VP Backgrounds

Karen

Born in Tucson, AZ, I am the first born to Irma and Arturo - two Mexicans who both immigrated to the US when they were teenagers. Both my parents have (had) six brothers and sisters, so I have a shitload of cousins. My dad was a TV fan and passed his enthusiasm down to me. I was named after Karen Valentine, who starred in a show called Room 222. I was an only child until I was 12 - my brother Nicholas [named after the youngest on Eight is Enough] was a nice surprise. Not so welcome on my part though because by the time my parents had him, I was sick of asking for a brother or sister, so most of my brother's childhood was spent being tortured by me. I went to a Catholic school from the time I was in Kindergarten until I was a Junior (a lunatic and pain in the ass) in high school. My mom told me I could pick where I went to school my senior year, and much to her disappointment, I chose a public high school where most of the friends I played softball with went to school. I still call those girls my best friends, and keep in touch with them more often than I do with my extended family. I enrolled at the University of Arizona after high school because it was just a given that I'd go to college - education is important to my mom - but never considered going out of state (my family just didn't do that). I floundered early in college, took a two semesters off and was working retail, where for a second I thought that was going to be my life. I was always a movie fan. I would spend the weekends at the theater - usually with my little brother - sneaking into films from noon to the last showing at midnight. I was smitten the first time I saw "Pulp Fiction" and tracked the campaign for it like found and read every single article on that film, the actors and Quentin Tarantino. I randomly called Disney Studios one day, and was lucky enough to get a patient guy named Jeff Hare to explain the difference between PR & marketing, I took his advice on what to major in, and never looked back. I ****ing live for what I do. I am still into all day movie marathons on the weekends, I watch too much TV, eat too many cheeseburgers and fries, and if I weren't doing PR I would like to be a detective.

Tawni

I grew up in "like" the Valley. Oldest of 4, often referred to as my father's firstborn son, I was a total tomboy preferring motorcycles and all sports to dolls and dresses. To make matters worse I absolutely LOVED school. Worshiped my teachers (yes I was the kid that got the very special gift for all my teachers until 7th grade). I wrote and received letters from my 5th grade teacher Ms. Michaelson till I was 23 and my 8th grade history teacher, Mrs. Hibbit deserves a lot of credit for putting me on a terrific path towards getting a college education. Teachers matter a lot to me! I am the first in my family to graduate with a college degree and an MBA. My mother would say I was an adult by age 9, first job at 12 selling door to door with Career Sales Opportunitiesearned $540 my first two weeks of sales and have worked ever since. Odd jobs have included "owning the taco bar" at a Del Taco, just ask me to make you a burrito. I worked my way through college by tutoring psychology students almost 510 years older than me, where their response to our first meeting was often "you're the tutor?" . I quickly realized there was more $ in coaching and was a gymnastics coach to as many as 2000 gymnasts in summer camps for 3 years and had my own olympic hopeful team of "Hotshots" that I coached to level 10 elite gymnast level (even after having a professional career I coached until I had my own little one I had to care for.) I was one of the youngest to graduate from UCSB six days after my 19th birthday. I live in Saratoga and am blessed with 3 fantastically unique children, 19Ryan, 13Hayden, 12Maya. We are avid surfers, windsurfers, kayakers and generally are in love with the ocean. Our love for adventure doesn't stop at the ocean...we are frequent visitors of Lake Tahoe where the entire family loves to snowboard and ski. We are a fiercely competitive board game family, where Settlers of Catan, Risk, Ticket to Ride and Blockus are our go to activity after dinner. We are an absolutely puppy led family, with Zeus and Cooper Cranz being our new luvs and just about the cutest golden retrievers there are. I'm beginning to fully realize in 5 years I will be kidless in my home and have taken on the challenge of visiting the top 15 countries on my list in the next 5 years and learning how to make my own wine over this next year. Perhaps I'll even give ya a bottle of my first batch in 2018 when I'm told it will be ready for drinking. Salud!

Ted

My grandfather ran away from his home on Samos Greece at 16. As a very young boy, he would read western novels and dreamed of going to America to work on a trail team. while the job of trail cook had not been posted in the help wanted ads for about 75 years before, that did not stop him from coming to America to seek that job. He would have Seven sons and 1 daughter, the youngest was my father. He and my mother married and started their family (not necessarily in that order) as teenagers. I would be the 4th in a family of 5 kids. My father ran the local marina in Long Branch, New Jersey also and worked as an electrician. He could fix just about anything with parts. This is not a gene that would be passed to his first born son. The work ethic, I am proud say, did come from that side of the family. My Mother was always the life of the party. She may not have paid the rent, but she would always pick up the tab. She was funny and always had a plan, but more like Ralph Cramdon than Thomas Edison. My family moved from New Jersey to Arizona when i was about 6 years old. I raced motocross bikes, played little league and was a cub scout (check, check and check). I always had an interest in movies and TV shows. I suspect from my Grandmother, who always referred to movie and TV stars by their first names, like friends. My Mother was always had a TV on when she was awake. In High School, i stumbled upon my passion for Journalism. I say stumbled, because I had signed up for the yearbook and was put on the Newspaper because yearbook was full. I just jumped in and started being a reporter and eventually an editor based on the characters I had seen on TV. Lou Grant was an early favorite. My parents did not graduate high school, so they were not a source of academic inspiration or financial support, so I worked full time and went to community college. I was the editor of The Voice our student weekly, so really it was 2 full time jobs + school. One of those jobs was working in a video store. It was film school with a pay check. I watched every movie in the place and fell in love with business. I never did pursue that journalism degree, choosing instead a career in business. Running a chain of stores became film school/business school...and they paid me! Between all of this fun I got married at 25 and had 2 amazing kids, Tony (16) and Sarah (18). The marriage lasted about 14 years but the joy of fatherhood continues. I met my wife Nicole about 5 years after my divorce. She is a powerhouse and I love her. She was running President Obama's Southern California campaign in 2008 when we met. we were introduced by a mutual friend and never stopped talking after "hello." She became the US AMbassador to the Bahamas and continues to keep me plugged into my other passion for politics. I am really living a dream these days. I am doing exactly what I had always hoped to do in my professional life work with amazing people, change the world and work in the entertainment business. I have met almost all of my heroes and i try everyday to be a husband, a father, a citizen and a leader and to find the balance in it all. I would love to produce and direct a documentary one day and in my retirement on the beach, I would love to own a movie revival house that would always show great movies and never make money : )... or host a talk show.

Stevan

Spent summers in Serbia growing up. ○ Got a PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from Michigan. ○ Into cars, currently have a 2015 Corvette Z06, 1991 BMW 850i, 1973 Pontiac Firebird, and a 2004 Audi S4. Also wrench on them. ○ TAed Larry Page in grad school. ○ Twin boys (aged 4) Neven and Kristijan.

Ty

Ty In the winter of 1970, my parents sold all their worldly belongings and moved my brother and I to Big Bear Lake, CA. We had a "Tom Sawyer" like childhood filled with hiking, skiing, sailing, fishing and biking. I also frequented our local movie theater countless times watching anything my heroes Spielberg, Coppola and Scorsese would put on the screen. Through high school and upon entering Harvard I played Football, Baseball, was a competitive Alpine Ski Racer and discovered my love of singing, theater and performing. My plan was to major in Biology and go to Med School. That plan evaporated after Organic Chemistry kicked my a**. I changed majors to Anthropology and focused my efforts on making documentary films and theater. In between my Junior and Senior years, my brother was killed in a drunk driving accident which lead to a sabbatical from Harvard and a backpacking adventure across Europe including hitchhiking to Istanbul with a bunch of Scottish truckers who were on their way to Baghdad. Upon graduation I chose the illustrious career of being a $350/week PA. After many years as a PA and Assistant, I was blessed to connect with a Producer named Branko Lustig who had just won an Academy Award for Schindler's List. He hired me as is his assistant and he became my mentor. His mentorship lead to us working on many films together and our family living in London and Morocco for extended periods of time. It also lead to a 4 year stint at Dreamworks and my recent 5 years at Legendary Entertainment. I have four kids, Skye (25), Delaney (20), Emerson (17) and McKinley (14). My wife Julann and I met during a summer theater workshop when we were both cast in the same play. She started a nonprofit which provides support/counseling to kids and families dealing with substance abuse and behavioral issues, runs an antibullying program at the local middle school and oversees a local kids volunteer group. She gave birth to kids #3 and #4 at home. I love to snow ski, garden, cook, travel and go wine tasting. I'm a private pilot and fly to/from work (and an occasional wine tasting adventure). I also recently completed a UC Davis course in Winemaking.........just in case the opportunity to own a vineyard ever presents itself.

Cindy

From rural Nebraska, went to Stanford ('91). I had a Commodore Vic 20 and could program the heck out of it. Other kids paid me to complete Computer Science assignments and I never got busted. Was a Hot Walker in high school, did medical collections during college to try to overcome shyness, and first career was professional waterskiing. Stainwouldfilmdfilm business in 1993 as a book scout, marrying interests in literature and movies. I love college football and riding my bike.

Daniel

I was born and raised in the burbs of Washington, DC, in a town called Rockville. Perfectly fine place to grow up, but as I got older, the REM song "Don't Go Back to Rockville" really started to carry some weight. During high school, I had a spattering of odd jobs (pizza delivery, optometry assistant, pharmacy assistant), although none of them were nearly as interesting to me as playing the drums, which I was able to do for a decent wage from a musician's perspective. I played in a range of bands in a range of styles starting in high school, a hobby that would persist with me all the way up until seven years ago. Pursuing this passion of music, I went to Ithaca College because I really wanted to be in Steve Brown's jazz program there. So, I took my talents to upstate NY where I relatively quickly dropped the music program. But I stayed at Ithaca and pursued Philosophy (with an emphasis towards Symbolic Logic) and Literary Critical Theory. I took one computer class while there, which I hated and eventually dropped. Following Ithaca, I moved back down to the DC area and got a job at a law firm as a paralegal, designed to set me up nicely for my pending dive into law school. That experience, however, was enough to sour me on the legal profession so I quit outright. With plenty of time on my hands, and a strong background in logic and deduction, I jumped right into software development and started teaching myself a range of technologies. I got my first computer job in NoVa at a company that produced software to manage fantasy sports teams. Then I parlayed that into gigs at a couple of document management software companies. The next stop after that was NPR, where I was hired in 1999 as their first software engineer for the digital side. I ended up building and managing all development for NPR's digital properties (web site, iPhone apps, etc). I left NPR in 2010 and moved to the bay area with my wife, Andrea, and my daughter, Maya (7), to join Netflix. Aside from the fact that I have never had a cup of coffee in my life, you know most of the rest...

Jessica

Born Singaporean but Asia is my playground for years. Most exciting time three years in Shanghai; visited some 20 cities across this massive country, ate fried scorpions, ants, all sort of feet from farm poultry. Netflix is the glorious result of my misspent youth watching TV :) Induction to American drama Peyton Place! My kids call me DRAGON MOM after my animal spirit that firebreathing dragon and it has been a sweeping metaphor for how I am as mom, daughter; friend, wife .. It started with having to fight for everything in a traditional 2ndgeneration Chinese in Singapore. My parents believe that only sons deserve full education and girls should just finish high school and get married. I broke every stereotype and every rule growing up yes, my mum caned me like they do in Asia.. After high school, I knocked on every door to get a scholarship so I could continue education on my own terms. But i thank my parents who knew that an English education was the only way to go in the 60s and they camped overnight so I could get to a convent school ran by european nuns!! That convent thing messed me up and now I carry that catholic guilt. I don't remember doing anything in school except art, drama and dance. After school, I knocked on the door of every advertising agency to get a job cos I so love all that creative stuff; and in the end I became an account executive in a local agency handling Taiwanese computers. I won a few storytelling competitions when I was little. Pride and joy of my life my two sons (24, 17) and a girl (20). Singlemom for a long time, till I met Jeff and remarried in 2014.

Mark W

Born and raised deep in the Kansas heartland, it was only natural that I would become enamored with my TRS80 color computer. "The Orthogonal architecture of the 6809 will spell the doom of not only the Z80, but also of the more popular PC and x86 architecture." It was one of several predictions that would turn out to be both incorrect and unimportant. Later, as a young adult, I would proudly tell my friends, "eBay will never work. Who buys junk from strangers over the internet?" As an adult, I moved to Chicago and met my life's greatest disappointment, the Chicago Cubs. I also married my wife Sharon, and we have loved each other for 22 years despite the biting, indifferent, and omnipresent backdrop of suffering provided by the Cubs. On October 5, 2005, two things happened. The Cubs won their first postseason series victory since 1908, and my first child was born. The two are wrapped together in my mind. I recall rushing to the hospital and listening to the game on the radio, to just barely not miss the birth of my 7 week premature son. Kyle would eventually turn out to be fine but the Cubs would go on to blow it in the Championship Series against a very young Florida Marlins team. My second son, Owen, would be born two year later, also during a postseason but with no participation from the Cubs. Despite bad instincts, my life has been an undeserved pleasure which I consider really really lucky.

Ken

Born in DC, grew up in VA suburbs (Springfield). One older sister. Met my wife, Melissa, at 15 in the high school musical (Anything Goes - I was Sir Evelyn, she was a tap dancer). Melissa and I took our first crosscountry road trip at 17, and for many subsequent summers. Saw in the neighborhood of 200 Grateful Dead shows over the next many years (we have one item in the Grateful Dead Archive). Ended up loving Santa Cruz so we went to college there. I dropped out because people started paying me to play with computers. Two kids: Dylan (24), Emily (16). We still live in Santa Cruz. Outside of work, I've been a practicing Buddhist (Tibetan Kagyu) since 1990, play stringed instruments (mostly guitar and sitar these days) and take walks with Jack, the dog.

Adrien

Grew up in San Mateo, the middle of 3 boys. Parents were both immigrants who came to the US speaking no English to find a better life - Dad from the French Pyrenees where he was a shepherd and mom from Mexico (neither parent went to school past grammar school). Spent much time in my youth doing volunteer work (taught preschool, tutored English to immigrants, worked at a Fear of Flying Clinic). I spent some time living abroad and got my MBA at UC Berkeley. Spent some years heading a multicultural brand strategy consultancy. In 2006 I married my husband who is a dramaturg and develops Broadway theater. Ken and I have 3 boys (ages 14, 9 & 4) who live with their moms in Berkeley. Found the trail behind the office a few years ago and have become an avid runner. Also love touring historic homes and continue volunteering on nonprofit boards for cultural organizations.

Mark Y

1st Generation American. Born and raised in rural Pennsylvania about 90 minutes outside of Philadelphia. I have a younger brother. Childhood was a blast...we were always outside (we didn't have cable TV or Nintendo) and so played tons of sports - baseball, wiffleball, basketball, skateboarding, etc....I attended high school in The Hague, Netherlands. 1st in my family to ever attend college (Duke). Lived in DC & Atlanta after college. Prior to Netflix worked in management consulting doing strategy and M&A projects. I am married to an absolute dimepiece, Sadie. We met in business school (UNC Chapel Hill). She is originally from Hawaii/Fiji Islands...and so we travel back there often (there's worse places to have to go and see the inlaws :). We have a gorgeous daughter, Ryan, age 4 and a 1year old son, Nico. And a puppy named Charlie. I am an avid golfer and snowboarder. We own a 2nd home in Tahoe and spend many weekends there. We have lived in NorCal for 10 years. And I have been turning into a NorCal stereotype ever since...I drive a Subaru, listen to NPR, wear flipflops, and routinely hit up the Farmer's Market on Sunday mornings (I feel quite lame after penning that last sentence). My family and I are super excited to be moving to Amsterdam this summer to work in our Netflix EU headquarters for a year

Todd

Eventually escaped from a childhood in suburban Long Island all the houses looked the same. As a teen worked for my uncle on the floor of the American Stock Exchange as a clerk—mastered the oldschool hand signals. Went to Wharton but spent all my time creating shows for Penn's TV station and almost failed out—ended up graduating w/ a polisci degree. Saved up money cutting salmon on the Bering Sea before going to USC to study film. Countless jobs in film—PA, managed a laser disc store on Sunset Blvd, EPK producer, critic, wrote an unproduced script about a woman kickboxing border guard for Corman, filmed escaping Tibetan refugees for British TV, optioned a script about a 19th century mentalist, and was finishing an indie feature when Netflix came knocking. My wife Jen, a choreographer, was pregnant with our son and the timing was perfect. Oliver is 8 and our daughter Samara is 11. Back in the suburbs (Los Gatos)—but the houses are all different

David H

Had lots of dark curly hair thru college. Spent a magical winter between college and law school ski bumming in Aspen, Colorado. Born, raised and educated in Virginia. Probably would never have left (my folks still live in the Northern Virginia house I grew up in and my older sister, Diane, lives not too far away) but for a whimsical move to San Francisco instigated by my then girlfriend, now wife, Michele. Got married on an old gun battery in the Marin Headlands overlooking San Francisco Bay. Have 2 great kids, Ethan (17) and Gabe (15), and a Golden Retriever named Ella (the girl my wife never got). Lucky break came when my Grandfather Gus (for whom my son Gabe is named after) decided to leave Nazi Germany in 1940 with my mom. He taught me a lot. I've waited tables, worked home improvement, spent a couple years helping Virginia politicians get elected, and learned a bunch about real estate and groceries in my early legal career....all to land in the entertainment/ technology business and living in Amsterdam. Who knew.

Chris W

I grew up in the leafy suburbs of London and prepared early for a career in digital media by appearing as a kid on the British kids TV show Rainbow, and winning an Acorn Electron computer in a competition on the side of a packet of sweets (candy). I also grew up with a sports obsession, mainly playing football (soccer) and rugby with brief stints in love with the NFL & NBA. Now I'm too old for that I've discovered I also enjoy cycling up mountains. I went to University in Bristol where I met my wife, Michelle. We were married at Lake Como in Italy and we live in London with our 2 young kids. After Uni. I went traveling and started up an online listings business, but it didn't survive the 2000 crash so I took a "proper job" at Arthur Andersen before heading back to a career in digital media at Disney and the BBC among others.

Nellie

I was born in Minsk, Belarus and immigrated to US with my parents and 2 brothers 24 years ago but you'd think I am fresh off the plane once you hear me speak. A big part of my childhood was spent dealing with a lot of change from being in various 24hr/7day a week daycares and schools, having my first job at the age of 12 as a janitor and taking care of my baby brother but it made who I am and I wouldn't have it any other way. I was loved and that's most important. After a 7month immigration process through Austria and Italy (lucky me being a teenager in Italy the best time of my life!), we came to Cleveland, Ohio and swiftly made a move to Bay Area, CA. I went through 4 high schools my Junior and Senior year and couldn't wait to grow up and start living my own adult life. Graduated from high school, moved in with the love of my life who I met at 16 (we joke that we literally grew up together) and worked fulltime while attending Santa Clara University. My goal was to become a psychologist and have my own Marriage and Family practice but I quickly learned that my own marriage and my 1st kid was enough for me and I didn't need others' "stuff". Fell into HR when I joined a software eng startup, went to SJSU for Masters in I/O Psych and then joined Symantec and grew my HR career there. By the time EA called, I had 3 boys and I knew joining a video gaming company would officially make me the coolest mom in town and things were so fun at EA that we had our 4th boy a year ago. In addition to our boys, ages 16, 11, 7 and 1 we have a Chinese Crested, 5lb diva named Ginger. On the weekends, I am known to entertain family and friends with lavish dinner parties, love Insanity workouts and bake to relieve stress (notice the correlation between baking and workouts). So life is full right here in my hometown of Los Gatos and Netflix now completes it!

Jonathan

Santa Monica Ca. born, Venice Ca. to the core, Prussian Jewish dad who came to US in 1913 and was child telephone operator in Corpus Christi; later he sold pies, became an Air Force captain and married a classy runway model from St. Louis. Myself: late arriving only child, sent to prep school, expelled,ended up at Hampshire College, learned extreme question asking, Masters at London School of Economics. Four years as a war correspondent in Africa and Central America., Sixteen as a financial writer in Asia and Latin America, focused on uncovering the dirt in large family conglomerates. . One Pulitzer for a very bad day in Sept. 2011.Led the kill of Enron. Failed as media entrepreneur with a $40 million of other people's money (but boy was it fun). Bob Iger's speechwriter. Lured to Netflix like a moth to a flame. Spouse of 20+ years recently finished masters in biotech ethics, sassy smart 19 year old daughter, suave and smart 17 year old son. Factoids left inside striker on the 1974 US Men's junior soccer team, went to 14 Grateful Dead concerts in 6 states, play tennis every weekend, and attended 10 straight Coachella with my entire family.. Also, I'm a Pisces.

Elizabeth

Spent my youth in the sunshine growing up in Phoenix, loving the outdoors, warmth, and sports. Turns out girls aren't allowed to play football, so instead I played everything else, I was the captain of my highschool basketball and volleyball teams (goes without saying, a very small highschool). Did Northwestern (in Chicago) for college, learned way too much about winter. Had all kinds of jobs, tennis camp counselor, Starbucks barista (as a result, a lifelong coffee addict), a Spanish tapas bar (sangria and pulpa!), interned at the Options exchange. Ended up landing in LA working in financial services until until I realized that entertainment may be more fun. Turns out I was right worked in the DVD groups of several studios, Warner, Fox, andDreamWorks where I met the Netflix gang of Cindy and Robert Kyncl, and loved the company's vibe. I live by the beach in Santa Monica, love being close to the ocean, play the piano, still love sports (generally the ones that involve a ball), and travel, laughter, and chocolate.

Stephen

Stephen I was born and raised in "Center City" Philadelphia, which meant I had access to the best cheesesteaks on Earth (Jim's on 4th and South can't go wrong with a Pizza Steak Whiz Wit). I proudly attended not only Space Camp but also Space Academy but unfortunately have never experienced zero gravity. I worked various jobs through high school and college — mostly in restaurants. The most memorable was at a seasonal riverside place called Rock Lobster, where I pursued and won the MVB — Most Valuable Busboy. Attended Boston University and successfully graduated as a partial adult looking to work hard and make some waves. After college, I went from Steve to Stephen and haven't looked back. I moved to New York in August of 2001 and finally understood what all the fuss was about. I was lucky to find myself as an assistant at Miramax Films in 2002, where I began my career in entertainment but also met my future wife, Melissa, aka the smart and lovely assistant in the cube next to mine. I worked my way through the Miramax farm system or what I call "a paid graduate school program" and into marketing at The Weinstein Company. I left for a short while and had a great experience in HBO marketing and went back to TWC where I spent three more years. I like to exercise, explore and engage with friends and family. As a father, I have rediscovered the zen of finishing a complicated LEGO set. Three kids! Rex (7), Lila (4) and Great (1). Random fun fact: my Grandfather helped invent the stickon bow (this) for gifts

Peter

Another native Phoenician here and raised not too far from Ted and Elizabeth (and Anthony?). Fled the desert for Duke (public policy and film). Postgrad landed in San Diego where I lived below the waterline on a sailboat. First "real" job was at PacBell Mobile in SF where I was part of the team that launched GSM in the US (called a 'competitive analyst,' but more like a spy.) Studied Urban Planning at UCLA, which naturally led me to an exciting career as a driver for an actor on an indie film. (On same film crossed paths with Cindy but we never actually met.) Reluctantly became actor's assistant, made a neverseen documentary about it, then actively pursued producing and went down the film production rabbithole (see inaccurate imdb page for questionable track record.) Moved inhouse at Playtone Pictures (Tom Hanks' co) where I was introduced to TV series work, and would toggle between being a TV and film executive for 8+ yrs... until the HOC deal attracted me like a moth to the Netflix flame. When not traveling to all of our amazing sets/locations, I like to hike, run, play tennis, fly fish, and travel some more (son of a travel agent). Ended up living in Spain 3x in my life, so I guess that might be worth noting. A map enthusiast even the back of a Southwest Airlines cocktail napkin thrills me.

Larry

Being born and raised in New York City meant sharing a room with my three siblings for most of my childhood. Junior year at Harvard marked my first "nonbunkbed" sleeping arrangement. Best job was during college summers leading bike trips for high school kids around Europe and New England. Also worked in B.F. Skinner's lab running animal studies in Behavioral Psychology eventually publishing my research for a Master's degree. I played in a rock band covering such cultural greats as Nirvana, Grateful Dead and Duran Duran, but I had to quit when I started working as a management consultant so that I could stay up all night building excel models. They also sent me to Asia for a year where I was served blowfish and survived. While at bschool at Wharton I started working at Aol (it was the heyday right before they bought Time Warner and everything hit the fan). Learned a lot about subscription models and launching webbased businesses. I moved to LA in 2010 to join Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's new company (LivePlanet), which I ended up running for 7 years, getting a deep dive into the production/distribution of television and film. We did some groundbreaking things like "Project Greenlight" for HBO and some insane ones like the feature documentary "Running the Sahara" where I had to lead an expedition through the Sahara Desert. As part of that I helped start water.org; I sit on the board and have travelled to Haiti twice to explore our water and sanitation projects. Most recently, ran Michael Eisner's content company Vuguru. I met my wife Sara on the dancefloor at my sister's wedding and we have a girl and two boys (9,8,and 5). Oh, and I [used to] snowboard, surf, and scuba dive a lot [before having three kids]!

Heather

Born & raised in Riverside County, CA (San Jacinto, Hemet & Palm Desert). I was a middle child of 6 (from a more than modern family), and the first to graduate high school or college. I attended UC Riverside as a political science major with a minor in women's studies before going to law school at UC Berkeley. One of my greatest achievements in life is probably that I was able to selffinance that education by waiting tables, not because that hasn't been done a million times before, but because I was a terrible waitress. My summer internship at the law firm of Katten Muchin in LA was followed by graduation and almost 7 years at the same firm before a former partner referred me to an open position working for Bryony. Being a total groupie for the product, I felt compelled to submit my resume (which I then had to draft). I joined Netflix in 2011 and for a while I think I probably held the record for the fasted acceptance of a job offer, since I am not sure Bryony finished her sentence before a yelled "Yes! Do you need me to sign anything?!" I have 3 adorable (yet sassy) children, a 17 year old daughter, Chiara, who attended UCR and UCB with me, and 6 year old twin sons, Nathaniel and David, who keep me on my toes. I was not a guinea pig for a new reality show about having teenagers and toddlers at the same time, but I probably should start working on a pitch for one. Only hobbies are trashy fiction, romantic comedies, wine & caffeine (I know the last two aren't one isn't a hobbyies, but please see the part about teenagers & toddlers). [Update: No time to read and I gave up caffeine, at this rate we may just have to talk about my children.]

Barbie

Born and raised in Modesto during the late 70's and 80's, which obviously led to big hair, a pet poodle, unforgettable dance parties with my sister, and reading too many adult novels. Other mothers would call my mom (the same woman who actually named me Barbie!) complaining I was too young to be reading such books, but she was just happy I was reading, which continues to be a passion for both of us (luckily I graduated from bad romance novels before high school). After graduating from Santa Clara University, I started my career in Marketing with a successful startup, followed by FedEx. My HR career began with IBM, followed by Cisco. While at Cisco, I lived in England and Germany for a few years and managed Employee Relations for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It was during this time that I learned the fear of death threats and the value of a bodyguard. I also learned that it does not comfort your loved ones to tell them you are getting hazard pay when you travel to certain foreign countries. Following Cisco I prepared for my role at Netflix by heading up HR for Sportvision and Tiburon. I still love dogs, but have graduated from poodles to German Shepherds. In my spare time, I soak up time with my son (Kyle 8) and daughter (Madeleine 6), train GSDs in protection, and pretend to golf.

Vini

Born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the eldest of three children. I am 50% Italian (dad's family) and 50% Portuguese (mom's family). My dad's family has been in the automobile business since they immigrated from Italy, actually, my dad is an engineer and a former race car driver, so was my grandfather, my uncle and my brother, a two time stock car champion in Brazil. My mom is an artist and my sister a fashion designer. And I am the one who crashed the race car on the wall in my first try and said, that's enough for me and decided to be on the other side of the pit, in the business area. I have worked serving food in restaurants and in video rental stores in my summers and helped my dad driving his company truck. I was an exchange student in Mexico and also went to UK two times to learn English when I was in school. I studied Product and Graphic Design (FAAP) and Business & Administration (PUCSP) at the same time. While studying I was an intern at Ford Motor Company Brasil and then worked for Hering Textile licensing brands such as Disney, Warner, amongst other brands for Hering Kids apparel lines. That's when I had my first contact with Entertainment, and moved to Warner Bros. Pictures Brasil. Two years into the job, I decided to move to the US to study online marketing at UCLA. Interned at Warner Bros. Pictures Latin America in Burbank ended up working there for 13 years. I met my partner, Joel, 10 years ago on myspace.com (yes, myspace.com!) and we have an insane Jack Russell named Enzo.

Vickie

Born and raised in the Philippines I'm the youngest and only girl if you knowme, that part is probably obvious. My father was a professional jai alai player before he realized that wouldn't feed three kids. So he became a stockbroker with Merrill who ingrained in us to save all our money and retire young. In retirement I often say I'll be on a beach in Hawaii, but what I really want to do is set up computer literacy programs in the Philippines and build out a microfinancing network. When I started at Apple they were postiPhone, preiPad. I left Apple to go back to eBay only to have the group moved to Texas two months later. I was at JP Morgan for a year before coming here, but the slow pace at the bank drove me nuts and so I opted for the opposite end of the spectrum. I met my husband on a last minute trip to san francisco 20 years ago. We recently adopted a 10 year old shih tzu, who's half blind and has three teeth. She's a mess in a dress, but wakes up every morning happy and excited....she's perfect.

Caitlin

Born in Anaheim i byn the 60's and had a tumultuous childhood with multiple family configurations, phases of near poverty, everyyear moves until high school, and way too much drama. Responded with perfectionistic pursuits and overloading myself with activities to get away from family. In high school the pinnacle of my selfinduced stress I was valedictorian, president of 6 clubs, gymnast, marching band and orchestra member, and winner in 4 statewide competitions in Virginia including the state orchestra's 1st chair piccolo and Virginia's Junior Miss (it's a scholarship program... there was no swimsuit competition, though I did have to wear several southern gowns and answer a dorky question on stage about world peace). Became happier and more normal starting in college. Worked as a programmer (C, Informix database) for a government contractor in DC and had Security Level B clearance that would never be approved now given my "postdivorce wild phase" 11 years ago when I played in several painfully bad rock bands and found my inner hippie and Ultimate Frisbee. Went to grad school at Stanford in '92 after I discovered optimization techniques and have since enjoyed many great analytics roles across consulting firms, Yahoo!, Intuit, and of course Netflix. I'm now a single mom with boy/girl twins Nick and Corinne, who are at Palo Alto High School and, thankfully, are happy. I am incredibly grateful for my kids, generally love life, and try to give back. In my rare free time these days I enjoy inline skating, big hiking trips, wine or really any tasty drinks (current excuse: mom of teenagers), and rock'n roll.

David F

Born in Canberra, Australia, mother was a high school science teacher, dad a wildlife scientist. One younger sister, who is now a history professor. As a kid wanted to study stars, and continued through to graduate school training to be an astronomer before being distracted with technology. Moved to the Netherlands at 25, and after academic research jobs started working at an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Joined an MIT based startup doing web development consulting in 2000 and ran its London office before resigning due to a moral crisis (VCs installed a new CEO who lied to customers). Was thinking of returning to Australia in 2002, but friends from graduate school at the first commercial Content Delivery Network (CDN) convinced me the weather in LA was almost as good. Lived in Thousand Oaks for 5 years before moving to Boulder, Colorado, and the headquarters of Level 3. While talking with Ken Florance at a biosphere conference hotel in a swamp in Orlando decided to join Netflix. I have joint custody of my 10 year old son, James. After 6 months of Netflix kitchen eating, I took up road cycling, and try to ride as much as possible, especially up hills. Also obsessive about espresso, cheese and cooking pizza.

Paul

Born in Columbus, OH, determined to attend my parent's Memorial Day cookout in person. I grew up a studious kid, with my first job shelving books at the local library. After high school, moved to Cleveland to get my undergraduate degree in Systems & Control Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. Hid a big secret from the age of 8, but kept my sanity through singing at one point, I was in 5 different choirs. Came out during school, which led to a rocky few years of self-discovery. Consulted at Ernst & Young while in school; lost focus on my studies and barely escaped with my degree. Discovered my passion for data at a biotech start up. Committed my soul to it only to see the company collapse due to pharma belt-tightening. At the same time, my sister stumbled into single motherhood. Moved back to Columbus to help her find her feed and to find mine as well. Found much joy through the early years of raising my niece Brooklyn and nephew Derrick. Once family was secure, returned to Cleveland to reboot my career. Met my partner Tj; moved him and his beagle, Torque, from Iowa to Cleveland. Received an offer from Netflix, and moved yet again to San Francisco. A blur ever since with a few highlights (e.g. wrapping up my Masters in Predictive Analytics from Northwestern). Eagerly looking forward to what's to come.

Chris J

Born in Kenya, Dad worked for Newsweek, Mom at the UN. We lived a crazy life there (Idi Amin threw my Dad in jail in Uganda for months, I remember killing a cobra in backyard, and Peter Beard lived next door) until I was 7 then moved back to the states. Formative years in Atlanta including boarding schoolwhich I enjoyed, Atlanta not so much. Attended University of Arizona taking my time for a biology degree. Was a dive instructor in Mexico first, photographer second, student third. Somehow talked my way into Cornell grad school plus full scholarship with no GRE scores and a lackluster GPA. Graduated with a focus on communication and computer graphics but was more interested in the ocean and photography. Then was a professional underwater photographer for several years; travelled the world having adventures and spent over 4,000 hours underwater. Realized being a photographer was more production than creative plus the money sucked. Began doing UI design work on the side for fun, evolved into years of user experience consulting. After a while on the east coast, moved to the bay area when I joined Yahoo. Wife Kate is a research scientist in public health affiliated with Berkeley and kids Stella (5) and Erik (1.5) keep us busy. Always been happier underwater than on land but also enjoy cycling and fly fishing (a fly fishing freak since age 12).

Spencer

Born in Manhattan, I'm the eldest of four siblings. My parents came to the U.S. from Taiwan to create a better life for themselves and our family. In an effort to ensure that I retained a connection to my Chinese heritage, I was sent off to kindergarten without speaking a word of English, so I had to learn the language by reading comic books (personal favorite: The Uncanny XMen). I'm a life long East Coaster, living primarily in Manhattan with a four year stint in Baltimore, MD at Johns Hopkins University. I spent 15+ years on Wall Street as an equity analyst covering the Media & Internet sector. Spent the last two years tinkering with an online movie sharing service and now superexcited to be joining the company that is leading the industry forward. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and boxing. Recently added a puppy to my life, an Alaskan Klee Kai (toysized husky) named Future (after the rapper), or Fütch for short. I now no longer have spare time.

Scott

Born in Manhattan, first nine months in Queens. Then came the hardtospell places: near Poughkeepsie NY until age 9, Albuquerque NM until HS graduation, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) back in NY for most of the 80's. Kicked out of RPI for bad grades, 'cuz I liked my parttime job better than I liked studying, but salvaged the decade by getting back into school and getting out with a Masters in math and 7 years of professional software experience. Heard "California is the place you oughta be" so moved to the Bay Area in 1989, three weeks after the big quake ("you're not really still moving there, are you?"). Five years working in medical imaging with Toshiba yielded a wife (Ange), an MBA (Berkeley), and international work experience (Japan, but didn't live there!), and left me standing on the threshold of The Internet Age. It's been a nonstop series of crazy startups ever since (until Netflix, that is :). Ange and I have benefitted from the modern miracle of birth control, leaving us happily childless and free to spend wouldhavebeen college savings on travel and other indulgences (most recently, a fine 100yearold specimen of California Impressionist painting). Ange knits and quilts and works at Google, and I learned to ice skate at age 39 and play a lot of ice hockey.

David B

Born in Melbourne, the eldest of 3 (I have a younger sister and brother each 3 years apart), mix of European/Anglosaxon ancestry (Maltese and Scottish). My family moved to Sydney when I was 8, where they've lived since. My first trip overseas was coincidentally to the US (LA to be exact). I remember wearing my Dodgers hat and Disneyland tshirt and being the coolest kid at school, well at least for a day or two. In high school I played a number of sports: rugby, Australian rules footy, soccer, basketball (pretty shortlived for obvious reasons), track (sprint distance, ran the 100m in 11.2s when I was 15) and baseball. I was on track to make the Australian Junior Baseball team when I tore my rotator cuff muscle. In High School I had a parttime job at Hoyts (the biggest theater chain in Australia) tearing tickets and serving popcorn. I guess you could say that Netflix and Beverly Hills/LA were really always somewhere on the horizon. I've now lived in 9 cities (5 in Asia, 4 in the US) for 6 months or more, but my wife and I just bought a house in LA, so not looking to make it to 10 any time soon. Met my wife through her cousin who I was business school classmates with. She's a doctor (specializes in Oncology), and currently works for Amgen in their early stage drug development team. 2015 update: My wife and I have an adorable daughter, Kattleya Rita Burt, that was born on June 8, 2015

Bryony

Born in Montreal; moved with my family to Connecticut by early elementary school. Was taught at an early age that Canadians are far more polite than Americans, and that Americans are horribly boastful. I was very bookish as a kid. Went to boarding school for high school, which shocked both my parents. Learned about boarding school from reading Enid Blyton books. Took a year off & went to art school on Paros in Greece before going to college, which also pained my parents; arrived at my first day of Georgetown covered in hives, desperate to return to Greece. Was still bookish. Moved to NY and worked in publishing after college. Met Michael Crichton, who was very, very tall, and Anne Rice, who was certifiable. Worked for a guy who would handwrite the emails he wanted me to type on his behalf and napped under his desk every afternoon. Checked out a few years later for law school at Stanford; wanted to be a prosecutor, but then interned with the SF US Attorneys Office and concluded that my worldview wasn't bleak enough. Thank goodness. Live in Santa Monica with a black labradoodle named Maisie who has me wrapped around her little paw.

TJ

Born in New Jersey (Englewood) after my parents made the move from NYC for the house in the 'burbs. Mom was an emergency room nurse; Dad worked for GM as an accountant. Dad got bored and decided to join the DEA. The government moved us to Italy (elementary school) and San Diego (middle school and high school). Dad had a pimped out all black Mercedes sedan w/tinted windows and gigantic console carphone courtesy of US asset forfeiture laws. Note: he knew Javier Pena/Narcos. I worked at the local Boys' Club during high school and the kids failed to teach me how to breakdance, but did turn me into a decent foosball and floor hockey player. At UCLA, I played on the lacrosse team (club) and had my first/last film role in Alien Nation (unidentifiable alien playing lacrosse like game during opening sequence). I moved to on to UVA for law school and thought that my Side Out upside down visor and Mossimo volleyball shorts were way cooler than the Virginia baseball hat and Duck Heads that David Hyman wore. After a year working for DC Legal Aid and as a substitute teacher, I moved to the SF Bay Area to start at a big law firm. I subsequently took jobs at Apple and then Oracle before joining Netflix. My wife (Katie) and I met in DC, and reconnected years later during a trip she made to the Bay Area. We ended up dating long distance for a year before she joined me in SF. We have two kids that are 13 (Nick) and 15 (Mia). Since Katie worked on Capitol Hill, there is plenty of family discussion during election cycles. There's a mix of excitement/apprehension around our recent relocation to Amsterdam. Mia is convinced that she is going to meet a prince. Nick texted us to let us know that his new friend's house smells like pot.

Brent

Born in Oklahoma, family still has a farm with cows all over it, raised in Sacramento suburbs (I don't know which is worse). 18, lived/worked in Yosemite as a housekeeper at the Ahwahnee hotel. 20, bought a VW bus in London and toured Europe, drove it to Oslo, Istanbul, and everywhere between. Did not cut my hair from 16 to 24. Midlate 20's were spent in Berkeley working odd jobs (bakery, courier, dog walking) and volunteering at local magnet schools. I've been to and spent time in 49 states, only North Dakota has eluded me to date. Met my wife Sarah in Chicago during the "Webvan years" (David H and I knew each other then). We have 3 boys (14,11,9) & 1 French Bulldog. We (again, including DavidH) all just spent an unforgettable year in Amsterdam, happy to be back home in Santa Cruz. Hobbies are traveling, mountain biking, and surfing.

Bill

Born in the Chicago suburbs and moved to DC at the age of 1 setting up a pattern of moving every 45 years that has continued throughout life (stints in Toronto, Chicago, San Antonio, Lativa, Seattle, LA, San Diego and now Santa Cruz). My first acclaim to fame was winning a Kellogg's art contest for drawing Thomas Jefferson eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes. Past occupations have included fullservice gas station attendant, doortodoor knife salesman, writer, teacher, mountain climber, international map dealer and Amazon rain forest guide. Married my highschool sweetheart, Nancy, and embarked on a two-year honeymoon in 1996 biking the length of South and Central America. We have four kids Mac, Charlie, Livy and Ruby (14, 12, 10, and 7) and a Labradoodle named Walter. Current passions are fruitarianism and running for hours in the woods. Oh, and attended more Grateful Dead shows than Jonathan, but not as many as Ken.

Neil

Born in the UK, but my first recollections are living in Den Haag, in a small apartment, and attending the American school there. Back in the UK at age 6, I always loved making things: Lego, Meccano, woodwork, etc. First science kit at 8, first electronics kit at 12, first computer at 14 (had to make it myself). Hated all kinds of sports, since I got made without the parabolacalculating neural circuitry necessary to play "football" (soccer), tennis, and other ballgames all kids love. But I did discover that I could get around on a bike, and started commuting to high school and every work since then. I also figured out that crosscountry running got me out of organized soccer, and joining the highschool kayak squad, while cold and wet, excused me from organized rugby, which always seemed like a highrisk engagement although my first serious accident was falling off my bike into a busy roundabout while on my way to the river for a kayak practice. Second serious accident was falling off a ladder, while trying to install my first weather station on top of my parents roof. The weather station went on to win me a "Young Engineer for Britain" prize. Came to the US for postcollege vacation in summer 1984, and upon return learned that my Ph.D. supervisor had planned a 2 month attachment for me at Schlumberger in Palo Alto (where I met Reed). After Schlumberger ended up hiring me, and Ubuntu my greencard, I finally finished my thesis, printing the last page of the final submission while the IT staff hovered over the printer waiting to ship it to Texas with the rest of the lab, which was closing down in California. One startup later (we sold it to Autodesk), I joined Reed at Pure Software, and fastforward to today...

Taka

From Tokyo. Active in sports (swimming, top ranker swimmer in Tokyo) and academics growing up in high school in Japan, but declined offers from Japanese universities as I was keen on extending my knowledge and experience outside Japan and decided to opt out of the easier path of the traditional environment can't explain but I just didn't want to follow the ordinary path to become a Japanese corporate person. Primal motivation was simply looking for 'freedom and adventure' which Hollywood movies and Rock'n'roll taught me but at reality, I was on the edge of class and really struggled for year. I was also on the scholarship program so I had no way back. But this experience taught me one of the most important thing in my life the collaboration. After graduating, I travelled around the world for over a year and I came back to Japan and worked for multinational companies for the past 18+ years at the likes of Apple, Nike and Warner Bros. Love sports, especially surfing - where I feel that my core values has been set encountering the waves in Australia. I envy people who ride nice waves more with simple life than people who ride Ferrari's. I proposed to my wife at the beach at the beautiful tropical ocean at Shimoda while we were waiting for the swell to come. Our lifestyle is work hard in Tokyo and drive down to the beach house at Shimoda for the nature weekends. My dream is to catch the private wave with my son KEN and daughter MIO somewhere in the Indian ocean.

Chris L

Grew up in New Mexico, Oklahoma, New Jersey and Boston. Was arrested only twice before I turned 18 (beat that Estaff people!). Worked as professional Au Bon Pain sandwichtaster, radiolistener, Hess gas station attendant and taught newsroom practice to aspiring journalists to pay for law school. Attended Boston University for college and law school. Lucky break of my life was my father losing everything after a spoiled adolescence. Met my exwife, Yuki, when she was reporting on the FCC where I worked for Colin Powell's son, Michael. Also worked at big and small law firms in NY and DC and was second lawyer at Skype in 2005 where we built out Skype's global government affairs group. In terms of public policy, I've spent 15 years understanding government surveillance; the law and economics of Internet networking and Larry Lessig's political corruption work. I am a registered Independent. I now coparent two children, Kenzo, 6 and Kohji, 5 and wonderdog Loosey. I play squash and golf poorly

Dave T

From suburban Philadelphia (Bucks County); son of a social worker and professional poker player. Grew up as the younger brother would've been great at that paper route). Spent the summers of my youth at the camp next door to where Wet Hot American Summer was filmed (Camp Towanda/Camp Cayuga) and so I feel a kinship with the movie and even some of the characters (and of course a love of The State). By age 15 I had my first nearly full time job (bus boy + cheesesteak cook wasn't engaging enough) doing IT support for a printer ribbon reinking company after school (3pm9pm) and by 16 I had a summer internship at Bristol Myers Squibb, supporting Novell Netware and helping them migrate from Token Ring to Ethernet. I got hooked on networks and, thanks to the support of a great boss, enrolled in a vocational program that allowed me to finish High School while working 6 hour days at BMS for my Junior and Senior years. From there I moved on to manage the migration of the Gateway 2000 website from their data center in Sioux Falls, SD to Jersey City, NJ right before the first bubble burst. After a multiyear stint in the financial world, I came back to the Internet through an Ad Tech startup, Right Media, later bought by Yahoo!. My next stop was Netflix, and then Bridgewater (yes, that Bridgewater) for a 9 month sojourn before coming back to Netflix to help build Open Connect. Recently married my partner of 16 years, Pete, in Hoboken, NJ where we live with a cat named Stimpy that I am highly allergic to and a rat terrier named Ally. We're both great cooks, but I'm better at breakfast. Finally, after being tired of being obese most of my adult life I decided to do something about it last year, and I've suddenly found that I enjoy hiking, running, and the ability to walk up multiple flights of stairs without getting winded.

Greg

Grew up all over the east coast and midwest. Dad was a lawyerturned law school professorturned deanturned entrepreneur (buy smallish, poorly run companies, turn them around and sell them). Hence why we moved around a lot. Mom was a computer programmer; she was in the first "analyst" (programming) class at IBM to accept women and taught me how to code on an Apple ][ that I promised a year's worth of chores to receive as a Christmas present. After planning on being an astronaut for most of my adolescent life, I balked at signing the 15 year commitment required to become a pilot in the Air Force, so I pivoted and decided to build and fly satellites for them instead (4 year commitment and ultimately a much better decision). After the Air Force, I have mostly done small startups and occasionally (and usually with bad results) tried to incorporate my love of wine into my professional life (wine.com, owned a wine bar). My wife, Kimi, is a writer and film producer/director (mostly documentaries). We have two children Taiki (7) and Kiko (5).

Reed

Grew up in Boston/DC areas. Two younger sisters. As a gap year before college, sold vacuum cleaners door to door (Rainbows) and became inspired by my coworkers to also become bornagain Christian. Later, when I drifted away from it, I realized how easily influenced I am. Late bloomer with first girlfriend at 20. One college summer in Marine Corp Officer School but got out after that. Peace Corps math teacher in Swaziland after college. Lucky break of my life was getting into Stanford CS grad school in 1986 and moving to California. Met my wife Patty at a party in Berkeley. Two kids Molly (22) and Sean (19). Got to live in Rome for year in 2006/2007. Outside of work, I help charter public schools grow. Unfulfilled dreams include becoming good Italian cook. Weaknesses are red wine and coffee.

Tim

Grew up in LA about 15 mins east of the office in Larchmont. Youngest of 3. Was a professional dogooder until I went off to college (e.g., candy striper and debate in high school). After graduating from UC Davis (and having taken cow maintenance (including dehorning a calf) and viticulture courses), I lived in the Pacific Northwest for 10 years (3 in Eugene and 7 in Seattle). After a decade of the cold and grey, I decided to return home. Professionally, prior to joining NFLX, and aside from my years at a big law firm (finally out of therapy), I worked at the Mouse House and Hasbro, helping bring joy to children around the world (probably obvious why those weren't a great fit). Have a husband (Doug) of 17 years, and we're down to 1 cat and 1 dog. We have a place in Palm Springs, so we try to spend as much time as possible turning into desert prunes. Despite my general lack of athleticism, I'm always up for unusual sports/activities On and off, I play in kickball, dodgeball and bowling leagues. I may have taken figure skating lessons from timetotime (no teasing). My addiction of the last three years has been bootcamp 34 times/week. I also spend many saturdays riding a bike around the greater LA area, so please be kind when driving beside cyclists! Oh, I'm an amateur magician and member of the Magic Castle, but please don't ask me to perform any tricks (though happy to provide guest passes).

Matt

Grew up in Las Vegas where both parents performed in Vegas shows my Mom was a dancer, my Dad a magician. As a kid I played a lot of sports, and the occasional game of underage blackjack. Excited to leave the oppressive 110 degree summer heat of Vegas, I came to California for undergrad at Stanford and graduated in '95. During college I played baseball and was drafted into the glamorous and lucrative life of minor league baseball where I then spent 3 years pitching in the minors for the Orioles and Diamondbacks. For a brief period, I held the dubious honor and minor league record for most home runs allowed in a season. Lots of time on the road bus rides, Waffle Houses, and Motel 6 were a common scene but I got to see a slice of Americana I wouldn't have seen otherwise. Seriously considered film school after that, but instead opted for a startup first job was writing code for interactive TV apps at WebTV in '98 (interactive Judge Judy anyone?) Worked in interactive TV software roles at Microsoft and then a startup, later acquired by Comcast, before Netflix. I met my wife in SF in '99, got married in 2001, and we have two kids daughter Annabelle (12) and son Will (10). And, of course, a very cute puppy (black mini labradoodle). Outside of work I enjoy playing guitar (poorly), snowboarding (only marginally better), and coaching my kids sports teams.

Rob

Grew up in Orange County with a younger sister. My OC roots are obvious when you see the truck I drive. Played volleyball in high school. After graduating from UC San Diego, I moved to Los Angeles and have been here ever since. been married to my wonderful wife (Karrie) for over 9 years and we have two kids Freya (7) and Bishop (5). Both of my kids attend a Spanish Immersion program. I enjoy physical exercise and am probably best known for bringing my own lunch to the office (I am a meat and vegetables guy). My dad spent his career in the motorcycle industry and was incredible on a dirt bike (back in his day). I ride with the hope of being half as good as he was. My mom is one of the most curious people I know and has spent a bulk of her life dabbling in various professions. I am obsessed with using a Hario V60 to make a perfect cup of coffee. Hanging out with my family at the Mar Vista Farmers Market is my favorite way to spend a Sunday.

Erik

Grew up in Portland, Oregon, spending most of my childhood under a GoreTex fleece and playing soccer (while sporting a British "soccer mullet" don't ask). My father was a neuroscientist and my mother did population projections for schools, and my brother later became an economist so the family was rather quantjockeyish, and, always the contrarian by nature, I dove into poetry and history and literature. I went to Michigan, where I became obsessed with Big Ten football, and then moved to New York with the intention of becoming a journalist. A few years in, tired of working freelance jobs, I helped start a fantasy sports company. I did a short, lovely stint in Rome. Then I went to business school at Stanford, where I decided that I wanted to write again, and managed to publish a few books (links?) before returning back to the sports media world at ESPN. I was thrilled to join Netflix on the international team, and spend my free time in Los Angeles biking and hiking up and down the Hollywood Hills and watching dramas from Scandinavia.

Yury

Grew up in Siberia. Have family in Ukraine, and spent summer vacations in an around Crimea lovely area, despite being a 5 day train ride from my home town. Both parents were university professors (mom in journalism, dad still teaches philosophy) who insisted on me playing the violin. I rebelled by learning to box and becoming an engineer. My little brother followed my footsteps, now working on big data in Mountain View. As a student, worked in road construction and as a Hebrew instructor. Came to the US in 1993 for college, where I also met my much smarter wife, who is now a Marketing professor. We have an 12 year old son, who is convinced he will become a professional tennis player, and a baby girl who is almost 2. After studying AI in grad school, did research for the US government, building tactical battleship simulators for the Navy and decision support systems for the Air Force. In the late 90s, got swept up by the startup bug, moving to the valley. I enjoy just about every sport there is, preferring tennis, skiing, lifting heavy things and taking naps

Dolores

Grew up in a small town in New Jersey youngest of five children...three boys and two girls. I spent my childhood summers at our beach house on the Jersey shore, walking the boardwalk and riding roller coasters...which eventually led to my college summers there waiting tables and a whole lot of sun tanning. I've always been pretty active danced ballet for fifteen years, played tennis through high school and college, now I mostly do yoga, spin or hiking in one of the nearby canyons. Went to undergrad at UMass Amherst studying Political Science, then went on to Rutgers for my Master's in Criminal Justice (which naturally would lead to a career in HR). I moved to Los Angeles in 2000 and haven't looked back since. I love to travel, and usually base my city selections on how close they are to a good wine tasting region. I'm severely leftbrained, leaving my only creative talent to be cooking. I pretend to paint and even have a few pieces hanging up in my house in Hollywood, where I live with this guy.

Allie

Grew up in a suburb of Phoenix. Childhood was filled with road trips, sports, cheerleading, watching loads of movies with my older brother, philanthropic work, and endless family gatherings. Parents were champions of education, cultural enrichment, and travel, so I spent summers studying abroad (Oxford and Malaga, Spain) which I loved and probably helped me to enjoy high school more than I would have otherwise. Traded one red state for another, attending SMU in Dallas. Still baffled as to how I ended up there, but enjoyed that too likely because I embraced the absurdity it offered. Escaped for one year to St. Andrews in Scotland. Studied English and Philosophy primarily because I love both, but also thought I'd go to law school. Spent a Summer interning at a firm in DC. Second day on the job I asked the partner I was working for if he thought the man he was defending for imprisoning his nanny was innocent. His response, "wrong question." My idealistic heart broke, decided law wasn't for me, and spent the rest of the summer working with the firm's pro bono attorney on asylum cases which was fascinating and rewarding. In 2006, chose to move to Los Angeles to pursue entertainment over New York for publishing. Very lucky choice. Landed at Netflix one month later as an assistant working on something called "electronic delivery." More luck, followed by a lot of work. Love traveling and exploring. Weekends are usually filled with being outdoors (hiking, the beach), movies (in theaters), music (can't sing, but love music), trying new restaurants (amatuer foodie), wine (all), reading (work and pleasure), photography (new hobby) and time with my urban family (collection of friends and source of sanity).

Jerret

Grew up in the Washington DC area (Fairfax, VA) most of my childhood. Father worked for the Dept. of Agriculture so spent a lot of time in rural Washington state before moving to DC. I've got a brother that is eight years younger than me. Our parents refuse to tell us which one was accidental. Before college (undergad degree from Washington State) I spent four months working concrete construction building The Korean War memorial in DC. Post undergrad, I went to work for one of the first digital advertising agencies in the world (Avenue A) and remember being really excited about landing the balls.com account. In 2001, I left for grad school (MBA from Thunderbird) and launched from advertising agency life preMBA to client side postMBA. My lucky break was being recruited to Xbox from Microsoft Corp shortly after the first generation Xbox console launched. I worked my way up to launching Halo 3 which has forever cast me as a hero among 919 year old males that grew up between 20002009. I'm married to Tiffanie who I've known since undergrad but only began dating after grad school. We live in Amsterdam (next door to the Hyman's) and have four children. Three daughters: Talia (9), Ellison (6), and Logan (3) and one son: Grant (15 months). College football, gym time, and MakeAWish Foundation are a few outlets outside of work and family.

Anthony

Grew up in the suburbs of sunny Phoenix with my strict parents (father was an electrical engineer, mother stayed at home). I worked a total of 3 hours at a Subway restaurant before getting fired (I summoned the courage to go back and pick up my $12.75 paycheck months later when times were tight), and I also worked for a while as a bagger at a grocery store and a light duty mechanic at a gas station. I had enough credits to graduate before starting my senior year in high school, so I was a TA for 2 hours in the computer lab my senior year (the minimum amount of high school you could attend), and I spent the rest of my time taking a few college courses and working parttime as a software engineer at a small company (my real passion since an early age). While working as a software engineer in the airline industry, I was required to always be within an hour of an airport (a gobag always packed in the trunk), and I flew all over the world on short notice helping airlines with decision support and flight planning software. I was way more passionate about professional software development than education, so it took me 8 years to finish my undergraduate degree in night school. After undergrad, I completed my MBA and M.Eng. degrees at Arizona State University (also night school). I met my wife Mary in high school, but we didn't date until years later. We were married in 2002 after her father refused to give me his blessing (he likes me now), and we have three children (ages 3, 8, 9). I enjoy photography and woodworking, and I'm not allowed to ride a motorcycle anymore after totaling mine last year.

David W

Grew up on a small farm in southeastern Virginia, complete with grandfather as farmer and plenty of animals. Parents both chemists, mother as public school teacher and administrator. Mother did not accept the quality of the other chemistry teacher so she taught me sophomore chemistry (my friends thought the fix was in ... little did they know she graded me harder.) Read a lot as a child. Played Defensive End/Tight End for high school football team. Majored in Literature and Business in college and rowed crew (long skinny boats). Worked as a business guy in nonprofit (vote monitoring); got MBA/Policy degree at U Chicago and went consulting to pay off grad school. Have a wonderful 8 year old daughter Hannah and wife Sonya. Currently live in Amsterdam as part of a stint for Netflix. Generally enjoy lots of hiking and sports outside.

JC

Growing up in a small village in northern France, I wanted to get off the village after high school. So I studied hard math and judo, competed at national levels. The math got me in business school and judo got me a black belt, so I was ready to experience Paris as a student for a few years. Then I decided to work in New York. Since my English was bad, I turned on the French accent to engage the discussion (ok, I admit I am actually not able to turn it off!). The banking experience came to an end as it was time to serve in the French military. As a lieutenant, I selected the French Riviera location. The warrior in me started to be softened by "la joie de vivre" in this southern part of France. So I decided to work for PwC Audit/Consulting there on a wide range of clients and projects for a few years. But the business environment became quickly depressing to me. So I transferred to the Netherlands and finally to San Francisco during the IPO boom of the late nineties. No surprise, I continue to like traveling, hiking, tasting great food and wine, practicing and following multiple sports.

Lisa

I grew up in Cupertino when there were still loads of orchards everywhere. As a kid I rode my BMX on the lot that eventually became 1 Infinity Loop. My family moved from Kobe, Japan to Northern CA in the 60's thanks to my father's Fulbright to Berkeley. My mother is a violinist and continues to teach Suzuki violin. Grew up Asian math class on Saturdays, mandatory violin & piano lessons. Bitter then, Grateful now. Grew up a tomboy, and petitioned to join the Boy Scouts (petition denied, citing the Girl Scout option). Played tennis, competed in gymnastics & ice skating. Can still throw a decent spiral. Have always loved music & film. Managed and booked bands through college and landed a gig at a small indie label. Lived in Japan distributing US music and films around the world. Came back Stateside to start an independent record company called Six Degrees Records in San Francisco. Headed east to live in NYC for 7 years as GM of Palm Pictures, Chris Blackwell's indie multimedia company. Netflix brought us back to the west coast in 2007 and we are loving the return to CA. My husband Greg is a creative director and artist manager at Atom Factory. We have one son, who was born at home 3 minutes after the midwife arrived! He's 4 ½ and his current passions include extreme weather, electrical components, pipe organ music and scaling furniture.

Kevin

I grew up in San Francisco/Marin County. Both of my parents are retired California public schools teachers. My parents had 3 sons and then a daughter, I'm the middle son. I played on the golf team in high school. Misc jobs before tech include little league umpire, lifeguard, dishwasher, waiter, and selling novelties at a flea market. I started in Civil Engineering at Cal Poly SLO but switched to Computer Science when I found that I loved it. I managed to date 3 different girls named Sandy at Cal Poly and I've been happily married to Sandy 3.0 for 26 years. We have 13 year old twins, Conor (son) and Kelly (daughter). We adopted our daughter Katrina (7) in Stavropol, Russia in 2008. Katrina is funny and smart but struggles with social skills and speech. We happily devote a lot of time to her. We have a home at Northstar. It is a retreat for us where we enjoy skiing and nearby Lake Tahoe. I have worked at Apple, Netscape, failed startups, and Netflix. I ran and raced recreationally for 20 years but I've slowed down due to back troubles. Otherwise I enjoy biking and surfing with my family. I have been keeping a dream journal since November and some of you are in it.

Josephine

I grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, like Tawni I'm from the Valley. I'm the younger of two sisters, and we were born with nearly identical sounding Chinese names that neither we, nor our Catholic school, knew how to appreciate. With goals of having western names and more separate identities, we chose two names that begin with "Jo" (accomplishing the former, not so much the latter). In elementary school, I was so painfully shy that teachers thought I couldn't speak English. Came out of my shell soon enough and was captain of my high school dance guard, won nationals and then world championships. I went to Dartmouth College and majored in cognitive science. While there I was director/choreographer of campus hip hop dance troupe. After college I worked at Comedy Central in NY, then went to law school at UC Berkeley. I worked at big law firms, focusing on tax and corporate law, then went in-house at NBCUniversal before arriving at Netflix. My husband, Michael, is also a lawyer and we got married on the beach in Hawaii. Love traveling, studied abroad in Barcelona, Hong Kong & Beijing, now living in Tokyo and soaking in the rich Japanese culture.

Kelly B

I grew up on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, the son of the local fire dept chief and a letter carrier (Canada Post). My father was locally famous for his ability to grow high grade marijuana. My grandfather is 1/2 native indian (West Coast Salish tribe not as cool as Cherokee or Iroquois) so spent part of my youth living on the Reservation. I am a direct descendant of a man called Si'ahl whose Anglican name was Sealth and is best known as Chief Seattle. Yes, my family used to own Seattle until the US gov't took it, albeit peacefully. Left home at 16 and worked odd jobs to pay for school including commercial fisherman (Salmon in the Queen Charlotte Islands), extra on XFiles, produce clerk (graveyard shift) etc. Lived in the UK for 13 years and also spent 2 years (not sequentially) in Australia and South Pacific. I have 3 children who were all born at home in our living room (yes, intentionally) in the UK. I play hockey to vent my aggression and also play the guitar and the trombone badly. I am a 2x failed entrepreneur and I wish I could draw better.

Steve

I grew up pretty much all over the country, moving 13 times before the 9th grade and always being both the new kid, and the only one with an afro. (Before you ask, no I was not part of a military family, I just had two parents that shouldn't have been married to each other, but kept trying any way :). I'm kinda the only child (long story I'll tell you over lunch) and my best friends growing up were John Hughes movies, classic horror films, cheesey SciFi, and any action flick with clever one liners like "Yippie kiyay (you know the rest)." I'm a musician, club DJ, ad go to about 1520 concerts a year (hence the constant ear ringing, but so worth it). I'm a transportation junkie (planes, trains, rockets & automobiles) and consider myself to be a social anthropologist and pop culture aficionado. I'm deeply interested in people, their passions, and what combination of ingredients motivates and excites them to make decisions every day. My truest passion in life is my family. I have one wife, Veronika "with a K" (it's a Hungarian thing), who I met in Guitar Showcase in Bascom Ave 20 years ago; one son, Bryce, who is a much better version of me, and a cat, Gilligan, who is currently preventing us from getting Bryce a puppy.

Hilary

I was born and raised in Northcentral Wisconsin by an English college professor mother and a corporate lawyer father. I have a brother who is a freelance TV writer, improv comedian, and seriously dedicated Burner, and we can't quite believe we have the same parents. I fled Wisconsin as soon as I turned 18 and went to Wellesley for undergrad. I decided I wanted to take a break before Harvard Law School, so I got a master's in education from Harvard. I was a high school guidance counselor while obtaining my master's degree and I find the skill set of litigating and dealing with truculent adolescents has remarkable overlap. I clerked for a federal judge in Miami and lived in South Beach, which is not a bad way to have a clerkship, and then moved to San Francisco, where after 6 years litigating at a big firm and 7 years managing litigation inhouse at Google I joined Netflix. I share custody of my three kids, Nicholas and Eva, who are 10, and Theo, who is 8. My partner Sharon also has boygirl twins, Kennedy and Chase, who are 12, and a daughter, Chandler, who is 10. That is a lot of shoes, eye rolls, and knock knock jokes. In my essentially nonexistent spare time I love to rock climb and I make it to the big walls in Yosemite annually to scare the crap out of myself.

Vincent

I was born and raised in Southern France. I come from a bloodline of teachers 4 generations, my younger sister is also a teacher, I am the only exception. My first memories are from Morocco where we moved shortly after my sister was born. Back in France, we settled in a very small provencal village where I spent a happy childhood. We were living in apartments right above the school. I wrote small educational software my mother used with her class. They were stored on tape, stereo tracks: one track for the program, one track for the voice instructions I enlisted my sister to record... After working a few years in Italy and France, I went on to Turkey to create and run a software development centre. Istanbul is by far my favorite city in the world, and not only because our first child, Ambroise was born there. I cannot say the same of Amsterdam, Netherlands, the birth city of Philomène, our daughter: the humid weather and low luminosity got us... Then my entrepreneur years... Read the Paradox of Choice and decided I could solve it for a very niche segment: educational computer games. Created a company, licensed CDRom Flash games and put them online with a recommendation system. Deployed it in France, Norway, Poland and China. Not a huge success but enough to become profitable and finance a pivot to video. Failed to convince VOD services in Europe to use recommendation before Netflix comes... We came on family holidays to California in the Spring of 2013. I met with a few companies out of curiosity. Met Netflix... got an offer. 3 months later I relocated my whole family here.. Isabelle and the kids (now 9 and 11 y.o) are happily enjoying the Californian lifestyle. We love ocean waves in summer and spend a lot of time on the ski slopes in winter.

Shauna

I was born in California and shortly after my 5th birthday, my mom and I set off for Texas. She married my now stepfather, both of whom were journalists: an international correspondent and CBS Bureau Chief respectively. My weekends growing up consisted of sailing, fishing and rock hounding (yes it's a thing). We moved to London when I was in high school and that's where I found my love for Pims, fryups, and hobnobs. In high school, I lived for Model UN and the debate team. My father and stepmother have always lived in Los Gatos and every fall I work at our family's organic apple orchard in Watsonville. Before becoming an organic farmer, my dad was an auctioneer...so if you are curious where my extensive talking gene comes from, there you have it! I graduated from Boston University and during a year abroad in Sydney, I found my passion for entertainment marketing. I worked at Fox on theatrical releases like Moulin Rouge, Ice Age and Planet of the Apes and never dreamed a job could be that fun. I had short stints at Viacom Outdoor in London, CAA, and Warner Bros. Television before joining Netflix in 2005. I married a handsome British bloke named Mike and we have now have 3 gorgeous and crazy kids Katherine (7), Ava (5) and Jack (2). We spend our weekends at the beach or driving kids to various playdates and games. 3 fun facts: In my youth, I was a competitive figure skater. I believe I am the only person to work in 3 Netflix departments (Content, Product and Marketing). I always carry an emergency supply of snacks, crayons and hot wheels in my purse.

Bryan

I was born in Southern California but grew up in San Jose, not far from the Netflix office. Two siblings: younger sister and younger brother, each of us four years apart. I'm not sure if my parents were planning ahead and just didn't want two kids in college at the same time, but I ruined it by spending 5 years at Berkeley. I think I enjoyed everything outside of the classroom too much to bother with a heavy course load (plus tuition was really cheap back then, so hey, why not stay?). After a short stint living in the City and working for Arthur Andersen, I headed back down to Southern California to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. Prior to Netflix, I spent most of my career on the finance side of the business pretending to be an accountant (I never got my CPA) then after a few years running finance for ABC Studios, I took a role in business affairs pretending to be a lawyer (never went to law school). In addition to Disney, I spent time at a couple other big studios (Warner Bros and Universal) as well as two smaller production companies (Intermedia Films and Mike's Ovitz's shortlived Artists Television Group). I'm an avid snowboarder, so I am thankful the drought is near an end. I just learned that I have the following things in common with my fellow estaffers: like David Wells, I rowed crew; like Peter, I love maps; and, like Dolores, I'm currently living in Hollywood with this guy.

Louisa

I'm a Southern Cal girl, who lives in Studio City with my husband and two daughters (almost 2 and 5 years old). I spent my early childhood in Singapore, where after having to test into the 1st grade and take finals in Math, English, and Chinese as a 6 year old public school in California was a blast. I spent the rest of my childhood dancing ballet, playing outside with the kids in the neighborhood, and reading lots of books. I ended up going to college really early because I wanted more time to dance ballet, but that was goal that died a natural death when I was 15 and got too large to be a ballerina. While I was under 17, I was an undergrad research assistant in a social psychology lab studying risky sexual behavior and the impact of cultural norms on populations like African Americans and gay men. I had to get signed legal releases from my parents to do that research. I met my husband when I was 21, started dating him when I was 23, but we didn't get married until I was 31.

Eric

Like most Boston mutts, I'm half Irish, half Italian. My Irish mother learned to cook from my Italian grandmother and passed it on to me. Come over for carbonara! I'm third out of four kids. Dad got fired from insurance sales but went on to write 80 children's books and speaks in front of elementary kids all over the country. He would take us out of school to travel with him and that's how I got to see the real America. My favorite children's book is Two Bad Ants, which is about two ants that stray from the line and get themselves into all sorts of trouble. Read into that how you like. First job was harvesting seaweed in Scituate, MA, where I spent the summers. I had ten lobster traps, and believe it or not my buoy colors were orange and black. I know anything you'd ever want to know about crustaceans. Just ask me to show you the Virgin Mary hidden in a lobster's guts sometime. My Dad made me go to BC High. Before then I was a fat kid, and the Jesuits taught me discipline. I translated the Odyssey from Greek, and I was particularly good at rugby. I played a position called "hooker." 8 years, 3 broken noses, 2 separated shoulders, and one fractured orbital later, I was MVP at Georgetown. Majored in management, but my favorite class was Spanish and I studied abroad in Santiago, Chile. Moved to LA four days after graduation. My parents say I ran away, but I just wanted to explore the West coast. Took the first job offer I could get working as an assistant in talent publicity for PMK. Worked my way into brand comms and then started a social media practice in 2009. Everyone thought I was nuts coming to Netflix, so I knew it was the right choice. I'm a pretty good painter but it's hard to find the time. I live with my partner of 8 years, Justin, in a midcentury in Studio City. Ancora Imparo.

Zoe

My life is a blend of fabulous contrasts. I was born and raised in London, until my parents relocated me, my brother and sister to Dorset (South Coast, UK). I have never felt quite right outside of a city. But I always miss the ocean. (I mean, Los Angeles was a nobrainer for me.) My father's family is from Poland, my mother's was from Iraq I love everything spicy and can eat anything pickled. I have spent years practicing kickboxing, but I hate violence. I went to University to study Psychology because I wanted to understand people better. And then a few years later I went back to study photography because, at the time, I wanted to look at them more. Outside of my career in research and marketing, I have been busy. Or experimental. Or, when it came to the waitressing gig, just desperate. I have worked in cinemas, theatres and galleries (best student job, ever); behind a bar (I pull a great pint); as a waitress dressed as a clown (yes, it was as horrible as it sounds); as a henna tattoo artist (find me some henna, I'll do you a tattoo); as a celebrity photographer's assistant (Sir Ben Kingsley left a lasting impression); as a setdresser on various film productions (glorified painter and decorating when you see how clumsy I am, you'll realise how ridiculous this actually was); in telesales (I was fired after a recordbreaking 4 minutes); in an orphanage in South Africa (the kids stole my heart). I love so many things about living in the US, but I will add a 'u' to words, rearrange r's and e's and change a 'z' for an 's'. Take the girl out of England, but you can't take England out of the girl. I am thrilled to be joining the team at Netflix. My husband and stepdaughter are so excited for me. And the dog did cartwheels when I told her.

Tony

While I grew up and did my undergrad in Paris, I have international roots and background. I inherited my (very) complicated and (12 letters!) long last name from my Polish grandfather who emigrated after the war from Poland to Venezuela where my dad was born. They moved to Paris when my dad was a child and he met my mum who is French when he was in high school. These past ten years, my wife and I lived in four different countries. I did my MBA between Chicago and Hong Kong at Kellogg. We now live in hot and humid Singapore with our two daughters Maya (6) and Anna (4) who study at the American School. Pretty much everyone in my family was working in the entertainment industry. From my grandfather who established the first Jazz festival in France to my parents who initially ran a specialized music industry magazine (think the French equivalent of Billboard magazinware), and later moved into the TV industry producing and distributing TV shows and documentaries. After graduating from business school, I decided to maintain the family tradition of working in media by joining AOL Time Warner in 2000 (the year of the famous merger). After six years at TimeWarner licensing programming to TV networks, I joined Google in London in 2006 as one of the first YouTube employees to work outside of the United States. I had the difficult task of convincing media companies to work with us while YouTube was seen as public enemy number one at that time. Our meetings were sometimes quite tense... Rather than meeting with business people, I often found myself face to face with lawyers... I spent almost 9 years at Google based in London, Paris, Hong Kong and then Singapore. Prior to joining Netflix, I was running the international business of a Kleiner Perkinsbacked startup founded by former Google and YouTube execs called Victorious. Outside of work, I enjoy writing. I released my first book (sorry it is in French) at the end of last year. I love running and I just started practicing Thai Boxing (getting new injuries every single time I exercise). Being in Asia, I love to discover those nice countries surrounding Singapore together with my family and practice scuba diving with my wife