A flattering profile of tech grifter Elizabeth Holmes in the New York Times. The messy exit of Jeff Shell from NBCUniversal. And a standoff with Variety over a story about a supposedly globetrotting Jeff Zucker purportedly hell-bent on buying CNN.

Hollywood and media was buzzing about all those stories and the person they all have in common is crisis public relations expert Risa Heller, who represented the principal in all of them.

That’s all the more impressive for someone who lives on the opposite side of the country. But with her rising West Coast profile, Heller, CEO of an eponymous New York-based crisis communications firm, has tongues wagging about what appears to be a growing role in the Hollywood crisis P.R. machine.

Heller’s name has been front and center all year in the entertainment industry. That came into particular focus last month when she stepped up to...