Bela Bajaria, Netflix‘s Chief Content Officer, will be honored at this year’s International Emmy Awards with the Emmy Founders Award in recognition of her role in “reshaping the global entertainment landscape.”
Bajaria took over as CCO at Netflix in 2023 and has overseen such international breakouts as Squid Game — the Korean dystopian drama has racked up 265.2 million views to date, making it Netflix’ most-watched series ever — and British one-shot series Adolescence, which won 8 Emmys.
During Bajaria’s tenure, international hits have become pretty standard at Netflix with shows across genres and borders including Spanish thriller Money Heist, French crime drama Lupin, or Indian procedural Delhi Crime.
Bajaria also oversaw the finale of Netflix’s Stranger Things, which completed its five-season run with the largest English-language premiere in the streamer’s history, racking up an gob-smacking 1.2 billion views worldwide.
“Bela Bajaria is among the most consequential executives in television today,” said International Academy President & CEO Bruce L. Paisner. “She has built a global content operation of remarkable scale and creative ambition, in which stories told in any language can become worldwide phenomena. Her leadership has produced some of the most celebrated programming of our era. We are thrilled to present her with the International Emmy Founders Award.”
In a statement, Bajaria said she was “deeply honored” to be recognized by the International Emmy Academy, “whose mission reflects everything I believe about what television can be. The stories that have resonated most with audiences around the world are the ones rooted in a specific place, a specific truth — and what we have proven, over and over, is that authenticity travels.”
Past recipients of the International Emmy Founders Award include Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Shonda Rhimes, Ryan Murphy and David E. Kelley. Last year’s honoree was Disney President and Chief Creative Officer Dana Walden.
Bajaria will be honored at the 54th International Emmy Awards Gala in New York on November 23.
