Kenya Barris officially signs multi-year deal with Netflix

Kenya Barris is officially heading over to Netflix.

After months of speculation, the streaming giant announced Thursday that it has signed a multi-year deal with the creator of ABC’s black-ish and Freeform’s Grown-ish. Variety estimates that the deal was worth up to $100 million.

Barris, who joins Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy as the latest major showrunner under a huge deal at Netflix, will create and produce new series for the service.

“When my agents reached out to me about this little garage start-up called Netflix, I wasn’t sure what to think,” Barris said in a statement. “But after I talked to Ted [Sarandos] and Cindy [Holland], I started to believe that maybe this mom-and-pop shop with only 130 million subscribers might just be something… so I decided to take a swing… a leap of faith if you will, and take a chance with the new kids on the block.”

Rumors had swirled that Barris, who also co-wrote last summer’s blockbuster Girls Trip, was unhappy with his time at ABC after the network decided not to air an episode of black-ish about football players kneeling in protest of racial inequality.