Chanel Pysnik Leaves Archewell Productions

Chanel Pysnik is leaving Archewell Productions, where she was Head of Nonfiction, Film & TV. Deadline reported the exit as an exclusive on 3 November 2026.

No immediate replacement has been named for her role. Pysnik spent five and a half years at the company, which she joined in May 2021.

Her job was to oversee nonfiction series and documentary films. Nonfiction means factual programmes, the shows that follow real people and real events rather than scripted drama. When she arrived, her title was Head of Unscripted, according to Deadline's 2021 report on her appointment. The job title changed over the years, but the work stayed in the same area.

Her time at Archewell included a high-profile project. Pysnik was an executive producer on Harry & Meghan, the Archewell documentary series that Deadline says became Netflix's most-viewed documentary premiere. An executive producer is the senior person who oversees a show's budget and direction, even when someone else runs the day-to-day filming.

Archewell has a first-look deal with Netflix. That means the streaming service gets the first chance to consider the company's new projects before they are offered elsewhere. Netflix is the platform that carries the company's shows, so any change in the nonfiction team can matter to what gets pitched there next.

Before joining Archewell, Pysnik worked as a nonfiction executive at Disney+ and CNN. Executives in that role decide which factual projects are developed, which are paid for, and which are dropped.

For the people who make these shows, a leadership change is rarely a single event. Editors, researchers, camera operators and producers all rely on decisions made at the top about which projects keep moving. Nothing in the announcement changes what is already available to watch. What happens next for any project in development has not been announced.