TV writer, producer, showrunner and author Liz Tigelaar hosted friends and colleagues from Hollywood’s literary and showrunner community at the most recent “Deadline Dinners” event held at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel on Thursday.
The writer-focused event series is designed to foster candid conversation, celebrate breakthrough storytelling and build community around the written word.
Tigelaar held court over the discussion that flowed over topics including the complexities behind the adaptation of books to TV series, from the unique perspectives of the authors and the TV/film writers tasked with bringing their stories to life.
Guests included Winnie Holzman (Wicked), Cheryl Strayed (Wild), Taylor Jenkins Reid (Daisy Jones & the Six), Tembi Locke (From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home), Attica Locke (Bluebird, Bluebird), Melissa Broder (Milkfed), Curtis Sittenfeld (Prep), Steph Cha (Butterfly), Rebecca Serle (When You Were Mine), as well as Rina Mimoun (Everwood), Gina Fattore (Dawson’s Creek), Anna Fricke (Walker), Lisa Zwerling, M.D. (ER), Kerry Ehrin (The Morning Show), Jessica Goldberg (The Path), Adele Lim (Crazy Rich Asians), Raamla Mohamed (Reasonable Doubt), Laura Dave (The Last Thing He Told Me), Marguerite MacIntyre (Vampire Academy), Rachel Lee Goldenberg (Unpregnant) and Stacey Silverman (Tiny, Beautiful Things).
Scroll across to check out photos from the event.
Liz Tigelaar at Deadline Dinners: Celebrating Liz Tigelaar and the Art of Adaptation held at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel on November 06, 2025 in Santa Monica, California.
Adele Lim, Gina Fattore, Attica Locke, Ellie Duque and Liz Tigelaar at Deadline Dinners: Celebrating Liz Tigelaar and the Art of Adaptation held at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel on November 06, 2025 in Santa Monica, California.
Rina Mimoun, Rachel Lee Goldenberg, Gina Fattore, Attica Locke, Ellie Duque and Liz Tigelaar at Deadline Dinners: Celebrating Liz Tigelaar and the Art of Adaptation held at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel on November 06, 2025 in Santa Monica, California.
Atmosphere at Deadline Dinners: Celebrating Liz Tigelaar and the Art of Adaptation held at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel on November 06, 2025 in Santa Monica, California.
Deadline Dinners: Celebrating Liz Tigelaar and the Art of Adaptation — Presented by Proper Hotels and Mary Dowling
Cheryl Strayed, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Rosy Cordero at Deadline Dinners: Celebrating Liz Tigelaar and the Art of Adaptation held at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel on November 06, 2025 in Santa Monica, California.
Ellie Duque, Kaveh Zamanian and Liz Tigelaar at Deadline Dinners: Celebrating Liz Tigelaar and the Art of Adaptation held at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel on November 06, 2025 in Santa Monica, California.
Anna Fricke, Rina Mimoun and Liz Tigelaar at Deadline Dinners: Celebrating Liz Tigelaar and the Art of Adaptation held at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel on November 06, 2025 in Santa Monica, California.
Kerry Ehrin and Liz Tigelaar at Deadline Dinners: Celebrating Liz Tigelaar and the Art of Adaptation held at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel on November 06, 2025 in Santa Monica, California.
Raamla Mohamed and Alison Rou at Deadline Dinners: Celebrating Liz Tigelaar and the Art of Adaptation held at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel on November 06, 2025 in Santa Monica, California.
Curtis Sittenfeld, Rebecca Serle and Taylor Jenkins Reid at Deadline Dinners: Celebrating Liz Tigelaar and the Art of Adaptation held at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel on November 06, 2025 in Santa Monica, California.
Lisa Zwerling, Rina Mimoun and Anna Fricke at Deadline Dinners: Celebrating Liz Tigelaar and the Art of Adaptation held at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel on November 06, 2025 in Santa Monica, California.
Attica Locke, Marguerite MacIntyre and Steph Cha at Deadline Dinners: Celebrating Liz Tigelaar and the Art of Adaptation held at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel on November 06, 2025 in Santa Monica, California.
Atmosphere at Deadline Dinners: Celebrating Liz Tigelaar and the Art of Adaptation held at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel on November 06, 2025 in Santa Monica, California.
In a laid-back setting of comfy couches and relaxed dinner table settings, conversation kicked off with introductions, cheers and talk of how everyone is connected to Tigelaar. It is easy to forget from whom the comment, “Liz is like the sun” originated that evening, due to the chorus that repeated the words around the circle. But everyone agreed that her warmth and brightness are the qualities they admire most about her. She most recently developed and served as the showrunner of the Hulu miniseries Little Fires Everywhere, based on the Celeste Ng novel.
Beyond Tigelaar, the accomplished women in attendance were honored to be in the room with so many women they personally admire. Holzman, co-screenwriter of Wicked and the creator of My So-Called Life, among many other accomplishments, was a particular favorite, receiving her much-deserved flowers from colleagues. Lim asked a few questions about Wicked, at one point promising it would be her final question about the smash hit film, jokingly. She wasn’t the only one.
The conversation flowed easily, pausing for but a brief moment as dinner was served. The Showrunner Dinner was presented by Mary Dowling Whiskey Co., which offered attendees a copy of the book Mother of Bourbon, The Greatest American Whiskey Story Never Told by Kaveh Zamanian and Eric Goodman.
Regarding the adaptation of novels from the POV of the author, Strayed, who wrote Wild, the memoir that was adapted into the 2014 movie by Nick Hornby and starring Reese Witherspoon, noted of her experience, “I thought about this a lot like with Wild, which is the first experience that I realized I had to get very clear about what was true. What was true is that I was the author of the book, and nobody would ever change that. If you want my vision, my version, read the book. It was an honor and a privilege that other artists wanted to interpret my story in a new way. They honored the core elements of the history and also brought themselves into the story.”
From the TV writer/showrunner perspective, Attica Locke noted that her sister Tembi, whose novel From Scratch they adapted into a miniseries of the same name for Netflix, had a list of non-negotiables going into the adaptation.
“A memoir is your actual life. So, Tembi called out her non-negotiables. If you can identify those, it gives you grace and generosity about the things that you’re going to bend, because you’ve identified the things that cannot be changed,” she said. “I think that helps [the person adapting the works]. We have talked to other people about their books we may want to adapt, and we always ask, ‘What is the thing that is most important to you?’”
This event took place at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel and is curated under Proper Hotels’ cultural platform “Proper Presents.”