Shari Smiley Dies: Former CAA Agent & Manager Was 53

Longtime lit agent and manager Shari Smiley has died. Smiley passed away Tuesday at age 53. Cause of death is not yet known.

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Smiley had a long career in book to movie circles, and most recently had restarted her Smiley Management banner. Before that she had been at 3 Arts, this after a four year stint at The Gotham Group. There, she sold the dramatic rights to several titles, notably In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Barbizon and An Anonymous Girl , all of which resulted in bidding wars. Smiley had also been a consultant for the executor of the J.R.R. Tolkien Estate.

Smiley spent the bulk of her career, 18 years worth, at CAA, where she began as a receptionist in 1993 and was soon selling more books there than some of the tenured agents. When she left that agency, she called legendary literary agent Mort Janklow to tell him, and Janklow suggested she call her new company The Smiley Group. It wasn’t easy but she built quite a business on her own. In her career, she sold rights that went on to become the films Wild, Gone Girl, The Devil Wears Prada, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, Artemis Fowl series, Pride And Prejudice And Zombies and the TV series Sharp Objects .

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She worked with many best selling authors including Cheryl Strayed, Gillian Flynn, Jodi Picoult, Lauren Weisberger and Mary Kubica, to name a few. She was known as a caring, compassionate and well regarded rep in the lit game.

We will disclose more details as they become available.

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