Netflix TV Layoffs Claim Original Series Director Carolina Garcia After 10 Years

By Marcus Bennett

Netflix has let go Carolina Garcia, director of original series, after ten years with the streamer — the most senior TV programming name to exit in a round of layoffs affecting roughly 1,000 employees, about 6% of the company's workforce.

Garcia had held the director of original series title since 2016. Before Netflix, she began her career at 20th Century Fox TV as senior executive assistant to Dana Walden.

Her portfolio at Netflix was substantial. She oversaw deals with the Duffer Brothers, Brian Yorkey, Jennifer Lopez's Nuyorican Productions, Archewell, Shawn Levy's 21 Laps, Mara Brock Akil and Marti Noxon. Her slate of shows included "Stranger Things," "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" and "Atypical."

Who else is leaving the TV side?

Four other executives on the TV development and production side are departing:

• Lisa Lang McMullen, director, overall deals, series — joined Netflix in 2021 in drama series development, promoted in 2023; previously 11 years at Walt Disney Television, most recently vice president of creative at ABC Signature Studios, and six years at Warner Bros. TV as VP of comedy development.
• Andrew McQuinn, director, original series — at Netflix since 2018; worked on "Griselda," "American Primeval," "The Residence," "Zero Day" and "Vikings: Valhalla"; previously at ABC Signature.
• James Oh, director, original drama series — joined in 2021; earlier spent five years as senior VP of Jerry Bruckheimer TV and 18 years at Fox, where he was senior VP of drama development and series.
• Jason Pan, manager, original series creative development — seven years at Netflix, joining in 2019 as creative assistant and promoted in 2021; prior stops at WME, Amazon Studios and Atomic Monster.

Netflix declined to comment on the departures.

What does this change for Netflix programming?

The cuts were not supposed to land here. Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said the layoffs would hit product, technology, legal and HR teams hardest. Programming, however, proved not immune. On the film side, the streamer has also let go film VP Doug Belgrad.

What does this change for the streamer's creative pipeline? The departures remove long-tenured executives who managed relationships with some of Netflix's most productive suppliers, including the team behind "Stranger Things" and Shawn Levy's 21 Laps. Whether their rosters transfer to remaining staff or those deals feel the disruption, Netflix has not said.

The company's silence — it declined to comment — leaves the scale of the programming impact unclear. But the pattern is plain: no department, including the one that builds the slate, has been spared.

The executives' combined tenure totals decades of institutional knowledge: Garcia's decade, Oh's 18 pre-Netflix years at Fox, Lang McMullen's 11 at Disney, McQuinn's seven at Netflix. Rebuilding that network of creator relationships will fall to whoever remains.

For now, the streamer continues its restructuring with roughly 6% of staff gone, and the creative ranks thinner than they were last week.