Tara Woodbury: Last News

Netflix’s top commissioners in Canada have said “the last thing we want to do is come here and upend the market.”

In May 2020, two months into the production shutdown caused by the global pandemic, NBC acquired Canadian medical drama Transplant, which landed on the network’s Covid-impacted fall schedule. In December of that year, NBC picked up Season 2 of the show.

Amber Dowling Netflix, APTN and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation have commissioned a new comedy series created and written by Inuit television writer-producer Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Inuit filmmaker Alethea Arnaquq-Baril. The untitled project will film in Nunavut and revolves around a young Inuk mother who wants to build a new future for herself. The problem? It won’t be easy in her small Arctic town where everyone knows everybody else’s business. MacDonald and Arnaquq-Baril also serve as executive producers on the series under their Red Marrow Media banner alongside Miranda de Pencier (“Anne With an E”) of Northwood Entertainment, Susan Coyne (“Daisy Jones & The Six”) and Garry Campbell (“The Kids in the Hall”).

Manori Ravindran International EditorNetflix Canada is open for business, and they don’t need to wait around for their American colleagues to move forward on green lights.That message was loud and clear at the Banff World Media Festival, where the streaming service has  been at the heart of several tense conversations around the country’s rumbling drive to regulate digital platforms.While the three Netflix executives on stage Wednesday didn’t directly address the ongoing regulation drive in the background, what’s abundantly clear is that they’re getting ahead of regulation and pre-emptively moving forward on Canadian originals — before their hand is forced.The panel featured Winnipeg native Tara Woodbury, manager for Canadian series; Danielle Woodrow, director of Canadian series; and Peter Friedlander, head of scripted series for the U.S. and Canada, who was moderating the session.

Jamie Lang Netflix has appointed Tara Woodbury as the company’s first content executive in Canada. Working from the company’s Toronto offices, the “Transplant” executive producer is charged with commissioning and developing English- and French-language scripted content for the streamer.

By Joe Otterson