Sebastian Gibbs Returns to Netflix as Director, Original Series
Sebastian Gibbs is heading back to Netflix. He starts 17 August as Director, Original Series, covering IP and tentpole franchises — the big, brand-driven titles a platform builds its slate around — and reporting to VP, Scripted Series Teddy Biaselli, Deadline reports.
Gibbs is arriving from Amazon MGM Studios, where he spent the past four years as a Senior Television Development Executive. Before that, he held the same title at Netflix — Director, Original Series — for two and a half years, overseeing drama and what the industry calls four-quadrant programming: shows aimed simultaneously at men and women, young and old. He left for Amazon in July 2022.
So this is a return, not a fresh hire, and it lands at a moment when talent is flowing in both directions between the two companies. Netflix's Peter Friedlander became Head of Global TV for Amazon MGM Studios in September 2025 and has since brought in other Netflix alumni for key posts, according to Deadline. Gibbs is now making the trip back the other way.
His résumé spans 15 years and several of the most-watched titles in recent streaming. Across different roles he oversaw development or current programming — the ongoing management of a series after it is ordered — on Ozark, The Diplomat, The Outsider, The Great and Scarpetta. Earlier he was VP, Television and then SVP, Current Programming at MRC, and before that Director, Current Programming at CBS. MRC hired him into its television unit in February 2017, Deadline reported at the time.
What makes the move worth watching is the brief. Netflix is leaning hard into established IP and franchise titles — series that come with built-in audiences and can anchor a global release calendar. Gibbs's new role puts him in the middle of that push, working under Biaselli in the scripted chain of command.
For the writers' rooms and crews attached to those projects, a development executive's arrival can shift what gets greenlit, what gets a second season and what quietly fades. Gibbs has a track record of shepherding shows through the full production cycle, from script to screen. Where he points that experience next will become clear as Netflix fills out its upcoming slate.
