Netflix’s Karen Barragan Joins Blumhouse as Marketing and Communications Chief

By Ramin Setoodeh

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Karen Barragan, who spent the last six years at Netflix as the VP for original series publicity, is joining Blumhouse in January as the head of marketing and communications.

She will oversee both the film and TV divisions at Blumhouse, the wildly successful production company behind such hits as “Get Out,” “Insidious” and HBO’s “Sharp Objects.”

Her appointments comes as Blumhouse, a brand synonymous with horror favorites from “The Purge” to “Paranormal Activity,” has begun to move aggressively into the television space. Among the company’s upcoming projects is a mini-series about Fox News’ Roger Ailes and Trump consigliere Steve Bannon.

Barragan’s tenure at Netflix coincided with the streaming services’ push into original content. She has been the face of Netflix to journalists, overseeing publicity for TV shows like “House of Cards,” “Orange is the New Black,” “Stranger Things,” and “Ozark.” She helped build the public-relations team that led Netflix to garner 112 Emmy nominations this year, surpassing HBO and other networks.

“Karen has been a pioneering and well-respected leader at one of the the most innovative and successful media companies in history,” said Jason Blum, founder and CEO of Blumhouse. “We are thrilled she is joining the Blumhouse team to help bolster our global brand generate even greater anticipation and awareness for the incredible films and TV series we are producing.”

In a statement, Barragan said: “Blumhouse is bold and fearless. I’m intrigued by the ambitious vision set out by Jason and his team and looking forward to working across film and television in this role. I take immense pride in all that the global publicity team accomplished during my tenure at Netflix and am forever indebted to Ted and Cindy for their support. It’s been an incredible ride and I reveled in every second of it.”

Barragan will be replacing Teri Everett at Blumhouse, who is leaving the corporate world after stints at Universal Pictures and News Corp. Everett started at Blumhouse in 2017 after former PR head Josh Raffel left for a role at the Trump White House.

“Teri has been a terrific partner and has played an invaluable role in the ongoing growth of Blumhouse,” Blum said. “At the same time, I appreciate that she wants to do something completely different at this point in her life.”

Blumhouse films have generated more than $4 billion at the box office .