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Tony Award nominee Lila Neugebauer (“The Beast in Me,” “Sirens”) has come on board as the pilot director and executive producer for the upcoming Netflix drama series “The Retrievals.”
The project will be showrun, written
and executive produced by Molly Smith Metzler, the Emmy-nominated creator of “Maid” and “Sirens.” It is produced by LuckyChap and Quiet Coyote.
Smith Metzler said, “After having the privilege of collaborating with Lila on ‘Maid’ and ‘Sirens’ — and being a giant fan of her Tony-nominated work on the stage — I knew Lila would have the vision and the unique skill to guide our actors through this emotional story. We’re thrilled to have her at the helm!”
Variety revealed on Wednesday that Emmy-winning “Succession” director Andrij Parekh will direct two episodes of “The Retrievals.”
“The Retrievals,” inspired by the Peabody Award-winning New York Times podcast, follows one woman’s crusade against Yale Fertility Center after she (and almost 100 other women) were operated on without anesthesia — because a nurse stole their fentanyl. It is a “powerful and surprisingly funny story about an unlikely community that dares to take on one of the largest institutions in the nation,” Netflix stated.
The hit podcast series by Susan Burton, which reached number one on Apple Podcasts, was a sensitive investigation of medical harm and its emotional reverberations. The two seasons of the podcast have drawn national attention to the dismissal of women’s pain.
“The Retrievals” reunites Smith Metzler, Colin McKenna and Neugebauer with Netflix and LuckyChap following the success of the critically acclaimed series “Maid,” which won the 2022 WGA Award for Adapted Long Form and earned nominations from the Emmys, Golden Globes and SAG; and “Sirens,” which earned four Emmy nominations in 2025.
The executive producers are LuckyChap, Colin McKenna (“Maid,” “Sirens”), Caitlin Roper for the New York Times, and Burton.
Neugebauer is a theater, film and television director who made her feature directorial debut with “Causeway,” starring Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry (for which Henry received an Oscar nomination). Her previous collaborations with Smith Metzler include episodes of “Maid” and “Sirens”; other television credits include “The Beast in Me,” “The Last Thing He Told Me,” “Room 104,” and Mindy Kaling’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls” and “Not Suitable for Work.” On Broadway, she has directed Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ “Appropriate” (starring Sarah Paulson and Elle Fanning), Kenneth Lonergan’s “The Waverly Gallery” (starring Elaine May, Michael Cera, Lucas Hedges and Joan Allen) and Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” (starring Steve Carrell), in a new adaptation by Heidi Schreck. Neugebauer is a recipient of the Obie, Drama Desk and Princess Grace Statue Awards, and was nominated for a Tony for her direction of “Appropriate.”
Neugebauer is represented by UTA and Johnson, Shapiro, Slewett & Kole.
