Who is Chris Lee? ‘The New Stanford Prison Experiment’ participant played both guard and prisoner

In 1971, a Stanford University psychology professor named Phillip Zimbardo launched the Stanford Prison Experiment. The setup involved 24 male students who were placed in a mock prison as part of a two-week experiment. However, the trial was terminated within 6 days due to ethical concerns. This concept was tweaked and turned into a six-episode Netflix series titled ‘The New Stanford Prison Experiment.’ Unlike the original study, which took place in a university basement, the new project is set in a real prison, where 30 individuals volunteer to become participants in a psychological experiment. One of the participants viewers meet is Chris Lee, who oversees the prisoners during the night shift.

Lee is introduced as a business coach and CEO who conducts his shift like a business retreat. He connects with inmates on a personal level, chats with them freely, and doesn’t set any ground rules during the first night. His night shift consists of fellow guards Shavonnah Jefferson and Hadley McDaniel. The day shift, led by Chet Hudson (an oil rig supervisor), takes the opposite approach, and Hudson compares the job to breaking horses. Notably, the two guards disagree over a microwave that the day shift confiscated from an inmate as punishment. Lee returns the appliance because he considers taking it away petty.

Away from the cameras, Lee resides in Pasco, Washington, and told NBC Right Now that his journey to the show started with an Instagram DM in July 2025. Producers went through an extensive interview process with him, including psychological evaluations. Volunteers spent three weeks on the production, including two weeks inside the prison, where approximately 60 cameras filmed them. Lee also revealed that the volunteers were initially told only that a major streaming provider was behind the project. They learned that Netflix was producing the series when they arrived at the location.

Lee was one of just seven volunteers among the 30 participants who played both a guard and a prisoner. He said that the mind adjusts to prison life quickly, including sleeping on a one-inch pad and eating prison food. When asked whether power corrupts, a central question explored by the series, Lee said he thinks power and money amplify a person, adding, “who you are is going to really show up”. All six episodes of ‘The New Stanford Prison Experiment,’ each running approximately 45 minutes, are now streaming on Netflix.