Tendo Nagenda is leaving his position at Netflix, where he has been VP of original film for the past four years. Nagenda’s last day on the streamer will be September 1, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
Nagenda’s exit comes as Netflix looks to streamline its film operations. Under film head Scott Stuber, Kira Goldberg and Ori Marmur will now lead the studio’s film team, which handles the streamers’ big-budget features. The duo stepped up in 2021 to lead a team that focused on developing and producing big-budget films.
Elsewhere on Netflix’s film team, Niija Kuykendall, who joined the company in 2021, heads up the features group focused on medium-sized films, while Netflix veteran Lisa Nishimura continues to at the forefront of independent cinema.
Nagenda joined Netflix in 2018 from Disney, where he worked on both modestly budgeted features like Queen of Katwe and big box office hits like the live-action versions of Dumbo and Mulan. During his time at Netflix, Nagenda worked on the streamer’s splashier fare like Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods and the Charlize Theron action vehicle The Old Guard, which has a sequel on the streamer.
“Tendo joined the company four years ago and helped build our studio filmmaking team, which delivered films such as The Harder They Fall, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, The Old Guard, Da 5 Bloods and Hustle. He was instrumental in our evolution from acquiring and licensing films to making films ourselves. We wish him all the best for the future,” Stuber said in a statement.
Nagenda offered: “I’m honored to have been a small part of a film team that has led the Oscar nominations for three consecutive years, to become the largest film producer in the world by any metric, lead the industry through a pandemic. , and become the stand for representation and inclusion both in front of and behind the camera. I wish Netflix continued tenacity and boldness to take the big changes and tell the great and beloved tales to be told. I intend to.”
The change to Netflix’s film team comes as the streamer continues to restructure itself, having gone through several rounds of layoffs. In June, 300 workers were laid off, which was preceded by the layoff of 150 workers in May. Before that, several full-time employees and contractors in Netflix’s publishing and marketing division were let go.
In a June 23 memo to employees, Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings noted that he wished the company was going through “a more gradual readjustment of the business” after slower-than-expected revenue growth. was expected