Bri Lee’s bestselling debut novel The Work is headed for the small screen via Sydney production collective Dollhouse Pictures.
As reported by Deadline, screenwriter Hannah Lehmann is credited as the show’s creator, while Lee and Jessica Carrera serve as executive producers. Screen Australia is supporting the project’s development.
Dollhouse is led by Rose Byrne, Krew Boylan, Shannon Murphy and Carrera.
Bri Lee’s The Work coming to TV – quick links
Love and money in the art world
The Work was published by Allen & Unwin in 2024 and moves between New York, Brisbane and Sydney. It follows Lally, an ambitious New York gallerist, and Patrick, a junior antiques appraiser from Sydney. It’s a story of two young professionals desperate to make a mark in the contemporary art world.
Their immediate chemistry quickly becomes an erratic long-distance relationship. As their careers and lives become more entangled, they wonder if their growing love can survive the whirl of distance, individual ambition and an industry that is notoriously unforgiving.
The novel became a bestseller, longlisted for the Indie Book Awards’ debut fiction prize. Critics were more divided: many praised its energy and ambition, while others (ArtsHub included) felt it tried to do too much.
Carrera said she admires Lee’s willingness to interrogate power, privilege and the institutions that shape people. The novel’s ‘seductive world, where everything has a value and the rules are constantly shifting’ drew her into the material.
As Carrera sees it, The Work is about what happens when the person you want most is also the one who costs you the most. She also praised Lehmann as a sharp and assured voice.
From Snapchat to longform TV
Lehmann is a Sydney screenwriter and director best known for Two Sides, a series she created, wrote and directed across three seasons for Snapchat’s now defunct Snap Originals label. The vertical drama told a young couple’s break-up from both perspectives at once, largely in split screen. It earned Lehmann a Streamy Award and an Australian Directors’ Guild award.
Her other credits include the comedy series The Unboxing for Seven Studios and the now-defunct Facebook Watch platform. She is also writing the semi-autobiographical series Mirrorball for Easy Tiger.
The project marks a shift into long-form television for Lehmann, who has spoken previously about wanting to move from shortform digital series to more traditional platforms.
Lee said the book had found a team committed to making the show ‘properly gutsy, hella sexy, and seriously funny’.
She added that the story had always played out cinematically in her head, and called Lehmann a genius who understands her characters’ deepest fears and desires.
Before turning to fiction, Lee built her reputation as a non-fiction writer. Her 2018 memoir Eggshell Skull drew on her experience working as a judge’s associate in the Queensland court system. She followed it with Beauty (2019) and Who Gets to Be Smart (2021).
She followed The Work with a second novel, Seed, which was published in 2025.
