Bela Bajaria

Bela Bajaria (born 1970 in the London Borough of Brent) is a British-American businesswoman and media executive. She joined Netflix in 2016 to oversee unscripted and scripted series. Bajaria has been the chief content officer since January 2024.

Early life and education

Bajaria was born in London, England, to parents of Gujarati descent and spent her time in London and Zambia. In the 1970s, when Bajaria was 4, her parents moved from London to the United States' West Coast with her brother to explore business opportunities. However, her parents overstayed their visas and became illegal immigrants, resulting in her being raised by her grandparents until they could legally obtain residency. Upon joining her parents in the United States in 1978, she enrolled in the local Los Angeles public schools during a time when it was "not cool to be Indian." As a teenager, she was enrolled at Torrance High School and Rolling Hills High School while working as a cashier.

Upon graduating high school, Bajaria was encouraged to enter the beauty pageants by a friend. She subsequently won the Miss LA India contest, Miss India USA, and was eventually crowned Miss India Worldwide 1991. Bajaria graduated from California State University, Long Beach in 1995 with her Bachelor of Arts communications degree from their College of Liberal Arts.

Career

Upon graduating from university, Bajaria accepted a position with CBS in 1996 as an assistant in the movies and miniseries department. As an assistant, she read all of the scripts and spent hours in CBS' basement videotape library studying old films. She left CBS shortly for a management position at Warner Bros. Television Studios but returned in 1997 as a director. After the January 2002 departure of longtime CBS Movies and Miniseries senior vice president Sunta Izzicupo, under whom she had worked since the mid-'90s, Bajaria was promoted to vice president and then senior vice president of the department. When television films began to decline, she requested a move to CBS' production studio to develop cable shows. She joined Universal Television as executive vice president in 2011 and shortly thereafter became president of the studio.

Bajaria joined Netflix in 2016 as head of unscripted and scripted content. In the same year, she was ranked 43rd on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list. In 2019, she began leading all local language series. In 2020, she was promoted to the role of global head of television for Netflix.

In 2021 and again in 2022, Bajaria was named one of the top "captains" of the home entertainment industry in the annual ''Media Play News'' Women in Home Entertainment issue. In December 2022, she was named to ''The Hollywood Reporters Women in Entertainment Power 100.

Personal life

Bajaria and her husband, writer-producer Doug Prochilo, have three children together: two daughters and one son.

On May 4, 2021, the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women's Soccer League announced that Bajaria had joined the women's soccer team's ownership group.

Accolades

*2023 – ''Forbes'' World's 100 most powerful women
*2023 – 53rd on ''Fortune'''s list of Most Powerful Women
*2022 – ''Time'' 100 Most Influential People
*2022 – ''The Hollywood Reporter'' Women in Entertainment Power 100

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bajaria, Bela
1970 births
21st-century American businesspeople
21st-century American businesswomen
21st-century British businesspeople
21st-century British businesswomen
American people of Gujarati descent
American people of Indian descent
Businesspeople from the London Borough of Brent
English people of Gujarati descent
English people of Indian descent
California State University, Long Beach alumni
CBS executives
Chicago Red Stars owners
Indian beauty pageant winners
Living people
Netflix people
Warner Bros. people
Directors of The Coca-Cola Company
English emigrants to the United States