Netflix appoints Sphère Média’s Tara Woodbury as first Canadian content exec

Tara Woodbury

Netflix has hired Tara Woodbury from Toronto’s Sphère Média as its first Canadian content exec.

Woodbury will oversee development and commissioning of local scripted series in both English- and French-language, as well as building relationships with Canadian writers, directors and producers.

She will also identify new talent from the country and starts her new role later in November, reporting into director of Canadian series, Danielle Woodrow.

Woodbury was most recently VP of development at Sphere Media, where she worked on shows including medical drama Transplant for CTV and Danis Goulet’s Indigenous dystopian drama film Night Raiders.

She joined Sphère Média as English-language head of development in 2016 and before that was at Call Me Fitz prodco Amaze Film + Television, where she ran domestic and international scripted.

The appointment comes six months since Netflix chief Ted Sarandos said the company was looking for a Canada-based exec to greenlight local projects. The streamer claims to have already invested CA$2.5bn ($1.93bn) on local production since 2017 but is now looking to order more domestic series, having opened a Toronto office earlier this year.