‘Prep’ Series Based on Curtis Sittenfeld Bestseller a Go at Netflix

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Netflix is expanding its YA slate with a straight-to-series order for Prep, based on the best-selling novel by Curtis Sittenfeld.

Nicole Taylor (One Day) will adapt the novel and serve as showrunner on the series, which centers on a girl from Indiana who attends a prestigious boarding school in Massachusetts. Taylor will executive produce with Will Ferrell, Jessica Elbaum, and Alix Taylor of Gloria Sanchez Productions and Sittenfeld.

“Prep is my all time favorite novel, and I have longed to adapt it for the entire 20 years since I first read it and found myself reflected uncannily back,” said Nicole Taylor in a statement. “There is no more acute depiction of the introspective, bookish self-conscious adolescent girl and no more truthful or excoriating take on the perils of social mobility than in Curtis Sittenfeld’s beautiful first novel. I am overjoyed to be adapting for Netflix.”

Prep was published in 2005 and became a bestseller while also earning critical acclaim. The novel and the series center on Lee Fiora, a scholarship student at the Ault school, as she makes her way through high school as an outsider among more privileged classmates.

“I’m overjoyed that Netflix is making Prep as a TV show — the 22-year wait was worth it! Alix Taylor at Gloria Sanchez has guided the project forward with such intelligence and enthusiasm, and Nicole Taylor’s scripts are truly brilliant. Nicole’s adaptation makes me understand my own novel, and myself, better. My 51-year-old self can’t wait to see what they do with this story of privilege, longing, and teen angst.”

Prep looks to be the first adaptation of one of Sittenfeld’s novels to reach the screen. New Line and Hello Sunshine are developing a film based on her 2024 book Romantic Comedy. Hulu in 2020 took a run at Rodham, a novel in which Hillary Rodham never marries Bill Clinton, but the project didn’t move past the development stage.