Tobi Coventry
Founder and Director
With a sharp editorial eye and in-depth understanding of powerful and progressive storytelling, Tobi provides a keen focus in hunting for material that is ripe for adaptation in the current marketplace. Combining a hungry imagination with a permanent finger on the pulse, years of experience in the film and television industry, and an expansive network across the global publishing industries, Tobi believes in the importance of great relationships, communication and ideas, which lead to amazing stories.
Growing up first in the English suburbs, and later a small village full of ghosts, Tobi studied Film Theory in London before immersing himself in the film and television industries, with a future in adaptation firmly in mind. Having worked as a script reader and editor, a producer and in development, he understands all angles of making film and television, and moved into scouting in 2013 with the goal of bringing the best stories from the literary world to the best storytellers in the business.
With a hereditary love of books, mythology and the magic of film, Tobi is dedicated to working closely between the worlds of publishing and production, in order to keep development slates filled with the most exciting new material out there. He’s very much into dogs, Jurassic Park and Donna Tartt, and speaks pretty good Swedish.
Lillian Maguire
Scout
With a background in Film and TV, working closely on developing drama with screenwriters, directors and producers, Lilly knows what to look for in books and the challenges and gifts for adaptation each offers.
Born in Australia and growing up all over France, Lilly later moved to England where she studied Literature to Masters level before taking a job working closely with a screenwriter (on both originals and book adaptations) as her assistant. She has also worked as a freelance reader, researcher and screenwriter for a range of production companies and individual filmmakers. She joined Dialogue Scouting in 2016.
Alongside a love of reading widely in English, Lilly is fluent in French, Portuguese, and Spanish; she has a particular interest in foreign and cross-cultural stories and building relationships with agents and publishers abroad. She also has a huge love for music and dance from around the world, particularly Brazil.