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Photographed by Alexandra GavilletMANDY BECKNER / 34
Director of Original
Independent Film, Netflix
With an eye toward breaking in
new directors, Beckner is building
out Netflix’s homegrown film slate
after joining the company two years
ago from David Heyman’s Heyday
Films. She just wrapped principal
photography on the first project
she brought to Netflix, the horror
film There’s Someone Inside Your
House from Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps
and James Wan’s Atomic Monster.
On the horizon is Liz Garbus’ serial
killer drama Lost Girls, the antici-
pated sequel to The Kissing Booth
and the Édgar Ramírez-fronted
crime thriller The Last Days of
American Crime. The Washington,
D.C., native lives in Culver City with
her husband of one year, I, Tonya
producer Bryan Unkeless (Next Gen
Class of 2012), with their two dogs
and tortoise.
FOOD/DRINK I LOVE BUT WOULD NEVER
ORDER AT A BUSINESS MEAL “I love a
good lemonade. But sometimes at
work meetings I’ll order an Arnold
Palmer instead. For some reason, I
think it sounds more sophisticated.”
JOSH FAGEN / 31
Senior VP Film & TV, Point Grey
“I cannot walk in wearing a suit
— they’ll never hire me” is what
Fagen was thinking before his job
interview at a then-fledgling banner
headed by Seth Rogen and Evan
Goldberg. “I changed from a suit
into chinos and sneakers, which
was the right move because Seth
was in sandals and a Vancouver
Grizzlies hat.” Fagen, who owned
Freaks and Geeks on DVD and
went to the midnight premiere of
Superbad as a teen on Long Island,
was an assistant at UTA before
landing at Point Grey, where one
of his first on-set experiences was
running through a staged frat party
for Nick Stoller’s Neighbors with
a GoPro strapped to his chest. In
the seven years since, the exec
has made the transition to full-
fledged producer, shepherding
recent hits like Blockers ($94 mil-
lion worldwide) and Good Boys
($110.6 million). He says: “I want to
keep making comedies — ones that
TA LE N TJosh Whitehouse / 29
The Brit “stumbled into
acting” in his late teens
after being discovered by
a modeling agency while
playing guitar at a gig in
London, which later led to
his being cast in his first
movie, Northern Soul.
After a turn in BBC period
drama Poldark, Whitehouse
scored a starring role in the
Game of Thrones prequel
— though HBO shockingly
chose not to move forward
with it after shooting the
pilot. “To even have been
cast in the role meant the
absolute world to me,”
says Whitehouse. Still,
he’s keeping busy with his
next three films: the David
Lynch-produced The Happy
Worker, a Valley Girl remake
and Netflix’s The Knight
Before Christmas.
I’D LOVE TO HAVE A CAREER
LIKE Daniel Day-LewisNaomi Ackie^ / 28
In 2018, the London actress
was coming off a few indie
projects — Lady Macbeth,
Yardie, The Corrupted
— when she got an offer
from a galaxy far, far away.
“When Star Wars came
along, it felt so outside my
remit because I’ve never
seen anyone who looked
like me,” says Ackie. “We’re
not just talking about
color — we’re talking
about a woman who has