In yet another example of the culture’s cheapening requirements for stature of any kind, Amanda Knox has announced she will be performing her one-woman stand-up show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August.
Yes. The Amanda Knox. The very one who, while on exchange in Italy, was twice convicted, and later acquitted, of the horrific murder of the beautiful and promising 21-year-old Meredith Kercher.
It is perhaps both tragic and telling that, rather than Kercher, it is the Knox name the media (present company included) continues to keep in circulation. Although this is in no small part owed to Knox herself.
Knox has been courting the media since her release. And while nearly 20 years have passed, her schtick has remained the same:
ME. ME. ME.
Amanda, we get it.
A young woman was murdered in cold blood. But how did it make you feel?
The booking has already been condemned by the Kercher family’s lawyer as “offensive and deplorable”, reigniting long-running debate over Knox’s continued public monetisation of the case.
And, look, it’s not hard to see why.
Meredith Kercher
During the original investigation, Italian police became fixated on Knox’s behaviour in the days following Kercher’s murder. In one particularly surreal detail that would go on to dominate headlines for years, prosecutors alleged Knox was “performing cartwheels” while waiting to be questioned.
Her 2026 comedy show is entitled Cartwheel.
Knox has denied that the title is linked to the Kercher’s murder.
Still, nearly two decades on, the case remains central to her public brand.
Knox’s routine reportedly includes material about the impact Kercher’s murder had on her, alongside anecdotes about explaining her past to her five-year-old child.
Now 38, Knox was acquitted by Italy’s highest court in 2015 following years of trials, appeals, a very active US PR campaign (managed by Seattle-based crisis communications firm Gogerty Marriott – because, of course, every innocent person needs a PR team) and relentless global media coverage.
Since then, she has built an increasingly expansive media career around her experience: memoirs, podcasts, documentaries, television projects – all roads, ultimately, leading back to the same case.
And that’s where the discomfort sits.
Knox has said she will “not let the bullies win”, framing criticism of her continued public profile as part of a broader attempt to silence her.
“It’s ultimately about wanting to silence me because I raise an uncomfortable reality,” she told the US Mirror. “I feel wronged, and I don’t like letting the people who wronged me win.”
But it’s a curious defence. Had Knox quietly stepped away from the spotlight years ago, there arguably would be no “bullies” left to fight. And if the pull of public life proved impossible to resist, perhaps building an entertainment vehicle around a brutal murder case was always going to invite scrutiny.
Because while Knox continues to position herself as the target, the Kercher family has spent nearly 20 years watching the death of their daughter and sibling repackaged, retold and resold for public consumption.
The list is extensive.
There have been two books – the 2013 memoir Waiting to Be Heard and the 2025 release Free: My Search for Meaning. A scripted television drama, The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, followed in 2025, with Knox attached as a producer.
Then came the 2026 documentary Mouth of the Wolf: Amanda Knox Returns to Italy, alongside multiple podcast series including The Truth About True Crime with Amanda Knox, Labyrinths with Amanda Knox and Hard Knox with Amanda Knox.
Most recently, Knox even released a single, How Strange It Is, written and recorded for Mouth of the Wolf.
For someone allegedly being “silenced”, it’s been an extraordinarily loud media run.
And perhaps that’s the point critics can’t move past.
The schtick is old. Find a new one.
Main image: The poster for Knox’s comedy show.