Bela Bajaria, the Chief Content Officer at Netflix, has played a key role in guiding the global expansion of the streaming platform. In the past nine years, she has guided the company into live events, sports content, and created such global hits as Bridgerton and Emily in Paris. Yet well before her success at Netflix, Bajaria experienced a professional setback that she now looks back on as a defining and freeing chapter of her career.
Prior to joining Netflix in 2016, Bajaria was president of Universal Television, where she established a strong record of partnering with award-winning creators such as Tina Fey and Mike Schur. Though highly successful, she was suddenly terminated an experience she now candidly refers to as a great learning experience.
Addressing the 2025 Changemakers Summit in Los Angeles, Bajaria referred to the event as a “big public failure,” and looked back on its emotional impact. “There’s great books and quotes and all this stuff about [how] you learn so much from failure, and failure is valuable, and you’re not trying hard enough if you’re not failing,” she said to CNBC’s Julia Boorstin. “And all of that is true, and then when you do fail, nobody is going to discuss it.”
The months following her termination were particularly tough, as she struggled with self-doubt. “All those great shows, all these wonderful relationships I established; I was so fair to people. We were successful it meant nothing,” she said she thought.
She also addressed the unspoken pressure women face to never falter. “We’re supposed to be perfect,” Bajaria said, pointing out that being fired is often viewed as ‘a blemish’.
But her perspective changed as she started getting immense support from industry people. “I realized very quickly, as the phone rang and I received job offers and everyone reached out and people were genuinely supportive, it all counted,” she said. “The manner in which I treated people, what I did, the mark I left behind, it all counted.”
Looking back, Bajaria continued, “I knew I could always look in the mirror and [think] I liked what I had done. I didn’t have any shame around what I did. I thought it was really a great, successful run.”
Though she acknowledged that ‘the first three months were really rough’, Bajaria today considers the firing a blessing in disguise. “In retrospect I am so grateful that it happened,” she explained. “I’m not afraid of getting fired. It’s very freeing, actually.
Since then, her leadership of Netflix has encouraged the platform to diversify. The service now features award shows, comedy specials, NFL games, WWE programming, and more. Netflix swept last year’s awards season as well, earning 107 nominations on 35 titles the most of any studio at the Oscars and Emmys.
