EXCLUSIVE: Jinny Howe, Netflix‘s Head of UCAN (U.S.-Canada) Scripted Series, is introducing a new structure to the division she has overseen for almost 14 months. The changes include breaking the teams into genre-specific pods, Cole Galvin being elevated from Director to VP and Neil Thomas to Director.
The reorg had been in the works for awhile, way before the layoffs last Wednesday that impacted 1,000 across Netflix, including several director and manager-level executives in the scripted series operation, and the major Netflix executive shakeup the following day, which saw Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria exiting, replaced by Peter Rice.
Changes of that caliber often have a ripple effect, with the attention quickly focusing on two of Bajaria’s direct reports, Howe and Netflix Head of Film Dan Lin. As Deadline reported on the day of the Bajaria-Rice switch, a Lin exit was likely, one by Howe was not.
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Lin was ousted over the weekend, while Howe’s move to restructure her division is further confirmation that she is staying on, along with her stepping up over the weekend to nab The Apology, a hot series project starring Gwyneth Paltrow, with a two-season order. Rice is said to have spoken with Howe about working together.
A rising executive at Netflix where she has had four promotions since joining the company in 2018 as VP, Drama Series, Howe has shepherded seven series that have landed on Netflix’s Most Popular English series list. She manages the largest market in Netflix’s global business, driving roughly 35% of overall revenue and about 50 greenlights this year.
Howe had not reorganized the UCAN Scripted Series operations since she took over at the end of August 2025 following the departure of Peter Friedlander. The goal for the new structure is to provide more depth and curation in specific lanes instead of spreading attention across every lane at once, better match of material to executives with expertise in a space and strong relationships with those creators, and better specialization.
The team overseeing all drama (except prestige fare), which has been overseen by VP, Drama Development Michael Azzolino since January 2025, will be split into two areas led by Azzolino and Cole Galvin, who both will report to Howe.
Drama, Thriller, & YA, run by Galvin, is targeting co-viewing adult audience with a female skew. It will focus on sophisticated relationship dramas (family, friendship, workplace), propulsive mystery/thrillers (The Apology, God of the Woods, His & Hers), YA/early adult and romance (Lovesick, Calabasas, Poser). Part of the team and reporting to Galvin is former Media Res President of Scripted Lindsey Springer, who joined Netflix in August.
Genre, Action, & Crime, run by Azzolino, is targeting co-viewing adult audience with a male skew. It will focus on action, adventure, sci-fi, world-building, horror, Westerns, spy dramas, and crime. Continuing to report to Azzolino and part of his pod are the tentpole/IP team led by Teddy Biaselli, who was promoted to VP last November, and Carrie Gillogly (Director, Drama Development) who will be shepherding muscular programming that does not fall into Biaselli’s purview.
The lanes under Netflix’s VP, Comedy Tracey Pakosta, who continues as head of the department reporting to Howe, will be led by her existing team members: Brooke Kessler (Director, Comedy), who is in charge of the Commercial Comedy strategy, creating big, entertainment-forward, broadly appealing content for large audiences (Nobody Wants This, Running Point, Tires); and Andrea Alvarado (Director, Comedy), overseeing the Auteur-Driven strategy, curating comedy IP and creating more risk-forward, unique, award-focused content. Continuing in their existing roles on Pakosta’s team are Robbie Praw (VP, Stand-up Comedy), who leads Stand-up Comedy and the newly formed Netflix Is a Joke Studio, a mini studio/incubator working across formats with comedian talent in-house, and Billy Wee (Director, Comedy), who continues to lead Adult Animation.
The team led by Nne Ebong (VP, Studio Scripted Series), which manages talent deals and titles, reporting to Howe, will continue to focus on self-generating, ground-up, early stage development on shows that are not actively coming in through the open marketplace (The Decorator, The Understudy). Neil Thomas, who joined Netflix in 2023, has been promoted to Director, Studio Scripted Series.
Renate Radford (VP, Current Scripted Series) will continue to lead current programming, and Nora Skinner (VP, Specialty Scripted Series) will continue to be in charge of Specialty, which is elevated, prestige series.
The seven series Howe has steered onto Netflix’s Most Popular list are I Will Find You, His & Hers, The Night Agent, Bridgerton S1, Inventing Anna, Maid, and Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. Out of Netflix’s 111 Emmy nominations this year, 83 of them came from the scripted series and variety specials on her slate.
Howe also has been aggressive in securring competitive packages, winning the bidding for such projects as The Corrections (Meryl Streep) and Hancock Park (Regé-Jean Page).
2026 has been challenging for Netflix, with global viewership rising 2% for the first half of the year, raising Wall Street concerns over slowing engagement growth. The bright spots out of the UCAN division include I Will Find You, the year’s biggest original series debut and #5 Most Popular English TV series, surprise breakout His & Hers, which made an appearance on the Most Popular List; Bridgerton Season 4 with 100M views in six months; and The Diplomat, which just returned for a very well-received fourth season.
Coming up are Scooby-Doo: Origins; Kennedy, starring Michael Fassbender; Rabbit, Rabbit, headlined by Adam Driver; The Roman, executive produced by Martin Scorsese and starring Oscar Isaac; The Age of Innocence; The God of the Woods; Langdon; Assassin’s Creed; The Watcher, and Untamed Season 2.
Galvin has been at Netflix since late 2017 when he joined as Manager. He was promoted to Director of Original Series in June 2019.
During his tenure, Galvin developed one of Netflix’s biggest YA series Ginny & Georgia. He also has been involved in the English-language adaptations of Harlan Coben’s novels, from the 2020 The Stranger to this year’s I Will Find You. Other recent series he worked on include East of Eden and The Beast In Me.
