A Hulu biopic inspired by the life of Southern Methodist University alum and Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd is set to hit the streamer on Sept. 19.
Hulu released a trailer this week for the film Swiped, which features Lily James (Pam & Tommy) as a young and ambitious Wolfe Herd.
The movie appears to depict Wolfe Herd’s acrimonious split from Tinder, the dating app company where she was a co-founder and vice president of marketing before starting rival Bumble.
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In one scene, James’ Whitney says of Tinder’s workplace: “It’s pretty all consuming. You know we’re together all the time. It’s a big family,” she adds, as a montage rolls of dimly lit, rambunctious partying.
“You know families can get messy, right?” one character replies.
Also billed as stars in Swiped are Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey), Myha’la Herrold (Industry), Jackson White (Tell Me Lies), Ben Schnetzer (Pride) and Pierson Fodé (Jessie). Rachel Lee Goldenberg (Unpregnant) writes and directs.
When Bumble debuted in 2014, it was lauded as a feminist, Sadie Hawkins-like take on Tinder. Female users on Bumble had to make the first move, initiating conversations with matches. If they did not send a message within 24 hours, the match would expire. (As of 2024, women could add prompts to their profiles for men to answer.)
The app had nearly 30 million users in 2018, The Dallas Morning News reported. But the road to its creation and success was a rocky one.
Wolfe Herd, 36, once was a public face of Tinder, recruiting users from college sororities and fraternities. At SMU, she had been in Kappa Kappa Gamma.
Her relationship with Tinder executives soured after a breakup with co-founder Justin Mateen around 2013. She filed a lawsuit against the company for sexual harassment in June 2014 and launched Bumble later that year. Tinder settled the suit with her for an undisclosed amount in September 2014.
Bumble later made headlines over a legal battle with Match Group Inc., the Dallas-based parent company of Tinder. After previously attempting to buy Bumble, Match Group sued the women-oriented app in a 2018 lawsuit, accusing it of being a “Tinder-clone.”
In a counter suit, the Austin-based Bumble denied the claims and accused Match Group of trying to “poison and devalue” the app. Bumble also took out a full-page ad in The Dallas Morning News to address Match Group. “We — a woman-founded, women-led company — aren’t scared of aggressive corporate culture,” the ad read. “That’s what we call bullying, and we swipe left on bullies.”
Wolfe Herd stepped down as CEO of Bumble in 2023, resuming the role in January of this year. In a May interview with The New York Times, she said the company needed her back, alluding to Bumble’s plummeting stock price.
“Watching it fall from its peak has been very hard,” she told The Times. “And so I raised my hand to the board and said, ‘Listen, I’d like to put my hat back in the ring.’”
In June, a month after that interview, Bumble announced plans to lay off 30% of its workforce.
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