Tendo Nagenda

Tendo Nagenda (born 1975) is an American film producer and former studio executive, described as "one of the most high-profile black film executives."^[1][2]

Tendo Nagenda was born in 1975, in Los Angeles to a Ugandan father and a Belizean mother. Nagenda graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 1997 with a double major in accounting and government.^[3] He worked at Deloitte for a year and a half before spending four months at the New York Film Academy.^[3][4]

Nagenda held positions at HBO, Good Universe, Warner Independent Pictures, and Plan B Entertainment before an eight-year stint at Disney. At Disney, he became executive vice president of production and oversaw the production of Queen of Katwe, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, A Wrinkle in Time, Dumbo, and Mulan.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

In 2018, Nagenda was hired by Netflix to serve as Vice President of Original Films as part of Netflix’s move towards self-produced as well as diverse content.^{[10][11][12][13]} During this time he oversaw Da 5 Bloods, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Hillbilly Elegy, The Harder They Fall, The Gray Man, and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.^{[14][6][15][16][17]} His unit handled roughly twenty films of budgets of around $25 million.^[7]

He was associated with the work of Ava DuVernay, David Oyelowo, and Ryan Coogler throughout his tenure at both Disney and Netflix.^[18][19][20]