Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria is Only Indian American in The Wrap’s Women Changemakers List
- The Indian American is in charge of all the streaming giant’s films and original series, which come from 27 countries with a production budget of a reported $17 billion.
Bela Bajaria, chief content officer at Netflix is the sole Indian American featured in The Wrap’s ‘Changemakers 2024,’ an annual list of women who led, inspired and made the world a little bit better this year. The fifth edition of the list has been expanded to 51, the media company notes, “shining a wider spotlight on the many women driving the industry with their strategic leadership and individual achievements as well as some extraordinarily impressive women on the rise.” Tis year’s list includes studio heads like
Bajaria, “whose savvy decisions dictate what we watch in our spare time,” The Wrap says, as well as “quiet superstars who guide careers and get the deals done; producers and filmmakers and showrunners with singular creative visions; and a handful of performers whose fearlessness broke barriers and hearts.”
As chief content officer of the world’s biggest streaming platform, Bajaria is in charge of all Netflix’s films and original series, which come from 27 countries and totaled almost 500 in 2024, at a production budget of a reported $17 billion. Her vision has been instrumental in redefining the television experience in the 21st century.
Under Bajaria’s savvy leadership, Netflix has spawned such game-changing hits as “Squid Game,” “Bridgerton” and “Wednesday.” In 2024, the company won 24 Emmys for acclaimed shows including “Baby Reindeer,” “Ripley” and “Blue Eye Samurai.” Even with subscriber growth slowing, revenue ticked up 15% to $9.8 billion in the third quarter, thanks in no small part to audience hits like “Rebel Ridge” and “Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story,” which racked up 1.7 billion viewing minutes in its first days of release.
The eldest of three children, Bajaria was born in London and spent her early years in London and Zambia. Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was 8. “My family is Indian, but my parents and their family were all born and raised in East Africa,” she told Los Angles Times in a May 2016 interview. “We really moved here for the American dream. In the late 70s, you could come to America and you could be anything.”
Her parents owned carwashes, which “helped to instill a strong work ethic and a sense of purpose,” Bejaria told LA Times. She attended Torrance High School and graduated from Rolling Hills High School. She and her sister worked as cashiers on weekends. “I felt like I had an amazing strong family foundation, it was very rooted and very grounded…. My parents came to America, to Los Angeles, without really knowing anyone. They started a life from scratch. I felt pressure, not pressure really, but drive.”
Bajaria landed her first job in Hollywood in 1996 as an assistant at CBS after pitching herself to every studio in town via a letter-writing campaign. She quickly ascended to vice president of movies and miniseries before moving to Universal Television, where she became the first woman of color to run the studio. In 2016, she joined Netflix as head of scripted and unscripted content. Seven years later, she was promoted to her current role.
Right after school, Bajaria won the Miss LA India contest, then became Miss India USA, and, in 1991, she was crowned Miss India Universe. I met these Indian women from all over the world. It was so interesting and we had a similar bond,” she told LA Times. She then spent a few years running a nonprofit that helped children in poor countries.
Bajaria and her husband, writer-producer Doug Prochilo, have three children, two daughters and one son.