A year after Barack Obama left the presidency, he and Michelle Obama signed a production deal with Netflix. The Obamas formed their production company, Higher Ground, and immediately began producing documentaries and docuseries for the streamer. In 2024, Higher Ground’s partnership with Netflix transitioned into a first-look deal, meaning the Obamas could develop their projects and end up selling them to other studios or streamers. Well, now Higher Ground wants to go independent:

Higher Ground will be breaking new ground in its evolution. The production company of President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama will transition to becoming independent when its current first-look deal with Netflix is up later this year, sources said.

President Obama signaled the change while on stage at History Channel’s special edition of HistoryTalks in Philadelphia Saturday honoring America’s 250th anniversary. Interviewed by Jon Meacham, he spoke of starting Higher Ground “with the intention of trying to see if we could lift up some stories that help make America look at itself and excavate those better angels of our nature…. And we were in partnership with Netflix,” Obama added. “We’re in a process now of transitioning to a more independent [future] where we can work with a bunch of different studios.”

According to sources, the deal with Netflix has not ended yet but Higher Ground plans to remain independent and not pursue a studio pact when it expires soon while continuing to collaborate with the global streamer on existing projects.

[From Deadline]

From what I understand, a first-look deal is already pretty independent – they’re already developing and producing their own projects, and Netflix can decide whether or not those projects are for them. If Netflix says no, they can shop around. Same with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s first-look deal, which they signed last year. Archewell produced Cookie Queens, but it was bought by a different company. Well, speaking of comparing-and-contrasting the Obamas and the Sussexes, Harry and Meghan got mentioned in another story about Higher Ground:

The coming split of Higher Ground, the production company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama, and Netflix will mark the end of — or at least a sizable change to — what’s been a productive relationship.

The Obamas founded Higher Ground in 2018 and signed a deal with Netflix to produce both feature films and series projects for the streamer. Their first project made an immediate splash: The company joined Participant Media as a producer of American Factory, a documentary that would win the Oscar for best feature doc in 2020.

In its eight years at Netflix — the two companies extended their partnership with a first-look deal in 2024 — Higher Ground has produced more than 20 films and series, with a couple more on the way. That’s a good-sized output for most any production company over that span of time. It yielded considerably more finished results than Netflix’s deal with Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, which the Higher Ground pact is often compared to since the principals were not previously known as creatives (though the former Meghan Markle was an actress prior to marrying into Britain’s royal family).

In the past couple of years, though, Higher Ground has also set up projects at HBO (Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness with Larry David) and Laika (Audition) as the first-look deal allowed it to seek buyers other than Netflix. The company is branching into live theater with the Broadway revival of Proof and has produced a slate of podcasts as well.

Not every Higher Ground project has hit, of course: Several titles in the list below came and went with little fanfare, and the company has also had some high-profile executive turnover, most recently with the December 2025 departure of company president Vinnie Malhotra. Motion pictures head Tonia Davis left her role in 2024 (though she’s continued to work with the company as a producer), and Priya Swaminathan left as co-head of film and TV in 2021.

[From THR]

While the Sussexes haven’t produced 20 projects in their less than six years with Netflix, they have produced: one of the most-watched docuseries in Netflix’s history, Harry & Meghan, plus Polo, With Love, Meghan, Heart of Invictus and Live to Lead. Plus, they’ve got tons of stuff in the pipeline, including a feature film and a scripted polo drama. But yeah… I would argue that the Obamas really got the creme de la creme for Higher Ground. They put together a really great team of competent professionals who have done a great job from the word go. I feel like Archewell Productions had some growing pains and early staff turnovers. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s fine and it’s just business. For both companies.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.