The San Diego family behind 'You Can See Everything' star

The line "We are in San Diego" anchors the opening of a documentary now topping global box office charts.

The film, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, follows Elizabeth Holmes and her partner Billy Evans during the 34 days before Holmes began her 11-year prison sentence in May 2023. The pair invited the crew to their rented beach house in Del Mar, where much of the footage was captured during a cloudy April. While Holmes is from Houston, Evans is a San Diego native with deep ties to the city's hospitality sector.

His family controls Evans Hotels, a luxury brand that includes the Bahia Resort Hotel and Catamaran Resort Hotel and Spa in Mission Bay, plus The Lodge at Torrey Pines in La Jolla. William and Anne Evans founded the company in 1953. The Bahia was the first commercial hotel lessee on the bay, which was then mostly marshland. Billy's father, Bill Evans, became a local power figure, serving on regional boards and donating to political campaigns.

Bill Evans secured a new 40-year lease for the Mission Bay resort in 2012. Voice of San Diego called the deal peculiar because it was rushed through City Council to catch low interest rates and allowed for a potential 50-year extension if major redevelopment occurred. The family has faced friction with local institutions. Bill Evans opposed a 2011 Convention Center expansion that would have taxed his guests. In 2016, a coalition of Chargers fans boycotted Evans Hotels, arguing the industry blocked tax hikes needed for a new stadium.

In 2018, Evans Hotels sued local unions, alleging they used sham environmental concerns to leverage public lease agreements. That lawsuit stemmed partly from a failed bid to build a hotel at Sea World. Around the film's release, the company stated that Billy Evans holds no ownership or role in the business. He attended Francis Parker School and later earned an economics degree from MIT. He worked at LinkedIn and a self-driving car startup before meeting Holmes in 2017.

The couple engaged in 2018 but are not legally married. Holmes and former Theranos executive Ramesh Balwani were ordered to pay more than $450 million in restitution after their fraud convictions. Evans is now raising funds for a startup called Haemanthus, which uses lasers and AI for health testing. The company says it raised $20 million by 2025 and has not released a product. In the documentary, Evans told Fielder he wanted to "put the band back together and do it all again," a phrase Fielder interpreted as "Theranos 2.0."

Evans appeared on the All-In podcast last month, where he said the documentary aimed to show who Holmes really is. When asked if the film succeeded, Evans replied that he had not seen it yet and might think it was the dumbest thing he had ever done.