Representation for women and people of color went down, down, down in streaming films in 2025 — and that’s counting Netflix‘s smash hit KPop Demon Hunters.
UCLA’s latest Hollywood Diversity Report found that as the number of streaming films decreased, so did minority employment across directors, writers, leads and overall cast.
“After the big numbers we saw for diversity in streaming originals just a couple of years ago, we now see the path closing for people of color and women to premiere their film on a major streamer,” said report co-founder Ana-Christina Ramón, who is the director of the Entertainment and Media Research Initiative at UCLA.
Lead actors of color declined from 2024’s all-time high of 51 percent to 36 percent in 2025 — from a majority to nearly a third. It was the first time in three years their share dropped below proportionate representation with the U.S. population. The share of streaming films directed by a woman continued to decline to 23.6 percent, the lowest this annual report, which began tracking streaming films in 2022, has seen.
“This is an industry in flux — and in reverse, especially when it comes to diversification,” said Darnell Hunt, executive vice provost and vice chancellor at UCLA, another co-founder of the report. “Unfortunately, as we’ve seen with theatrical films, we’re now seeing the impact of this current political climate in very meaningful and concrete ways. As budgets tighten, opportunities for filmmakers of underrepresented backgrounds are always the first to be squeezed out.”
The authors of the study blame backlash against DEI, industry contraction, and overall belt-tightening for the reversal of fortune. They believe diversity is treated as expendable or optional with budgets are cut.
Things don’t look any better further down the call sheet. Just 25.8 percent of streaming films’ casts were people of color, down from 41 percent.
“It wasn’t too long ago that streaming was the place where people of color and women found their footing,” said sociologist and co-author Michael Tran.
“These trends away from diversity in films should raise alarm,” Hunt said. “And push the industry to action.”
The standout 2025 streaming film, for a variety of reasons, was KPop Demon Hunters.
“The film is a prime example of how culture circulates and how diverse representation doesn’t alienate audiences,” said Nico Garcia, a doctoral candidate in UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television who co-wrote the report. “It can bring them in.”
One especially interesting statistic that jumps out about KPop Demon Hunters is that a larger percentage of households with Latinas watched the Netflix original movie than households with Asian women, UCLA found. Though made for a U.S. audience, KPop Demon Hunters leans heavily on Korean culture — and not just its pop music.
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