Naomi Bulochnikov-Paul exited Disney Entertainment Television on Sept. 30 after eight years. Netflix announced her hire on Oct. 1. She starts Oct. 18, and insiders say her departure was her own decision.
Naomi Bulochnikov-Paul left Disney on a Wednesday, and Netflix announced her hiring on Thursday.
The former EVP of Communications for Disney Entertainment Television departed The Walt Disney Company after eight years. One day later, Netflix named her VP of Television Series Communications.
She starts Oct. 18.
What the one-day gap actually means
Executive hires at this level involve negotiation, approvals, and legal review that run for weeks or months. An announcement landing the day after an exit means the Netflix job was settled well before anyone at Disney announced she was leaving.
That’s not unusual. It’s simply how these transitions work when an executive leaves voluntarily.
Insiders say she wasn’t pushed
Worth stating clearly, because the timing invites a different read.
Bulochnikov-Paul’s exit comes during a broad leadership reorganization at Disney Entertainment Television, and Disney has been cutting staff across the company all year.
But people familiar with the situation stressed she left of her own accord, and that her departure was unrelated to the restructuring.
Given she had another job lined up at a competitor the next day, that version holds together.
What she’ll do at Netflix
The role is broader than her Disney title suggests.
She’ll oversee communications across Netflix’s television portfolio, including:
Scripted and unscripted series
Documentary series
Consumer products and experiences, including Netflix House
Emerging content such as sports, games, creators and podcasts
She reports to Netflix chief communications officer Dani Dudeck.
That list is the interesting part. Netflix House, the company’s physical entertainment venues, sits under her remit alongside sports and games. Netflix is building businesses that look increasingly like Disney’s, and it just hired someone who ran communications for ABC, ABC News, Freeform and Onyx Collective.
She’s been at Netflix before
One detail that reframes this as a return rather than a poach.
Bulochnikov-Paul began her career at MTV Networks and has previously held communications roles at Netflix, Sony Pictures Television and Current TV.
So she worked at Netflix before Disney. This is a second tour.
Her Disney run, briefly
She joined Disney in 2018 and climbed steadily.
In 2019 she became senior vice president of communications for ABC Entertainment, after working at Freeform. In 2023 she was promoted to executive vice president of publicity and head of communications for Disney General Entertainment, serving as the division’s primary spokesperson.
Her role expanded again in April 2026, when Disney announced she would continue leading communications for Disney Entertainment Television, including advertising, reporting to chairman Debra OConnell and chief communications officer Paul Roeder.
Eight years, four titles, steadily more responsibility.
Talent is moving in both directions
This lands in a season of unusual executive and creative traffic between the two companies.
Last week, Shawn Levy and his 21 Laps Entertainment signed an overall television deal with Disney’s 20th Television, leaving Netflix after nearly a decade. The Duffer Brothers, who created Stranger Things, left Netflix for Paramount earlier this year.
Now a senior Disney communications executive is going the other way.
Netflix lost two of its biggest creative relationships and gained a Disney communications chief. Disney gained a marquee producer and lost a longtime executive. That’s roughly how a competitive market is supposed to work, though it’s rarely this visible in a single month.
The backdrop at Disney
Her exit arrives during a heavy stretch for the company.
Disney has run multiple rounds of layoffs in 2026, including roughly 1,000 jobs in April, hundreds more in July across Pixar, ESPN and National Geographic, and a voluntary early retirement offer to executives in August.
Last week, Disney’s chief legal officer told his department it would become “a much smaller organization.”
Disney Entertainment Television is also mid-reorganization under president and chief creative officer Dana Walden, who unveiled a new leadership structure in March.
None of that appears to be why Bulochnikov-Paul left. It is the environment she left during.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Variety (Oct. 1, 2026), the original report on the Netflix hire, the role details and the Dani Dudeck reporting line
WDW News Today (Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, 2026), Arica Conrad’s reporting on the departure and hire, Bulochnikov-Paul’s Disney career history and the note that insiders say she left of her own accord
The Walt Disney Company (April 2026), the announcement expanding her Disney Entertainment Television responsibilities
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