Kenya Barris lands TV deal at Netflix for new series
By Ariba Bhuvad
Kenya Barris is officially a part of the Netflix family and has landed a multi-year deal with the streaming service.
Kenya Barris, the creator of black-ish, is taking his talents to Netflix for an overall TV deal. It’s been in the rumor mill for quite some time that Barris would be heading to Netflix, but presumably, his exit with ABC hadn’t been finalized yet so the news was not yet official.
Barris’ deal with ABC was to terminate in August, and as of August 16th, he has a three-year deal with the streaming service with the option to add on two more. He will now be creating new series’ for Netflix exclusively and through his production company, Khalabo Ink Society.
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If the deal goes for five years, it has the potential to be worth up to $100 million which would be mirroring the value of the deals Netflix has made with Ryan Murphy and Shonda Rhimes. The VP of Original Content at Netflix, Cindy Holland, shared her enthusiasm for Barris joining the family.
"“Kenya Barris is one of our great modern storytellers. Kenya uses his voice to make audiences more aware of the world around them, while simultaneously making them laugh. His honesty, comedic brilliance and singular point of view, combined with the creative freedom he will enjoy at Netflix, promises to create powerful new stories for all our members around the world.”"
Barris’ credits include critically acclaimed black-ish along with its Freeform spin-off grown-ish. Coming up he has another Freeform series called Besties and also co-wrote comedy hit Girls Trip.
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The switch to Netflix came after Barris and his agents started looking at a deal last spring following ABC’s decision to pull a political episode of black-ish. Barris had tired of similar situations and became frustrated which led him to look for a way out.
Barris seems pretty excited about this new venture as he takes a leap of faith to create new content for the streaming service giant.
What are your thoughts on Kenya Barris joining Netflix? Share your comments below?