It's official now! Kenya Barris has officially made the leap to Netflix.
The streaming giant confirmed to the news to Shadow and Act.
Trade publications report that the deal is worth eight figures and will span three years.
“With an innate sense for what is funny, truthful and timely, Barris will continue to create stories that reflect culture through an urban, youth and female-focused lens," says the company.
He begins producing new series at Netflix immediately.
“Kenya Barris is one of our great modern storytellers. Kenya uses his voice to make audiences more aware of the world around them, while simultaneously making them laugh. His honesty, comedic brilliance and singular point of view, combined with the creative freedom he will enjoy at Netflix, promises to create powerful new stories for all our members around the world," said Cindy Holland, Vice President, Original Content at Netflix.
“When my agents reached out to me about this little garage start-up called Netflix, I wasn’t sure what to think,” said Barris. “But after I talked to Ted and Cindy, I started to believe that maybe this mom-and-pop shop with only 130 million subscribers might just be something... so I decided to take a swing... a leap of faith if you will, and take a chance with the new kids on the block.”
As previously reported, this comes after Barris' exit from an overall deal with ABC Studios, where he was said to be frustrated after many high-profile pilot passes and a disagreement over airing an NFL kneeling-themed episode of black-ish.
Variety says the disagreement was over episodes referencing the 45th POTUS." According to a source with knowledge of the situation, Disney-owned ABC’s concerns were related to comments that characters made in the episode about President Donald Trump, not to the football storyline," their report states.
Barris' new deal will not impact black-ish, grown-ish or his upcoming Freeform series, Besties. They will remain on their networks for their series runs and Barris will remain an EP on them.