‘Tiny Beautiful Things’: Everything We Know About the Hulu Adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s Book

Spring can’t come soon enough, with the news that Tiny Beautiful Things, based on Cheryl Strayed’s best-selling book and starring Kathryn Hahn, will premiere this April on Hulu. Details were announced at the Television Critics Association winter press tour.

The limited series, which is based on Strayed’s life and her time writing the advice column, Dear Sugar, has all the makings of the next hit series for the streamer. Aside from Stayed and Hahn’s involvement, Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern are also executive producers, and it’s adapted for TV by Liz Tigelaar, who was an EP on Witherspoon’s other limited series, Little Fires Everywhere. 

“When I read the source material, there was such generosity in that, and such a heart in there,” Hahn told journalists at the TCAs on January 14. “Then when I saw Liz [Tigelaar] had adapted that into this [show], I was incredibly moved to be a part of it.”

Hahn also noted that TV is where she wants to be right now, especially given that there’s more room to tell complex stories with more depth. She noted that in a series such as Tiny Beautiful Things, it’s nice to see “women’s bodies that are older, that can feel deep, complicated [things that are] not the butt of the joke, and that are interesting, funny, illuminating and powerful. In all ways. And all different kinds of voices. I feel super psyched to be around at this age, at this time, in this medium.” (By the way, if you haven’t read Hahn’s letter about getting sexier with age, which she wrote for Glamour at the age of 44, check that out here).

So what else do we know about the new, must-watch series? Read on for everything we know.

What is Tiny Beautiful Things about? The limited series is based on the best-selling collection by Cheryl Strayed, the author of the best-selling novel, Wild. The TV adaptation of Tiny Beautiful Things follows Clare (played by Kathryn Hahn), a floundering writer who becomes a revered advice columnist while her own life is falling apart.

“We knew Clare isn’t going to be [me exactly], but many of her experiences had to be mine,” Strayed said at the TCAs. “She had to have a mother who died young of cancer, who got married young and then divorced. She had to grow up in a rural environment like I did. Those are the things that made me, those are the things that make Clare. So those are the pieces that come from my life.”

When we first meet Clare, her marriage to her husband Danny (Quentin Plair) is barely surviving. Meanwhile, her teenage daughter, Rae (Tanzyn Crawford), is pushing her away, and her once-promising writing career doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. So, when an old writing pal asks her to take over as the advice columnist for “Dear Sugar,” she thinks the idea is ridiculous. Of course, she eventually concedes and is able to explore and internalize her most pivotal moments from childhood through the present day. As the voice of Sugar, Clare is able to relay to her readers that none of us are too broken to thrive in life.

When does it premiere? Friday, April 7, on Hulu. There are eight, thirty-minute episodes in the limited series, but no word yet on whether all episodes will drop at once, or premiere weekly. We’ll keep you posted. 

Who stars in the series? Kathryn Hahn (How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, The Holiday, Transparent, among many, many others), Sarah Pidgeon (The Wilds), Quentin Plair (Welcome to Chippendales, Roswell, New Mexico), and Tanzyn Crawford (Alexander), with guest stars Owen Painter (The Handmaid’s Tale), Merritt Wever (Nurse Jackie, The Walking Dead), Elizabeth Hinkler (The Good Doctor), and Michaela Watkins (The Unicorn, Catastrophe). 

How are Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern involved? Witherspoon and Dern are both executive producers of the series. As you might remember, Witherspoon played Stayed in the film adaptation of Wild, in which Dern also starred. They both earned Oscar nominations. Liz Tigelaar, creator and executive producer of Tiny Beautiful Things, was also showrunner and executive producer of Witherspoon’s series, Little Fires Everywhere. In addition, Lauren Neustadter, Jayme Lemons, Stacey Silverman, and Kathryn Hahn serve as EPs on Things, which is from ABC Signature, and Witherspoon and Neustadter’s company, Hello Sunshine. 

Is there a trailer? Not yet, but we’ll post it as soon as it’s available. 

What about photos? Yep, we’ve got those for you! See below! 

We’ll update this post as more info becomes available. 

Jessica Radloff is the Glamour senior West Coast editor and author of the New York Times best-selling book The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series.