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This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.<\/p>\n
The Housemaid<\/em><\/strong><\/a> author Frieda McFadden has stepped out of the shadows.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n McFadden has revealed her true identity and has confirmed her day job as a brain doctor following the major success of her popular thriller book and its subsequent film adaptation. Released in 2022, the psychological thriller novel became a bestseller, leading to an adaptation led by Sydney Sweeney<\/a> and Amanda Seyfried in 2025. The Housemaid <\/em>was a massive box office success.<\/p>\n Now, USA Today<\/a> <\/em>has broken the news of McFadden revealing her true identity. The Housemaid<\/em> author’s real name is Sara Cohen, who works as a brain doctor treating brain disorders. Cohen kept her identity a secret from the public to ensure her writing didn’t clash with her work. She quit working full-time in late 2023, but still sees some patients.<\/p>\n Cohen, who earned her degree at Harvard University, revealed that her coworkers eventually discovered her identity as McFadden, all keeping it a secret as she continued to write. According to the report, she began to bring her books to the hospital, realizing that “I was completely overwhelmed from trying to do both<\/em>” jobs at the same time.<\/p>\n Cohen has been writing under the McFadden name since 2013, when she published her first book in the Dr. Jane McGill <\/em>series, titled The Devil Wears Scrubs<\/em>. The book draws from her personal medical experience as an intern, and marked the first of the many books she would publish after the fact. This includes The Housemaid <\/em>in 2022.<\/p>\n The best-selling book became the first in a series, with Cohen later publishing two sequels and a short story to go alongside it. The movie adaptation of the first book ended up becoming a box office hit, earning $399.1 million against a $35 million budget. Reviews for The Housemaid<\/em><\/a> <\/em>were also rather positive, earning a Certified Fresh 73% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.<\/p>\n