‘Confessions’ Netflix Series: What We Know So Far

Confessions of a Drug-Addicted High School Teacher is getting a series adaptation at Netflix. Here's the latest.

Tigran Asatryan What's on Netflix Avatar

paul wesley confessions netflix

Based on real-life events, Netflix will be developing a new series called Confessions, based on Jason Smith’s non-fiction 2015 article The Confessions of a Drug-Addicted High School Teacher, which chronicles his two-year stint teaching public high school in northern California.

The Vampire Diaries alum Paul Wesley will be producing and starring in this series as it was his passion project ever since the article was published and after he formed his production company Citizen Media. The title was first optioned in 2016 by Warner Bros. Television before moving to Netflix in late April 2022.

Confessions will be written by Wesley’s former showrunner Julie Plec, who will also produce and serve as showrunner. Her credits include The Vampire Diaries, Roswell, New Mexico, The Originals and more. Plec will co-write the series with Bradley Paul (Better Call Saul).

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Pictured: Julie Plec

Wesley is executive producing with his former producing partner Bob Levy, Kapital Entertainment’s Kaplan and Brian Morewitz as well as My So-Called Company’s Plec and Emily Cummins. Universal Television are on board to produce also.

Here’s what else we know so far about Netflix’s Confessions:


What’s the plot of Confessions?

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Netflix’s Confessions is based on Jason Smith’s non-fiction 2015 article The Confessions of a Drug-Addicted High School Teacher. The story can also be found on Medium.

Smith’s article chronicles his two-year stint teaching public high school in northern California. Despite teaching while anesthetized by a heavy dose of prescription narcotics, Jason finds that his brokenness from addiction begins attracting broken students, and in a town obsessed with high school football, he’s not alone in his obsession to escape from himself.


Who is cast in Confessions?

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Pictured: Paul Wesley

The cast of Netflix’s Confessions will be led by Paul Wesley. Wesley recently joined the cast of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, taking on the iconic role of James T. Kirk. He also starred on The Vampire Diaries for eight seasons and directed multiple episodes throughout the series’ run.


What’s the production status of Confessions?

Netflix’s Confessions is still in active development meaning the script is currently being written and revised with pre-production following afterward.


How many episodes will be in Confessions?

The number of episodes that will be featured in Netflix’s Confessions hasn’t been confirmed yet. That said we’d bet a standard 8 or 10 episodes, like most other Netflix dramas.


What’s the Netflix release date for Confessions?

Netflix hasn’t announced any dates for Confessions, but considering its very early development stage, we are expecting a 2023 release at the absolute earliest.

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Tigran is our resident previews writer. He works on collecting everything known about upcoming Netflix Original projects and also is editor-in-chief of Redanian Intelligence. Resides in France.