‘Attractive, stylish, devoted to the boss’: Are fictional EAs doing more harm than good?

In The Devil Wears Prada, Miranda Priestly describes her assistant Andy Sachs as “fetching”. She fetches her boss’ coffee, her lunches and her dry-cleaning. She even manages to fetch an unpublished Harry Potter manuscript for Priestly’s daughters.

While Sachs may no longer be Priestly’s “fetching” assistant in the highly anticipated sequel, which premieres in May 2026, she will arguably always be remembered as the person without whom her boss could not function – the unsung hero of Runway magazine.

Sachs is in good company. Many other executive assistants have crossed our screens, characters who toggle between being a professional right hand and a personal life coach every day of the week.

Decades before Sachs, there was Radar O’Reilly from M*A*S*H , the company clerk who was one step ahead of his commanding officer’s needs – and the arrival of casualty-filled helicopters. On the big screen, Miss Moneypenny is perhaps one of the most famous office admins in film history. Secretary to James Bond’s superior, M, at MI6, she appeared across several Bond films, though she was normally seen flirting rather than filing.

More recently, Peggy Olson and Joan Holloway from Mad Men constantly had to navigate the murky waters of a male-dominated 1960s advertising company in the period office drama, while Simone in Netflix’s Sirens often behaved more like a daughter to her boss than an assistant.

Some of these characters are put through the wringer more than others, but they all share an overarching similarity: they’re not ever quite given their due. It turns out that’s not just the case on screen.

“We still battle the ‘you’re just an assistant’ line,” says Candice Burningham, a Sydney-based executive assistant who has been in the business for more than 20 years, and a board director of the Australian Institute of Office Professionals. “But we’re not ‘just’ anything. We’re business partners, we have major influence on business decisions, we have insight in business and we create real impact.”

Many people are also unaware there are distinct types of workplace assistants, she says. A personal assistant is more likely to do things like make dinner reservations or organise gifts on behalf of their boss, while an executive assistant may operate as more of a business partner. There are instances in which these roles sometimes overlap, Burningham says, but film and TV tend to depict them as entirely blended.

If not blended, they’re shown simply as personal servants or glorified paper-pushers. Take Zara in A Family Affair, who is made to go late-night shopping for her boss (Zac Efron) and even facilitate his break-ups. This is pushed even further in The Proposal, when the assistant of a high-flying Canadian publisher is pressured into marrying her to secure her a US Green Card.

“They often show the extremes – the overworked, undervalued assistant. There are no boundaries, they’re spoken down to,” Burningham says. “Or they show the hyper-glamorous sidekick. They rarely show the strategic thinkers and leaders, and that perpetuates the outdated stereotype of the undervalued assistant. It ignores the complexity of the role.”

On-screen executive assistants haven’t evolved much. However, chief executive of The EA Institute Amanda Vinci says the job has actually changed tremendously. Artificial intelligence has meant repetitive tasks like taking minutes and formatting documents can be automated, freeing up time for EAs to manage projects, influence culture and even attend meetings on their leader’s behalf.

It has also become more of a career in and of itself, Vinci says, rather than a stepping stone to something else. In the 1988 film Working Girl, a young secretary is determined to climb the corporate ladder. However, these days there’s plenty of opportunity within the office administration realm.

“More EAs are choosing it as a career. They’re earning executive-level salaries, leading teams and influencing decisions at the top of the business,” Vinci says. “It’s like doing a mini MBA every day.”

Generally, Vinci thinks their on-screen representation tends to do more harm than good. “Moneypenny in James Bond ... Clever and capable, but still written as the loyal, slightly flirty sidekick,” she says. “Attractive, stylish, devoted to the boss. They miss the fact that today’s EAs are strategic partners and leaders in their own right.”

Her least favourite, however, are the “magic fix” assistants who “solve a crisis with one phone call”. Take Andy Sachs, who miraculously manages to lock down those unreleased manuscripts of Harry Potter in practically no time.

“That ignores the months of preparation, deep business knowledge and relationship management it actually takes to make those wins happen,” Vinci says.

Burningham, on the other hand, says even the exaggerated examples are often shown coming out on top and outsmarting those who underestimated them.

Donna from Suits is a shining example of an executive assistant on-screen, she says. “They portrayed her as influential, trusted, capable of shaping the business outcomes. She basically ran the place on Harvey’s behalf. If people don’t understand what I do, I say, ‘I do what Donna does’.”

The area in need of most improvement, Burningham says, is the depiction of male executive assistants. The role is already largely dominated by women, and she says this isn’t helped by the fact that there are hardly any male assistants on screen. Most that do exist, such as Smithers in The Simpsons, are mere “shells of a human being” – hardly a ringing endorsement for men to enter the industry.

“There’s definitely the entertainment side, and we love that. We’re all going to see these movies too. But times have changed, and they need to show that.”

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