Ted Sarandos

Theodore Anthony Sarandos Jr., (born July 30, 1964) is an American media executive who has been the co-chief executive officer (co-CEO) of Netflix since 2020.

Early life and education Sarandos was born on July 30, 1964, in Long Branch, New Jersey. He grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, with his parents and four siblings. His father, Theodore Sarandos Sr., was an electrician, and his mother was a homemaker. His grandfather, Alex Karyotakis, migrated to the United States from the Greek island of Samos and changed his name to Sarandos.

As a child, he spent hours watching television shows like Happy Days, I Love Lucy, While writing for his high school newspaper, Sarandos met and interviewed the actor Ed Asner, who was in Phoenix for a local Screen Actors Guild meeting. Asner, then in the height of his Lou Grant period, introduced Sarandos to others in the entertainment industry for further interviews and connected his interests in entertainment, politics, and journalism.

Sarandos was educated at Alhambra High School in Phoenix and attended Glendale Community College in Glendale, Arizona, for two years before dropping out. While at West Coast Video, he was responsible for negotiating revenue deals to migrate the company from the VHS format into the DVD format. He serves as its co-chief executive officer. Before that, he was the company's chief content officer, overseeing Netflix's original programming and entertainment efforts.

Sarandos was responsible for initiating the first round of original programming at Netflix, starting with Lilyhammer, and then continuing with the breakout David Fincher series starring Kevin Spacey, House of Cards. Sarandos sees the focus as being on subscriber growth as a reflection of revenue health over ratings. This has since changed, when Netflix decided to initiate an Ad-Supported model, which allows users to pay a lower price but have to view advertisements on their account.

Sarandos was also instrumental in Netflix going the route of dropping all of a season's episodes at once, calling it "a super-practical decision". He explained that Netflix had been seeing its users' viewing habits, saying people watched a varied number of episodes but that "nobody watched one." This all-at-once choice made front-page news in The New York Times, with an article titled, "New Way to Deliver a Drama: All 13 Episodes in One Sitting." Following the successful release of House of Cards, Sarandos expanded upon the way Netflix would release shows, saying, "It was not meant to be the template. It was just, Let’s see how people watch it." During a session at the 2015 Aspen Ideas Festival, Sarandos referred to the new program schedule as “The New Golden Age of Television.” to predict what programs viewers will want to watch prior to producing them. He also said that the focus is on the audience, and that there is no programming grid – or appointment linear-based television – that is typically used by traditional TV networks. Barometers of success are whether the audience completes watching the show, the timeframe within which they finish watching a series, and whether there is attention from critics and fans. Sarandos said that the preference is for a show to run for multiple seasons and build a fan base.

Sarandos has been outspoken about discarding or not holding important traditional network models. He describes the broadcast TV model as archaic. Sarandos said he sees the new model as a way to prioritize the needs and desires of the consumer. International reach and long tail, niche appeal is also an important part of the business model. The spend is typically a large upfront payment, with no back-end fees to talent and creators, especially of original Netflix-owned content. Sarandos said he sees the Netflix brand as being based on personalization, that it was a deliberate choice on the part of Netflix to focus on providing diverse content that would appeal to the tastes of a broad base of viewers – one that would not be focused on a marquee show that Netflix would be known for, but quality shows that would appeal to different audiences.

Co-CEO of Netflix

In 2020, Netflix announced Sarandos as its co-chief executive officer and member of the company's board of directors. On January 19, 2023, Hastings stepped down as co-CEO to become Executive Chairman. Greg Peters was named co-CEO alongside Sarandos.

In 2021, Netflix faced controversy after the release of comedian Dave Chappelle's stand-up special, The Closer, which contained transphobic jokes that offended both LGBTQ activists and Netflix employees. An internal memo from Sarandos argued the special did not incite hate or violence. Days later, he sent a second email, saying: “We have a strong belief that content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.” In response, the trans employee resource group (ERG) at Netflix planned a company-wide walkout. Sarandos later admitted to Deadline that he "screwed up the internal communication" and acknowledged that some employees were "hurting very badly from the decision made." Variety called the entire incident a "rare blunder for Sarandos and Netflix".

In February 2026, Sarandos spoke before the United States Senate during a hearing about Netflix's proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO. He went before the Judiciary subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, where Republicans critiqued Netflix's "overwhelming woke" programming, calling the streamer politically biased. Sarandos responded, saying, "Netflix has no political agenda of any kind," and that Netflix has "a great deal of programming on Netflix for all, left, right and center". Sarandos also visited the White House regarding both Netflix's proposal to acquire Warner Bros. and President Donald Trump’s demand that the company fire board member Susan Rice, a former adviser for the Biden administration. Sarandos had met privately with Trump in November. However, Sarandos never met with Trump or any White House officials during the February trip, according to Axios. The meeting was reportedly "canceled because of a last-minute scheduling conflict". Some speculated that this led Netflix to drop out of the bidding war for Warner Bros., but Sarandos told Bloomberg that Netflix has already decided not to up its bid.

Board and advisory work Sarandos is a member of several boards, including: Exploring The Arts, Board of Trustees, American Cinematheque, Board member, American Film Institute, Board of Trustees, Peabody Awards, Board of Directors, Spotify, Board of Directors, and Paley Center for Media - Board of Trustees. He has also served on the Film Advisory Board for the Tribeca Festival and the Los Angeles Film Festival. with whom he had two children: film producer Sarah Sarandos and film editor Anthony Sarandos. after previously living in Avant's home town of Beverly Hills, California. In 2013, the couple purchased a beach house formerly owned by David Spade in Malibu, California. Sarandos is Catholic.

Honors and awards 2008: Aspen Institute – Henry Crown Fellow 2013: Time – Time 100 2014: Simon Wiesenthal Center – Humanitarian Award 2015: International Documentary Association – Pioneer Award 2015: International Cinematographers Guild (ICG) Publicists Awards – Television Showman of the Year Award 2015: National Association of Television Program Executives – Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award 2017: SAG-AFTRA – Patron of the Artists Award The Harvard Lampoon – Honorary Member 2020: Producers Guild of America – Milestone Award 2022: Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity – Entertainment Person of the Year 2024: Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire