Netflix Content Chief Bela Bajaria Wants Even More of Your Time

As chief content officer of Netflix, Bela Bajaria is at the center of a staggering amount of…content. To her, it is not a dirty word. She seems most animated when she’s talking about meetings with showrunners. Or even meetings with other executives about their meetings with showrunners. When Bajaria, a London-born woman of Indian descent, moved to California at age nine, she absorbed American culture through the media. She watched all of the John Hughes movies. Discussing television was how she connected with her classmates. “I would go to school, and we would talk about the same characters. Dynasty. Dallas. We all watched the same things,” she says. Now, as one of the most influential executives in entertainment, Bajaria calls the shots on what more than 300 million subscribers worldwide get to watch in their homes. VF is delighted to include her in our Power & Glamour portfolio.

Vanity Fair: How is Netflix working through this difficult time in Los Angeles after the fires?

Bela Bajaria: I moved to LA when I was nine. I love LA. I love everything about LA. I love West Coast rap. I think palm trees are breathtaking. So this issue feels very personal. We want to really make sure that we get people back to work, back to business, because it really does help support the economy. The SAG Awards [airing on Netflix], premieres, and events employ a lot of people. It’s good for caterers; it’s good for restaurants, hairstylists, makeup artists—and that’s really important. And right now we are also shooting in Los Angeles. We have the Matt Damon–Ben Affleck movie filming here. And Beef season two is shooting right now.

What are your priorities and focuses for this year, and do you change them based on the data that you receive as the year goes on?

The job is to entertain the world. And the thing that always motivates me every day is, how do we do that next thing that our audiences are going to love and be excited about, and how do we earn our members’ time and fandom? So the goal last year, two years ago, this year, this coming year, is always about: How can we be bold and original and fresh and surprise our audience? The data doesn’t inform any of that, because humans inform that. It’s creators and filmmakers who come in the door, have a voice, a pitch, something very specific they want to tell, and the creative executives who hear that and champion it, and you get excited about it—that’s the only way to do it.

When does a show like Baby Reindeer arrive at your desk?

The teams around the world definitely have their own slates, like the UK slate that had Baby Reindeer, but it’s a very fluid conversation. I’m always in conversations with them about the slate, things coming in that we’re developing, and what they’re excited about. So they [the UK team] sent me the first couple of cuts, telling me, “This is a very authored piece. This is Richard Gadd’s story and is very specific to the UK. But we also know on Netflix that you can start very specific in a country, and if the themes are universal and they really touch and connect with people, then things can grow from there.” And I remember watching it and being like, Where’s the next episode? Because I couldn’t stop watching it. It was just so engaging.

Is there anything you’ve watched that became a huge hit and when you saw it you thought it wouldn’t work? Or vice versa?

We knew Squid Game was a tentpole for Asia. We knew it was great. We knew it was super important. But it’s hard to imagine that it would become the biggest show in the world. What I love about Netflix is that when we make something great, the conversation can grow an audience. On the flip side, a show like Nobody Wants This—everybody passed on this script. When I watched the first two episodes, I knew it would work no matter what. And seeing episode one, season one of Bridgerton…

It was worth it to make that deal with Shonda Rhimes?

All day long! All day long. I never doubted that show was going to be a hit.

What’s your favorite meeting of the week? What’s the meeting you dread?

My favorite meetings are always sitting with a creator or talent and just talking about a show. Yesterday I had a meal with John Mulaney, talking about his new live variety talk show and how he’s putting it together. The reason I wanted to do this job is that I wanted to work with the best storytellers in the world. So those meetings are the best. What is my least favorite meeting [laughs]…I’d say there are a lot of administrative things that come with this job that are not as exciting as the creative part of the job.

Netflix is under more of a microscope than any other studio. How much do you pay attention to that?

If we sneeze, people are going to write about it. I would rather this than the alternative. I love that there is a lot of conversation around the movies we’re making. But I don’t pay attention to it, because it can be very distracting. There’s a lot of noise. I think if you listen to the noise, that could get in your head. You could start second-guessing yourself. Last year I said 2024 would be our biggest year ever, and, through all the noise, it was. And in 2025 we have an awesome slate. We just need to focus on, week after week, do we have a steady cadence of hits and things that people are excited about? And that’s the job. The job is, do we make great things our audiences love?

Let’s talk about reality TV. Bravo has Andy Cohen, who represents all things Bravo reality TV. Do you think Netflix is missing that in the reality space—are Nick and Vanessa Lachey supposed to serve that function?

Well, Bravo has a much narrower audience. Our unscripted team does everything from Quarterback to Is It Cake? to dating shows like Love Is Blind. So to have a person represent everything that is unscripted on Netflix is not really what we do. We just have such a broader audience. Andy Cohen is super talented, and I think these personalities are great in unscripted shows, but I think it would be organic and natural if it happened—instead of “we need a person who is going to be the face of all these things.”

What is Netflix’s competition? Do you look at TikTok or YouTube, or are you looking at HBO or Universal?

I look at it more as we are competing for the time that people spend on entertainment. And that means gaming, that means YouTube, TikTok, NBCUniversal, going out to concerts. In the US, we are still less than 10% of TV time. So we are still competing for that time. Our goal is always to be the best home for premium storytelling and entertainment. That’s the lane right now that we’re in.

What TV show do you wish was yours?

[Without missing a beat] Yellowstone.

You want the Taylor Sheridan universe?

Yes. The Taylor Sheridan universe. I think he’s super talented. Really interesting characters. And he just…really knows how to execute them. There’s a lot of great creators and TV out there. Would I want The Bear? Yes. Would I want White Lotus? Yes.

Will this election and presidency inform any decisions you make? Is this something you’ve discussed internally?

We are, first and foremost, an entertainment company. And in an entertainment company, we have creators and filmmakers from all different backgrounds, with all different stories from all over the world. That’s what we’re going to continue to do. And so nothing is changing, or will change, at Netflix.