Lifetime Drama 'UnREAL' To Premiere June 1

(L to R) Shiri Appleby (Rachel) and Josh Kelly (Jeremy) star in the all-new Lifetime scripted series UnREAL premiering June 1 on Lifetime. Photo by James Dittiger Copyright 2015

Lifetime's highly-anticipated scripted series UnREAL, starring Shiri Appleby (Girls) and Constance Zimmer (House of Cards, Entourage), will premiere Monday, June 1, at 10 p.m. ET/PT. This provocative drama, that gives a fictitious behind-the-scenes glimpse into the chaos surrounding the production of a dating competition program, makes its world premiere today at SXSW at 3:30pm CT in the Vimeo theater in the Austin Convention Center. UnREAL was created by Marti Noxon (Girlfriends Guide to Divorce, Mad Men, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro. It was inspired by Shapiro's 2013 SXSW award-winning independent short film Sequin Raze.

Set against the backdrop of the hit dating competition show Everlasting, UnREAL is led by flawed heroine Rachel Goldberg (Appleby), a young producer whose sole job is to manipulate her relationships with, and among, the contestants to get the vital dramatic and outrageous footage that the program's dispassionate executive producer, Quinn King (Zimmer), demands. What ensues is an eye-opening look at what happens in the outrageous world of unscripted television, where being a contestant can be vicious and being a producer a whole other reality.