Women are often looked down upon and considered inferior, especially in the African continent, but some women have gone beyond those stereotypes and even decided to break the cycle. It has been a different story with Dorothy Ghettuba who against all the odds became Netflix’s Head of African Original Programming.
Born and raised in Kenya, Ghettuba studied communications and political science at Andrews University in Michigan, USA. Ghettuba claims that her original passion was acting, but when she was not selected for roles, she would turn to the production side of filmmaking. She once worked at a venture capital firm in Canada and later quit the job to pursue her passion for filmmaking.
She later joined a local TV show as a producer before moving on to establish Spielworks Media. She is the owner of Spielworks Media and was launched in 2009. Spielworks Media became the local entertainment production and content creation company for television and digital platforms operating in East and Central Africa. She claims that her dream is to turn the company into an African version of the United States motion picture studio.
Ghettuba is also the co-founder of Keja TV, a social media channel on Facebook and YouTube and is dedicated to developing creative talent and quality talent and as such she has scooped so many accolades for television shows, web shows and movies. Some of the films that she has produced are Lies that Bind, Saints and Higher Learning.
With its growing audience, the African film industry could be up for something massive as she remarked that, “We want to have this global catalogue so that all our members can watch our shows at the same time.
That’s why originals are very, very important to us. Our ultimate aim is that we want to be the home of the best-in-class African stories. We want you to know that if you’re looking for the best African stories, then you will find them on Netflix. We are going to expand heavily to ensure that goal is met.”
As the adage goes, the sky is the limit, the film guru landed a job at Netflix as manager international originals in March 2019 and was also appointed by the Kenyan government as chairperson Kenya Film Commission Board.
The pandemic (Covid-19) has brought a massive influx of new subscribers to Netflix, hence the need for more and unique content. As Head of African Original Programming, she is cultivating African stories to release on Netflix’s large, global platform.
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