Dennis Quaid, Annaleigh Ashford to headline Happy Face

Actor Dennis Quaid has signed on for a lead role in the upcoming series Happy Face, Variety reported.

Quaid will appear opposite actor Annaleigh Ashford who will star as Melissa.

The series is based on the podcast by the same name from iHeartMedia and Melissa Moore, Moore's autobiographical book Shattered Silence which is co-written with M Bridget Cook and Moore's true tale.

In real life, Moore discovered at 15 that her father was the serial killer known as “Happy Face,” due to the smiley faces he drew on evidence where he bragged about his crimes. As an adult, she has changed her name and guarded her secret while her father has been serving life in prison.

The show will use Moore’s story as a jumping-off point to tell a story of how Melissa (Ashford) is drawn back into her father’s world after decades of not having contact with him. Happy Face (Quaid), in prison for his crimes, finds a way to force himself back into his daughter’s life. Melissa must find out if an innocent man is going to be put to death for a crime her father committed, while also discovering the impact her father had on his victims’ families and facing a reckoning with her own identity.

This will be Quaid's second Paramount+ series in which Quaid has starred. He recently appeared in the series Lawmen: Bass Reeves at the streamer.

The eight-episode first season of Happy Face, produced by CBS Studios in association with King Size Productions, iHeartPodcasts and Semi-Formal Productions, will begin filming this spring in Vancouver and premiere exclusively on Paramount+ globally in 2025. Jennifer Cacicio is the writer, executive producer, and showrunner of the series.