“View gallery Image Credit: WireImage In the upcoming Paramount+ suspense series, Dennis Quaid plays 1990s serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, otherwise chillingly known as the “Happy Face Killer.” The veteran actor, who recently co-starred with Demi Moore in The Substance, stars alongside Annaleigh Ashford as his daughter, Melissa G. Moore and a recently released trailer gave viewers a”, — write: hollywoodlife.com
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Image Credit: WireImage In the upcoming Paramount+ suspense series, Dennis Quaid plays 1990s serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, otherwise chillingly known as the “Happy Face Killer.” The veteran actor, who recently co-starred with Demi Moore in The Substance, stars alongside Annaleigh Ashford as his daughter, Melissa G. Moore and a recently released trailer gave viewers a peek into what the suspenseful eight-episode drama will entail.
Read on to find out when you can watch Happy Face, and what else to know ahead of the series debut.
What is ‘Happy Face’ About?
The series is based on the real case of Keith Hunter Jesperson, known as the Happy Face Killer. The case dates back to the 1990s when Jesperson, who is now serving a life sentence at Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, murdered multiple women. He was arrested in 1995 and earned his moniker for drawing a smiley face in letters he sent to officials.
Quaid, who will portray the Happy Face Killer in this series, told The New York Post, “Serial killers are very easy to play.” He added, “Because they really kind of don’t have any emotion.”
When does the ‘Happy Face’ Series Debut? Happy Face is inspired by a true crime podcast of the same name, chronicling the experiences of Melissa, now in adulthood, as she attempts to unravel and accept the impact her father’s crimes (at least eight murders over five years in the 90s) have had. “Happy Face follows Melissa (Annaleigh Ashford) and her incarcerated father, known as the ‘Happy Face Killer’ (Dennis Quaid),” an official logline reads. “After decades of no contact, he finally finds a way to force himself back into his daughter’s life. In a race against the clock, Melissa must find out if an innocent man is going to be put to death for a crime her father committed. Throughout, she discovers the impact her father had on his victims’ families and must face a reckoning of her own identity.”
Melissa herself has written at length about her father’s crimes, most notably in her 2015 book, Shattered Silence: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer’s Daughter. “It was like there was another Keith Jesperson,” she wrote of discovering her father’s crime as a teenager in a 2014 essay, according to BBC News. “I had caught glimpses of this other man, but I also remembered when my dad came home from long-haul truck drives he would be so doting and kind. He seemed like such a good dad at times. Then again, he had said some very strange things over the years. ‘You know I drove past the Oregon State Penitentiary, and I honked my horn,’ he told me on the phone one time. ‘I said: ‘Someday I’m gonna be there. But not yet!’”
‘Happy Face’ Series Release Date Happy Face will be released via a two-episode debut on Paramount+ on Thursday, March 20, 2025. The additional episodes, six in total, will air weekly on Thursdays until the dramatic series concludes on May 1.