire?
Theranos quickly attracted major financial backing. By the end of 2010, the company had reportedly raised more than $92 million in venture capital. Over the years, Theranos would raise nearly $945 million, with high-profile investors including Oracle founder Larry Ellison, media mogul Rupert Murdoch and members of the Walton family.
Holmes also carefully cultivated her public image. She became known for wearing black turtlenecks, a style widely compared with Steve Jobs, and assembled an extraordinarily influential board that included former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz.
Her image and the company’s promise helped turn Theranos into one of the biggest names in Silicon Valley. In 2014, Forbes named Holmes the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire, estimating her net worth at around $4.5 billion. Theranos itself was valued at approximately $9 billion at its peak.
What Was The Theranos Scandal?
The central problem with Theranos was its blood-testing technology. The company claimed its machines could conduct hundreds of tests from a tiny amount of blood. However, investigations eventually revealed that Theranos relied heavily on modified commercially available analyzers for many patient tests, while its own technology produced unreliable results.
The company’s claims began to unravel publicly, raising serious questions about whether Holmes and Theranos had misled investors, business partners and patients. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Holmes, Theranos and former president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani with fraud in 2018.
Holmes reached a civil settlement with the SEC. As part of the settlement, she agreed to pay a $500,000 penalty, return millions of Theranos shares, give up voting control and accept a 10-year ban from serving as an officer or director of a public company. Theranos itself was dissolved in September 2018. But the legal battle was far from over.
What Happened To Elizabeth Holmes During Her Criminal Trial?
Criminal charges followed the collapse of Theranos. Prosecutors argued that Holmes had misrepresented the company’s technology and finances to investors, helping Theranos obtain hundreds of millions of dollars while concealing problems with its technology.
Holmes went on trial in 2021, with the proceedings beginning on August 31. She took the stand in her own defence and maintained that she believed the statements she made about Theranos were accurate at the time. The trial eventually produced a split verdict.
On January 3, 2022, a federal jury found Holmes guilty on four counts related to defrauding investors, three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was acquitted on four counts related to defrauding patients, while the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on three other counts.
Why Was Elizabeth Holmes Sent To Prison?
In November 2022, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila sentenced Holmes to 135 months — 11 years and three months — in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. The sentence was for defrauding Theranos investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Holmes reported to Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas on May 30, 2023, beginning her sentence at the minimum-security federal facility.
Holmes’ former romantic partner and Theranos executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani was prosecuted separately. He was convicted on all 12 counts in 2022 and sentenced to 12 years and 11 months in prison. Holmes and Balwani were also ordered to pay approximately $452 million in restitution to victims.
Where Is Elizabeth Holmes Now?
Holmes remains incarcerated in Texas. Her legal battle continued after she entered prison. In 2025, an appeals court upheld her conviction and sentence. In 2026, Holmes sought to have President Donald Trump commute her prison sentence. Reuters reported that the request remained pending, with Holmes otherwise not eligible for release until December 2031.
That makes You Can See Everything particularly unusual. The documentary is not examining Holmes at the height of Theranos’ success. Instead, it follows her after the company’s collapse and around the period when she was facing the consequences of her conviction and preparing to enter prison.
What Is Nathan Fielder’s You Can See Everything About?
You Can See Everything is directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. According to the film’s premise, Holmes invited a skeptical film crew into her life 34 days before she was sent to prison. What began as an intimate documentary portrait eventually developed into a three-year project.
The first teaser suggests that this is not going to be a straightforward retelling of the Theranos scandal. Instead, Fielder appears interested in the complicated relationship between Holmes and the camera.
In the teaser, Holmes speaks directly with Fielder as he questions her about whether she is being genuine. The uncomfortable exchange immediately raises a question that has followed Holmes for years: how much of what the public saw was Elizabeth Holmes the person, and how much was Elizabeth Holmes the carefully constructed image?
Known for Nathan for You and The Rehearsal, Fielder often explores performance, perception and the strange space between reality and constructed behaviour.
Why Is Nathan Fielder Making A Documentary About Elizabeth Holmes?
The Theranos story has already been covered extensively through books, documentaries, podcasts and scripted projects, including Hulu’s The Dropout starring Amanda Seyfried. So what makes You Can See Everything different? The access.
Rather than simply interviewing journalists, former employees or people who watched the Theranos collapse from the outside, Fielder and Oppenheim spent years documenting Holmes herself. The result is reportedly a 174-minute documentary, giving the filmmakers substantial room to explore Holmes, her family and the aftermath of her conviction.
When Is You Can See Everything Releasing?
You Can See Everything had its surprise world premiere at the 2026 Telluride Film Festival and is scheduled for a theatrical release in October 2026 through A24.
