Bela Bajaria

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Bela Bajaria is an Indian-American businesswoman and media executive. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bajaria joined Netflix as an executive overseeing all of their English and vernacular Original content.

Early life and education[]

Bajaria was born in London, England, to parents of Indian descent and spent her time in London and Zambia.[1] 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.[2] 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.[2]

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.[1] Bajaria graduated from California State University, Long Beach in 1995 with her Bachelor of Arts communications degree from their College of Liberal Arts.[3]

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.[1] She left CBS shortly for a management position at Warner Bros. Television Studios but returned in 1997 as a director. By the end of the 1990s, Bajaria was promoted to vice president and then senior vice president of movies and miniseries in 2002.[3] However, when Television films began to decline, she requested a move to CBS' production studio to develop cable shows.[1] She joined Universal Television as executive vice president in 2011[4] and shortly thereafter became president of the studio.[5]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bajaria joined Netflix as an executive overseeing all of their English and vernacular Original content.[6] In the same year, she was ranked 43rd on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list.[7]

Personal life[]

Bajaria and her husband, writer-producer , have three children together: two daughters and one son.[8]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d James, Meg (May 22, 2016). "How I Made It: Universal TV President Bela Bajaria embraces East and West". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2016-05-22. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
  2. ^ a b Low, Elaine (2020). "Inside Netflix's Quest to Become a Global TV Giant". Variety. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Tsering, Lisa (August 25, 2011). "Bela Bajaria named EVP of Universal Media". The Times of India. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
  4. ^ Rose, Lacey (August 1, 2011). "Bela Bajaria to Head Universal Media Studios". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
  5. ^ Golberg, Leslie (September 10, 2013). "Universal TV's Bela Bajaria Set as New HRTS President". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
  6. ^ "Former Miss India USA Bela Bajaria will decide what world will watch on Netflix". The Indian Express. September 9, 2020. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
  7. ^ "Bela Bajaria". fortune.com. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
  8. ^ Wilson Hunt, Stacey (December 12, 2014). "Why Universal TV Exec Bela Bajaria's Daughters Won't Follow in Her Hollywood Footsteps". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
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