Netflix shakes up film team as senior executive exits
Film executive Tendo Nagenda is leaving Netflix next month as the streamer restructures its film team.
Nagenda, a vice president of original film, had worked at Netflix for four years.
He helped build out the team that brought movies including the western “The Harder They Fall,” upcoming mystery thriller “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and the critically acclaimed war drama “Da 5 Bloods” directed by Spike Lee.
He also oversaw the team that made “The Gray Man,” the expensive spy thriller starring Ryan Gosling, said Deadline, which first reported the news.
His exit is part of a move to simplify the structure of the film teams, according to the person familiar move who was not authorized to comment. Before the changes, there were two teams running the studio film group, one run by Nagenda and the other run by Kira Goldberg and Ori Marmur, who will lead the studio film team moving forward.
“He was integral in our evolution from acquiring and licensing films to making movies ourselves,” Scott Stuber, head of global films, said in a statement.
Nagenda’s last day at Netflix will be Thursday.
“I’m honored to have been a small part of a film team that has led in Oscar nominations for three years in a row, become the biggest producer of film in the world by any metric, lead the industry through a pandemic, and become the standard bearer for representation and inclusion both in front of and behind the camera,” Nagenda said in a statement. “I wish Netflix the continued tenacity and audacity to take the big swings and tell the big and beloved tales that need telling. I plan to.”
Prior to working at Netflix, Nagenda was executive vice president of production at Walt Disney Studios, according to his LinkedIn page.
Netflix’s layoffs included dozens of people who promoted diversity on its social media channels, causing some to question its commitment to inclusion.
The changes comes as Netflix, the dominant subscription video streaming service, continues to face intense competition from rivals such as Disney+ and HBO Max. The company, which has nearly 221 million subscribers, is projecting it will add 1 million subscribers in the third quarter. That’s compared with a growth of 4.4 million subscribers a year earlier.
Netflix has plans to add a lower-cost, ad-supported plan to its streaming service in the future, which analysts believe could help boost its customer base.
Amid the slowdown, the streamer has been cutting costs in recent months, including laying off 450 employees, as well as contractors.
Netflix lost subscribers for the second quarter in a row, but the losses were not as bad as it had projected, thanks in part to ‘Stranger Things.’
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