Netflix’s VP of original content talks about magical pitch meetings, Netflix’s push into YA shows, and monitoring Twitter on launch day.
As vice president for original content at Netflix, Cindy Holland oversees the streaming company’s buzz-generating original shows and documentaries, a job she’s had since 2011, when House of Cards went into production. (She’s been at Netflix, however, since 2002.) Since then, the volume of Netflix’s original programming has skyrocketed to more than one new show a week. That partly explains why its subscriber base continues to skyrocket too. Holland spoke to Fast Company about managing her workload and how she predicts whether a show will be a hit.
Fast Company: Can you explain your role at Netflix? What convinces you to greenlight a show?
Cindy Holland: I oversee both the creative and business aspects [of show-making], so both my team and I are deciding which show we invest in and getting the deals done for them, and then overseeing the creative.
