‘Black-ish’ Creator Kenya Barris Inks $100M Netflix Deal

On Thursday, Netflix formally announced signing Kenya Barris, the creator of Black-ish and the spinoff series Grown-ish, to a $100 million, multiyear TV deal.

 According to Variety, he will be creating new series exclusively for Netflix but will remain as the executive producer on Black-ish, Grown-ish and the upcoming show, Besties. The agreement will not include movies as Barris, who was a writer for Girls Trip, has a first-look deal with FOX.

“Kenya Barris is one of our great modern storytellers,” said Cindy Holland, vice president of original content at Netflix. “Kenya uses his voice to make audiences more aware of the world around them, while simultaneously making them laugh. His honesty, comedic brilliance and singular point of view, combined with the creative freedom he will enjoy at Netflix, promises to create powerful new stories for all our members around the world.”

Barris is the latest Hollywood producer to join the streaming platform including Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy. He left ABC Studios last month after it was rumored their relationship strained over the “Please, Baby, Please” episode of Black-ish was shelved due to the nature of how it covered President Donald Trump and the NFL anthem protests.