Who is Ann Ravel from ‘Telemarketers?’

Telemarketers shines a harsh lens on the practice of marketing through unsolicited phone calls, and audiences are absolutely eating it up.

There’s far more than just an examination of telemarketing contained within Telemarketers‘ three limited episodes, of course, but audience familiarity with the series pretty much begins and ends with its easily recognizable name. Deeper scrutiny reveals a rich story following a pair of telemarketers who, initially convinced their work served a good cause, seek to take down their former industry upon learning the truth. HBO is well known for knocking its documentaries out of the park, and it seems Telemarketers joins the stacked ranks of HBO favorites as an instant crowd favorite.

As fresh viewers get around to experiencing Telemarketers for themselves, many are finding themselves surprised at the slew of real-world names that appear in the show. It is a documentary series, after all, and the events contained within are based on reality, so some of those famous faces are staples of our day-to-day lives. Ann Ravel’s is among the names tickling viewer memories, and leading to a surge in searches for the illustrious attorney.

Who is Ann Ravel?

Ann Ravel, like the majority of figures who appear across Telemarketers, is a real person, a piece of whom’s actual history is contained within the HBO series. Long before she was gracing our screens in the 2023 release, however, Ravel was making a name for herself among the political powerhouses in California. She started her career working for nonpartisan commissions and exposing dirty money in politics, before eventually earning a position among President Obama’s Federal Election Commission. She served as a member from 2013 to 2017, and during her time on the commission, sought to better incorporate changing technology into its approach to elections.

And that’s after she’d already established herself as a star attorney and dedicated public servant. In the years since her days on the FEC, Ravel moved onto politics. She sought to become a California state senator in 2019, but ultimately lost out to Dave Cortese. Even without that position padding her resume, however, Ravel has quite the career behind her — and her work in assisting with the very scheme Telemarketers outlines earned her a spot among its cast.