Freida McFadden

Sara Cohen (born May 1, 1980), known by her pen name Freida McFadden, is an American author. She is known for her psychological thriller novels, many of which have achieved significant commercial success and widespread popularity. Her work The Housemaid (2022) became an international bestseller and was adapted into a 2025 feature film starring Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney.

Sara Cohen grew up in midtown Manhattan, with one sibling. Her parents, who later divorced, both worked in the medical field. Her father was a psychiatrist, and her mother was a podiatrist. From an early age, Cohen expressed an interest in becoming a physician. She attended a highly competitive New York City high school, later suggesting that the academic rigor she experienced there was formative to her work ethic.

Cohen went on to study mathematics at Harvard University. Later, she attended medical school at Stony Brook University, pursuing a career in medicine, while continuing to write fiction and submit manuscripts to publishers and literary agents. During this period, she began creative writing, developing material that would, later, inform her early published work.

After completing her medical training, Cohen began self-publishing fiction under the pseudonym Freida McFadden. Her first novel, The Devil Wears Scrubs (2013), drew heavily on her experiences as a medical intern and was based, in part, on observations from clinical training. The novel marked the beginning of her writing career and established her interest in blending medical settings with narrative fiction.

Her 2022 book The Housemaid was an international bestseller, and was adapted for Lionsgate, with Rebecca Sonnenshine writing the screenplay, and Hidden Pictures' Todd Lieberman and Alex Young producing. It is directed by Paul Feig, and the cast includes Sydney Sweeney as Millie, Amanda Seyfried as Nina, Brandon Sklenar as Andrew, Michele Morrone as Enzo. Filming began in January 2025, and it was released on December 19, 2025. The film hit almost $400 million at the box office to become the top-grossing film of Feig's career in its original run.

*Originally published under the title Suicide Med; later revised and re-released as Dead Med on 27 June 2024. The re-release date listed in the table refers to its forthcoming traditional publication under Sourcebooks’ Poisoned Pen Press imprint.

Note: Initial release dates refer to initial self-publication by McFadden via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Re-release dates indicate subsequent publication through traditional publishing following McFadden’s signing with Sourcebooks under their imprint Poisoned Pen Press. Titles first published from late 2023 onwards were issued directly through traditional publishing and therefore do not have separate re-release dates.

McFadden lives outside Boston with her husband, along with their two children and cat.

McFadden has stated that her background as a physician has influenced her writing, particularly in her ability to depict medical scenarios accurately. She has also explained that maintaining a stable medical career earlier in her writing life gave her financial security and allowed her to invest in marketing her books. As her author career expanded, she reduced her clinical work and now practices medicine only part time, 1–2 days a week. Growing up in New York City, McFadden has noted that the city frequently serves as a setting for her novels.

• 2023 International Thriller Writers Awards for The Housemaid in the category Best Paperback Original Novel

• 2023 Goodreads Choice Awards for The Housemaid's Secret in the category Best Mystery and Thriller

• Official website