EXCLUSIVE: Following the buzzy TIFF launch of the indie comedy Poetic License, marking her feature writing debut, Raffi Donatich has inked a deal to develop the TV series Sex Act for Netflix, alongside Jeremy O. Harris (Slave Play, Zola) and Lena Dunham (Too Much, Girls), sources tell Deadline.
The show is described as following an intimacy coordinator who’s never been kissed. Reps for Netflix and Dunham declined to comment. We’re told that Emmy and Golden Globe winner Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story) is attached to star, though her deal won’t be finalized until script work is completed. Reps for Paulson did not respond to requests for comment.
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Sources said Donatich is writing, with Harris and Josh Godrey to exec produce for bb², alongside Dunham and Michael P. Cohen for Good Thing Going Productions, which inked a first-look TV deal with Netflix at top of year. It’s expected that Dunham will also be involved here as a director.
A New York-based writer and performer, Donatich approached bb² with the original pitch for Sex Act after working with Harris on his plays Slave Play and Daddy. bb² brought the project to Good Thing Going — a company with more history in the TV space — with the latter entity attaching prior to the inking of its Netflix deal. Harris goes way back with Dunham, just on a friendship level, and we’re told Dunham sees a lot of herself in Donatich, whom she’s taken under her wing in a mentoring capacity. bb² and Good Thing Going wrote a letter to Paulson regarding a starring role, which led to her attachment, and Good Thing Going then took the project into Netflix under their deal.
A New York-based writer and performer, Donatich’s Poetic License just premiered in the Special Presentations of TIFF and is currently seeking distribution amid a strong critical response. Marking the feature directorial debut of actress Maude Apatow, as well as the first film from her production company Jewelbox Pictures, on which we were first to report, the indie comedy watches as two inseparable best friends, Sam (Andrew Barth Feldman) and Ari (Cooper Hoffman), start to unravel as they compete for the affection of Liz (Leslie Mann), the middle-aged mom auditing their college poetry workshop. In his review of the film out of Toronto, Deadline’s Pete Hammond calls Donatich’s script “supremely intelligent and raucously amusing.” Currently, the multi-hyphenate is writing and producing LuckyChap and Fake Empire’s upcoming series Sterling Point, created by Megan Park, for Amazon. She is repped by UTA and 2AM.
Harris is best known as the creator of Broadway sensation Slave Play, which received a historic 12 nominations at the Tony Awards in 2021, and has just come off a sold-out run at the Noël Coward Theatre on the West End. He’s known in film for co-writing A24’s critically acclaimed Zola alongside director Janicza Bravo, with television credits including HBO’s Euphoria and Irma Vep. In 2023, he was nominated for another pair of Tony Awards for producing The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window and Ain’t No Mo‘. His play Daddy opened to acclaim in its UK debut at Almeida Theatre in March 2022 and made its way to the Tokyo Globe Theatre shortly thereafter. Currently the Artistic Director for the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where his most recent play Spirit of the People premiered this summer, Harris will next be seen on screen alongside Charli XCX in Pete Ohs’ film Erupjca — another TIFF-premiering title, which he also co-wrote and produced. He is represented by CAA, 2AM, and Granderson Des Rochers, as is his bb².
Dunham has recently garnered the most buzz since Girls with Too Much, her series co-created for Netflix with husband Luis Felber, which centers on the unexpected romance between a New York workaholic (Megan Stalter) and a British musician (Will Sharpe). Last month, we reported that she’s teaming with Emily Ratajkowski and author Stephanie Danler to develop an untitled Apple series, exploring female identity and modern motherhood, with A24. Upcoming, she also has Good Sex, a rom-com starring Natalie Portman and Mark Ruffalo that she’s directed and produced for Netflix from her own script. Pic is expected to premiere in 2027. Dunham will make her Broadway creative debut with 10 Things I Hate About You: The Broadway Musical and recently announced that her memoir, Famesick, will be published by Random House in April 2026. She is repped by CAA and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller.
Most recently appearing on FX’s The Bear, Paulson will next be seen starring alongside Kim Kardashian, Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash and others in Ryan Murphy’s Hulu legal drama All’s Fair, out this November. She is repped by CAA and Entertainment 360.
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