Nik Dodani To Star In Rom-Com ‘The Charm Offensive’ Based On Alison Cochrun Bestseller
EXCLUSIVE: Nik Dodani (Atypical) has attached to star in The Charm Offensive, a feature adaptation of the international bestseller by Alison Cochrun on which Marginal MediaWorks is partnering with award-winning producers Alex Liu and Leo Neri (A Sexplanation).
The project is described as Heated Rivalry meets The Devil Wears Prada, set in the world of a Bachelor-like reality show in which an awkward, tech billionaire joins a popular dating show to reform his image and find true love, but unexpectedly ends up falling for one of the show’s producers, played by Dodani.
Published in 2021, Cochrun’s novel went viral with over 10,000 posts on TikTok, inspiring scores of fan art, and has been translated into eight languages. The screenplay, written by Erin Williams and Shawn K. Jain, was one of six selected for the 2024 Desi List, a collaboration with the Black List, compiling the year’s best unproduced scripts by South Asian writers.
Producer Liu told us, “I came across The Charm Offensive as a staff pick in a small-town rural library and read it straight through in one sitting. What struck me wasn’t just how good it was—but also where it was being embraced. It turns out audiences are drawn to an endearing love story with a liberal dose of smuttiness. Who knew?”
Sanjay M. Sharma, founder and CEO of Marginal, said: “We’re thrilled to join this dynamic, commercial, and culturally relevant project. Both the novel and the screenplay have a propulsive quality that pulls you in and leaves you wanting more. It’s a very fun and heartwarming romantic comedy, at a time when audience demand for authentic, messy and funny LGBTQ stories couldn’t be stronger.”
Dodani added, “No matter how bad things get in the world, it’s a comfort to know we’re always going to have more gay shit to watch. I loved the novel when it was published, and Erin and Shawn’s script is such a fun read. I’ve been waiting for the role that would finally get me into the gym…”
Breaking out with a supporting role in Netflix’s Atypical, Dodani is an actor, comedian, writer, and director who has also recently been seen starring in Craig Johnson’s HBO Max Original The Parenting, opposite Lisa Kudrow, Brian Cox, Edie Falco, Parker Posey, and Brandon Flynn. As a writer-director, his debut short film Blue Boy had its world premiere at the 2024 Busan International Film Festival, where it won the Queer Camellia Award for Best Queer Short. He is repped by Paradigm and Gang, Tyre, Ramer.
Screenwriters Williams and Jain met at Jeff Sagansky’s Harvardwood Writing Program. Williams has written two TV pilots while Jain has also achieved success as an actor, appearing in Apple TV’s WeCrashed and Peacock’s Girls5eva.
Liu and Neri’s previous film, the documentary A Sexplanation, was a New York Times Critics’ Pick and won a dozen film festival and industry awards.
Founded in 2017, indie studio Marginal has produced 13 features in just over four years. Most recently, their first documentary feature, The Rose: Come Back to Me, was a runner-up for the Audience Award at Tribeca 2025 and was acquired by CJ Group. Cypher, a thriller starring Interscope recording artist Tierra Whack, won the Jury Prize in U.S. Narrative Fiction at the Tribeca Festival in 2023. Marginal’s film She Taught Love premiered at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival and was named Best Independent Film of 2024 by the African American Film Critics’ Association. The company’s entry into global sports came with Imported, a doc set in the world of international basketball that premiered on Hulu and Disney+ worldwide in last August. Pic was produced with Improbable Media, the media venture co-founded by NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo and former basketball star and ESPN analyst Jay Williams.
