A decade can make a big difference.

10 years ago, Hailey DeDominicis was in the midst of a successful career in marketing, communications and PR. After working at Touchwood PR, she went on to lead creative brand strategy for companies such as Walmart Canada, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and Tim Hortons.

But there was always the seed of an idea planted in the back of her mind. 

“I can vividly remember driving to work at the Tim Horton’s office in Oakville, and this idea just popped into my head. I remember being like, huh, that’s funny. And I parked it for a decade.”

It was certainly an idea worth returning to. That funny story from all those years ago became her first-ever screenplay—the Netflix holiday rom-com Our Little Secret. Huge names like Lindsay Lohan, Ian Harding, and Kristin Chenoweth star in the film, bringing the characters she wrote to life. And following the film’s release late last month, it shot to the top of the streamer’s charts, becoming the #1 movie on Netflix. 

10 years also made a big difference for Avery and Logan, the protagonists of Our Little Secret. A decade ago, they were in love. Now their lives have changed, they’re in new relationships, and they’re each ready to spend the holidays with their partners’ families for the first time. That is, until they realize they’re dating siblings, and they’re stuck spending Christmas together under the same roof. Festive drama and comedic mayhem ensue, and it turns out that they’re not the only ones hiding a secret. 

“I’m the type of person that will watch 30+ Christmas movies this season,” says Hailey. “To be able to create something that people enjoy and gather for, I think there’s really something special in that.”

While Our Little Secret is definitely a festive film, it is a comedy through and through. In trying to prove herself to her boyfriend’s family while hiding her past with Logan, Avery gets herself into a string of hilariously awkward events— from accidentally getting high at church to blaming a foiled cookie swap on the family dog. It just might make you feel better about your own family’s holiday chaos.

Chuck Zlotnick/Netflix © 2024

Hailey’s lifelong love of rom-coms gave her plenty of inspiration for this film. “I write for myself in a lot of ways. I write the things that I know I would love to sit down and watch with my mom on a Friday night. A lot of the time, especially in the world we live in, we need that lightness. We just want to laugh.” 

Our Little Secret was written at a time when that laughter was needed more than ever. During the pandemic, Hailey suddenly found herself with 3 extra hours in her day, as she no longer had to commute to her corporate job. So, in 2021, her New Year’s Resolution was to make the most of this time, and commit to writing for 3 hours every day before her 9-5. In those early morning hours of January 2021, she revisited the idea she first had on her commute more than 10 years ago. 

“It was something that I wanted so badly that even though it was exhausting to get up at 6am, I was able to pour those early morning hours into the work. It started my day in such an invigorating way,” Hailey says. “It was an idea that was light and it made me laugh, and it was exactly what I needed at that time.”

So, how did her pandemic project become a #1 movie on Netflix? “Not having a network in the industry, I used different websites where you pay people to actually read the scripts and provide you with feedback,” Hailey explains. 

One night, producer Lisa Gooding was browsing the website, and decided to read through a variety of Christmas screenplays. Our Little Secret was one of them. “I got an email out of the blue. She ended up being the real deal, and that was the most pleasant surprise.”

The rest of the process has been similarly surreal for Hailey. “I can remember the day sitting in on the table read. I was on Zoom in Paris [Onatrio]. And hearing Lindsay, Ian, and Kristin sit there and read your words…I was not okay. That was such an incredible moment. And then getting to go to set and seeing it really come to life, it is just such an out-of-body experience.”

Chuck Zlotnick/Netflix © 2024

Hailey is now a full-time screenwriter with several other rom-coms in the works with Our Little Secret producer Lisa Gooding—”all in a similar vein of being fun and hopefully funny,” she tells us. But getting to this point has been a difficult journey, a huge career leap, one she had been striving towards for a long time. 

“Every time I was like, ‘I hate my job’, I would take a screenwriting course online, and it was kind of like my little thread of hope to keep me going,” she says. Over 10 years, she took 5 of these classes online, taking her time to learn the craft. While she began writing during the pandemic, she only left her corporate job in 2023, about three months before Our Little Secret started filming. She tells us that the financial reality of making this career change was something she considered carefully.

“It is a tough industry to break into and to keep up a career. I was really strategic about when I decided to quit my job and make the leap full-time into screenwriting. I had to pay my mortgage. It’s a much different payment structure than getting a bi-weekly steady paycheck,” Hailey says. “But when you love what you do…I will do everything that I can to hold on to that. It goes a long way when you wake up every day and are excited to sit down in front of your computer.”

Hailey hopes that others who hear her story, even if they have established themselves in a completely different line of work, can take something away from her choice to make a big leap in her career.

“As long as you have a passion for it, and you actually carve out the time to do it, this too can happen to you.”

Our Little Secret is streaming now on Netflix.