EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is developing The Nanny Diaries, a series based on the #1 New York Times bestseller by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. Scarlett Johansson, who starred in the 2007 feature adaptation of the novel, is executive producing the project, from Greg Berlanti‘s Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television where the company is under an overall deal.
The Nanny Diaries joins Netflix’s book-to-screen development slate that includes Black Hole, The Corrections, Lights Out and So Far Gone. The streamer’s adaptations have yielded several titles on the Most Popular English series and film lists: His & Hers, Bridgerton, The Queen’s Gambit and Leave the World Behind.
Written and executive produced by Amy Chozick (The Girls on the Bus) and Jenny Bicks (Sex and the City) who will serve as showrunners, The Nanny Diaries centers on Annie, a broke, aspiring writer in search of a story who takes a nanny job for a magnetic Upper East Side socialite, plunging into an elite world of unimaginable excess. When she lands the book deal of her dreams to go undercover and expose the salacious lives of the ultra-rich, Annie must try to keep up this double life even as she grows attached to the people and this world… and finds out what her elusive boss is actually capable of.
Berlanti and Johansson first discussed the idea of adapting the book into a TV series while shooting Apple’s 2024 movie Fly Me to the Moon, which Berlanti directed and Johansson starred in. Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Leigh London Redman executive produce for Berlanti Productions alongside Johannson, Jonathan Lia and Keenan Flynn for These Pictures as well as Gary Barber and Sean Hoagland for Spyglass Media Group. Nikki Cooper Molina is overseeing for Berlanti Productions. Warner Bros. TV is the studio.
The 2002 novel The Nanny Diaries by Kraus and McLaughlin, both former nannies, has been translated into more than 20 languages. Written and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, its 2007 film adaptation starred Johansson, Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti and Chris Evans.
In 2025, book adaptations drove over 9B global views on Netflix and represented nearly 20% of total view hours. The Netflix Global Top 10 lists featured a book adaptation every single week, a streak that has continued through the first 13 weeks of this year. New series and films based on books coming in 2026 include East of Eden, Pride and Prejudice, Little House on the Prairie, Remarkably Bright Creatures and The Whisper Man.
Netflix’s adaptations have boosted their literary source material too, including the recent release of the movie People We Meet on Vacation sending Emily Henry’s novel back onto the NYT bestseller list as it saw a 97% increase in sales across all formats in the two weeks after the film debut, according to the Penguin Publishing Group.
Chozick, a journalist who has worked for The New York Times, is the author of bestselling memoir Chasing Hillary, which she adapted into the HBO Max series The Girls on the Bus. Her debut novel, With Friends Like You, will be published by Penguin Random House in July. Chozick is adapting the novel into a film with producer Brad Weston and Fifth Season and has three series in development at Apple and Netflix.
Writer-producer Bicks’ TV series credits include Dawson’s Creek, on which she worked with Berlanti, Seinfeld and HBO’s Sex and the City, where she wrote across all six seasons and rose to executive producer, sharing in the show’s Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy Award. She also created and showran ABC’s Men in Trees (ABC) and Showtime’s The Big C. Her feature credits include The Greatest Showman and Rio 2.