Obamas’ Higher Ground to go independent after eight years with Netflix

Higher Ground, the production company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama in 2018, is moving toward independence after an eight-year run with Netflix, signaling a broader reset in how elite talent deals work as streamers become more selective and creators chase more control.

Barack Obama said at HISTORYTalks in Philadelphia on April 19, 2026, that the company was “in the process now of transitioning to a more independent [company] where we can work with a bunch of different studios.” The move gives Higher Ground room to keep collaborating with Netflix on existing projects while pursuing new partnerships elsewhere, a structure that is increasingly attractive for producers seeking better ownership terms and more distribution leverage.

The original Netflix agreement, announced on May 21, 2018, was designed as a multi-year partnership to produce films and series across scripted, unscripted, documentary, docu-series and feature formats. Netflix said the projects would be available to its 125 million members in 190 countries, putting the Obamas’ company inside one of the largest distribution engines in entertainment at a moment when streaming platforms were racing to lock up marquee names.

Higher Ground quickly delivered. American Factory, its first release, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2020, and the slate that followed included Becoming, Crip Camp, Rustin, American Symphony, Working: What We Do All Day and Bodkin. In June 2024, Netflix said it had extended the creative partnership after Leave the World Behind became the streamer’s most-watched film in the second half of 2023 and Bodkin entered Netflix’s global Top 10 weekly list.

The timing reflects a changing economics of prestige content. The era of giant streaming-output deals, when platforms used long, expensive partnerships to stock libraries and burnish brands, has given way to a tougher market that rewards flexibility, selective greenlights and more portable intellectual property. Higher Ground has already started to test that model: in December 2024, Merry Ex-Mas with 20th Century Studios became the company’s first project outside the Netflix arrangement.

With Priya Swaminathan and Tonia Davis helping steer the company, Higher Ground is no longer operating as a one-streamer shop. For Netflix, the departure ends one of the most visible celebrity partnerships in streaming. For Higher Ground, it opens the door to a more traditional studio-by-studio strategy, one better suited to a business where prestige alone no longer guarantees scale.