Accused: Who is Hunter Venturelli? (Dedication explained)

At the end of the Accused Season 1 finale, a dedication to Hunter Venturelli was posted. Who was he to the series, and what happened?

Whenever someone close to a TV show dies, the TV show often includes some sort of dedication. We’ve seen a few over the past year or two, and the latest one came at the end of the Accused Season 1 finale. There are no spoilers for the finale in this post, so you don’t have to worry there. We’re focusing solely on the dedication.

The dedication card was to Hunter Venturelli.  It turns out that Venturelli was the inspiration for the story in the finale rather than someone connected to the show itself.

Who was Hunter Venturelli in the Accused dedication?

Venturelli was a personal fitness coach in LA. He died on June 27, 2022 of an accidental poisoning. Venturelli had struggled with substance abuse for most of his life, and he was just 29 at the time of his death.

In the episode, we know that Billy’s son is struggling with drug addiction. Billy is willing to do whatever it takes to help his son and keep his granddaughter safe. You’ll need to watch the episode or check out the recap of the story here if you want to find out what happened, but it looks like Leo’s part of the story was loosely inspired by Venturelli’s.

Howard Gordon, the show’s showrunner, shared the story about the with Deadline. It turned out that the network initially didn’t want this story in, so Gordon made it clear that there would only be 14 episodes, then. FOX changed its mind, and it’s good that it did. We have to remember that this story is all about failings of various parts of the system as well as making us question our own actions depending on the situation at hand. Gordon admitted that some of this story was inspired by the son of a friend who passed away last year, and it looks like Hunter Venturelli was the son of that friend.

Accused is now available to stream on Hulu.