Cindy Holland

When we pitched Stranger Things to Netflix, we were told Cindy Holland was the key. As it turns out, she’s also extremely difficult to read in a room. We left the pitch certain of only one thing: Cindy hated it.

One day later, she greenlighted our show, and our lives changed.

Cindy has changed a lot of lives over the years—and she’s changing Hollywood while she’s at it. But she’s doing it in her own way. We admire Cindy because there is no bombast with her, no bull, she just gets it done. It’s simply who she is—she would rather be working than talking about working.

And she’s working with some truly incredible people: Jenji Kohan, Tina Fey, David Fincher, Shonda Rhimes, Ryan Murphy—the list just keeps growing. There’s a reason top creatives continue to flock to Netflix: Cindy loves artists and grants them unrivaled freedom, but she also guides—gently, confidently, wisely. We would all be lost without her.

The results speak for themselves: in less than a decade, Cindy has helped orchestrate one of the biggest entertainment revolutions since the invention of the television. So the next time it’s 3 in the morning and you can’t sleep because you still have that one episode left? Now you know who to blame.

The Duffer Brothers, a.k.a. Matt and Ross Duffer, created Stranger Things