‘The Dropout’: Theranos Whistleblower Tyler Shultz Arrives in Episode 5

The new Hulu miniseries The Dropout introduces Tyler Shultz in episode 5. The series follows the story of Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos. It’s no secret that Theranos collapsed and Holmes’ time as CEO ended in scandal. Over time, many people voiced their concerns about Theranos, but one of the most famous whistleblowers was Shultz, who is played by Dylan Minnette in The Dropout.

Dylan Minnette plays Tyler Shultz in ‘The Droput’

Minnette’s character Tyler Shultz arrives at Theranos in episode 5. The actor explained his character in The Dropout during a video on the show’s official Twitter. “Tyler Shultz was one of the very first whistleblowers at Theranos,” Minnette said.

“He is the grandson of George Shultz, who is former Secretary of State, board member at Theranos. So being George’s grandson, Tyler sort of got his foot in the door and got a job at Theranos. After spending some time at the company he was able to realize pretty quickly they were manipulating data and with his friend and co-employee Erika, decided to bring it to light.”

Tyler Shultz blew the whistle on Elizabeth Holmes’ company Theranos

So far in The Dropout, Holmes’ methods at her company Theranos have gone from questionable to downright unethical. In episode 2, Holmes takes her Theranos prototype to Switzerland, where she fakes a demo on the malfunctioning machine. Later, Holmes goes even further, performing clinical trials on cancer patients with a prototype that doesn’t work.

As Minnette said, his character quickly realized that Holmes’ innovative invention, called The Edison, did not work. “There is nothing that the Edison could do that I couldn’t do with a pipette in my own hand,” the real-life Shultz told NPR. “It was clear that there was an open secret within Theranos that this technology simply didn’t exist.”

According to NPR, Shultz contacted state regulators in New York under a false name. Along with his Theranos co-worker Erika Cheung, he also worked with John Carreyrou, a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, to reveal the truth about Theranos. “Tyler and Erika were corroborating sources, and that was absolutely critical,” Carreyrou told NPR.

Shultz decision to take down Theranos wasn’t easy

Blowing the whistle on Theranos was not an easy thing to do, especially for a young man just starting out in the professional world. “It would have been easier to quietly quit and move on with my life,” Shultz told NPR. “And that’s actually exactly what my parents advised me to do when I was a 22-year-old kid fresh out of college.”

To make matters even more difficult, Schultz’s grandfather did not exactly support his whistleblowing at first. “He didn’t believe me. He said Elizabeth has assured me that they go above and beyond all regulatory standards,” Shultz told NPR. Eventually, Shultz’s grandfather would tell him that he did the right thing.

Minnette praised the bravery of his character in The Dropout and acknowledged the difficulty of what he went through. “It sort of takes a big toll on Tyler once this happens. It sort of changes his life forever and his relationships with the people around him,” Minnette said in the Twitter video. “Tyler is an extremely admirable man and I think deserves to be called a hero.”

New episodes of The Dropout are available to stream Thursdays on Hulu.