Bela Bajaria

This woman is the reason you binged Bridgerton, Squid Game, and Baby Reindeer.

Bela Bajaria runs Netflix’s entire content engine: scripted, unscripted, and live.

$17B in annual programming.

270M+ global subscribers.

Shows in over 50 languages.

And she got here with a phone book and a printer.

After graduating from Cal State Long Beach in 1995, Bela didn’t know anyone in Hollywood.

So she bought the Hollywood Creative Directory, printed out hundreds of letters, and mailed them (one by one) to every studio and network in L.A., from A to Z.

Not asking for a job. Just a meeting.

Only two replied.

CBS invited her to interview for an assistant role in their Movies and Miniseries department.

After five rounds and a ten-page writing test, she still didn’t get the offer.

So her dad gave her the pitch: “Ask them to take you for one month. Let your work speak for itself.”

They agreed.

From that entry-level desk, she read every script, watched every film in the archives, and made herself indispensable.

Six years later, she was running the department.

At NBCUniversal, she became the first woman of color to lead a major TV studio.

But her shows kept getting blocked internally.

So she got creative.

Instead of shelving the projects, she took them elsewhere and sold them to rival networks.

But in Hollywood, that kind of move breaks protocol.

She was fired.

And she calls it the best thing that ever happened to her.

Because, in 2016, Netflix brought her in.

She bet big on: Bridgerton, The Queen’s Gambit, Lupin, Baby Reindeer, Ripley, Squid Game, Money Heist, and Emily in Paris.

She led Netflix’s leap into live events with deals for the NFL, WWE, and global comedy specials.

She expanded into 27 countries.

And she co-created Never Have I Ever with Mindy Kaling.

Based on their own experiences as Indian-American teens torn between two cultures.

Bela was born in London to Indian parents, lived in Zambia, and moved to L.A. at age 9.

She learned American culture by watching The Brady Bunch.

Her early career? Cashier at her parents’ car wash.

In 1991, she was crowned Miss India Worldwide.

And now she’s Chief Content Officer at Netflix and has been named to TIME’s 100 Most Influential, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women, and the board of Coca-Cola.

She owns a stake in the Chicago Red Stars (NWSL) and she backs girls’ education globally through Room to Read, mentoring teens in Tanzania and Cambodia with her daughter.

And when the next Emmy hit shows up in her inbox? She’s already onto the next.