Creator Of The Year Television: Kenya Barris

After shaking up television with hit shows Black-ish and spinoff Grown-ish, hes left broadcast for a lucrative deal to do it all over againthis time on Netflix.

- Jason Lynch

SOME TELEVISION creators depend on large doses of caffeine, sugar or pharmaceuticals to help them do their jobs. Kenya Barris takes a different approach. “I’m one of those guys who is fueled by my fear,” says Barris, who created ABC’s Black-ish and its hit spinoff, Freeform’s Grown-ish. He is going to have plenty of that fuel to draw on, now that he has departed longtime home ABC Studios and signed a lucrative new deal with Netflix, which could be worth as much as $100 million. “It’s very daunting,” Barris says. “The notion of leaving somewhere that I was really comfortable and going somewhere that puts this much trust in me makes me feel like … I want to be really successful.”