Lifetime in the Making: How Producer Tia Maggini is Changing the Narrative for Women in Film
TIA MAGGINI is SVP, Programming at Lifetime. She produced THE SIMONE BILES STORY, THE BAD SEED (directed by Rob Lowe), and THE CLARK SISTERS: FIRST LADIES OF GOSPEL (produced by Queen Latifah).
What inspired you to work in entertainment?
I actually started in book publishing!
I graduated from college as an English major and moved to New York, where I started out as an assistant at Avon Books in 1995.
Book publishing is very much an apprenticeship. You typically start as an assistant and work your way up, similar to the film industry.
I became an editor at Avon Books, William Morrow, and HarperCollins. I really loved it, but I also was very interested in pursuing a career in film and TV.
So, I started fresh in LA and got a job at CAA as an assistant. From there, I got a junior executive job working for Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher at Red Wagon Entertainment when they had just come off of Gladiator and Girl Interrupted.
I worked as an executive for a few other producers, and then a very good friend of mine – Lisa Hamilton Daly – had been working at Lifetime and she brought me in. I’ve been here for 10 years now!
What advice would you give to your younger self?
I think the twists and turns in my career added up to a richer experience.
I don’t regret working in book publishing, because it has made me better at my current job and has given me a unique perspective as an executive.
People tend to worry about their first job, but life is long and it takes lots of twists and turns! Who knows where I’m going to be in 10 years?
You have to be in it for the ride, and view all of your experiences as a valuable part of your journey.
What makes a script stand out to you? What advice do you have for young women in getting their movie ideas made?
For us, we’re always looking for stories that resonate with our target audience and feel timely, relatable, and like a rollercoaster ride.
As someone who reads a lot and loves writing, I can tell when a script has a great voice. In this business, we all read so much that I know within the first few pages whether I’m hooked. For me, it’s all about whether I’m engaged after five or ten pages. Am I invested in the story?
When it comes to young women getting their voices heard, I think it’s really about building connections, but more importantly, it’s about doing the work. If you write a great script, people will notice.
An agent will materialize, or someone will read it and pass it along. Ultimately, it’s about what’s on the page. If the work is strong, it will get you where you need to go.
What’s the most exciting part of your job?
I’d say, coming across a really special project.
When you do this long enough, you see a lot of ideas, and it can feel like just another movie to push forward. We make 40 to 50 movies a year, so that’s a lot to go through.
It’s so rewarding to work on a movie that you just love, and to see it get made and be released.
I have a romance film that turned out so, so good. It’s totally my little baby and I cry every time I watch it. I’m not even a crier! I’m so excited that it came out beautifully and aligned with both the writer’s vision and mine.
Everybody really bonded together and created something great. When a project starts as a germ of an idea and grows into something the audience loves, that is so much fun.
What does your creative process usually look like?
We operate a bit differently from many networks because we generate a lot of our own ideas.
While producers and writers pitch projects to us, we usually get sent material that’s tailored specifically to us. So, we don’t have the typical network pilot season where you might hear 10 pitches a day.
We self-generate many ideas. A number of Christmas movies we produced this year came from ideas like, “What if we did a movie set in a beauty salon?”
Sometimes, a writer pitches us something. Or we read a book that’s interesting. Other times, we’ll come across a news article or event and become interested in doing a version of that. We’re always pulling things from the headlines.
With 40 to 50 movies a year, we’ll take a good idea from anywhere, even if it’s from your grandma’s friend, Ethel.
As you continue to shape the future of Lifetime, what are some of your goals, and what are you excited to explore?
It’s a women’s network. We’re always looking for stories that uplift, inspire, and engage women. Our focus is on magnifying women’s voices, not just in terms of the story being told, but also in terms of who is telling it.
Our favorite thing is to let women tell their own stories, especially those who have historically not been in charge of the narrative.
Whether it’s someone like Elizabeth Smart or formerly Lorena Bobbitt, allowing people to tell their own versions of stories is something we love to do and find powerful.
We’re always looking for true stories or stories inspired by real events, and we often highlight people who have survived something terrible or endured something awful.
But, we ultimately seek to create films that are inspiring and motivating, making people think, “What if it were me?” — whether for better or for worse.
I’m also working on a couple romance films, and I’d love to create more grounded romance stories that feel a little messier and more true to grown up women’s lives.
What has been your proudest accomplishment?
There are certainly people that I’m really proud to have worked with, like Simone Biles and Toni Braxton.
I’m also really proud that we’ve reshaped the network in a way that prioritizes female writers, filmmakers, and producers. Over the last 10 years, it’s gone from having to fight to make that happen to it being automatic.
Our goal is to always position those voices for maximum impact, and we want people to tell their own stories with authenticity.