With Kenya Barris and Alex Hirsch’s Deals Netflix Is Growing Its Talent, Not Taking It

Five years ago when Netflix decided to enter the world of original television, it had two things working in its favor — its algorithm and its eye for top talent. Though the Netflix of present day is still filled with plenty of ambitious creative gambles, it’s those two tentpoles that have largely guided the streaming service. But with its recent deals with creators like Kenya Barris and Alex Hirsch, Netflix is showing that it’s no longer in a position where it feels the need to flag big names to get your attention. It’s investing in its future, and it’s doing that with creators the rest of television has undervalued.

From David Fincher’s House of Cards and Mindhunter to Jenji Kohan’s Orange Is the New Black and GLOW, Netflix has always placed a lot of trust and a lot of money into the hands of well-loved creators. The streaming service displayed that recently with the deals it made with super producers Ryan Murphy (Glee, American Horror Story, American Crime Story) and Shonda Rhimes (Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder). But Barris and Hirsch are in very different positions than these huge TV names. Though both are responsible for creating widely beloved projects, neither have achieved household-name super creator status. While they were in the middle of growing their brand — something that would typically happen through a series of networks spanning several years — Netflix snapped them up without most of these creators’ work ever appearing on the service.

Barris in particular feels like an incredibly smart grab for Netflix. The writer and producer’s projects have consistently been hits. Black-ish delivers both strong audience numbers and critical accolades; Girls Trip was one of the must-watch movies of last year, and the legacy of America’s Next Top Model, which he co-created with Tyra Banks, is iconic. He’s not a budding creator with a bright future ahead of him. He’s a producer who has been responsible for many successful projects over years. And yet Barris often feels like a creator somewhat ignored by the entertainment landscape. With its $100 million exclusive three-year deal with him, it seems likely that Netflix aims to transform Barris into its own partially home-grown super-producer, something Netflix would typically acquire, not create itself.

Alex Hirsch is an even more interesting case because to date he’s only created one show — Gravity Falls. Hirsch’s occult animated adventure about a pair of twins has gained a hugely popular cult following. The limited amount of spots most networks and cable networks have for animation breeds a competitive landscape. Even with Hirsch’s devoted following, creators on his level still have to jump through countless challenging hoops to get an animated show on these platforms. But Netflix doesn’t suffer from that real estate problem. It can afford to take a big exclusive project chance on Hirsch and in exchange Hirsch will likely be able to create and produce a larger amount of projects, faster. And if one of those happens to be the next Gravity Falls, that’s just a win for everyone.

This trend of making deals to grow creators rather than just benefit from them doesn’t just apply to Barris and Hirsch. Earlier this year the streaming service announced that it was offering an exclusive multiyear deal to Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, the creators behind Netflix’s Dark. Prior to creating the German time travel drama, Friese and bo Odar had only worked on a handful of projects that received attention in Germany, but didn’t make much of an impact stateside. Now Netflix has two talented creators under its belt who are best known for the Netflix show they created.

With these moves, Netflix is starting to foster and grow its own talent, emulating its network peers and paving its own path, instead of expanding on the one created by others. The only question is: who’s next?

Where to stream Black-ish

Where to stream Gravity Falls