Netflix boss fired after telling co-workers he took ket throughout ‘trust exercise’
Netflix executive David Baillie alleges in a lawsuit that he was wrongfully terminated after disclosing he had taken ketamine under medical supervision for clinical depression
Kevin Baille lost his £820k-a-year job(Image: fxnerd/Instagram)
A Netflix executive who was involved in the Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter franchises has lost his job after revealing he took medically prescribed ketamine during a “trust exercise” at work.
Kevin Baillie, the former vice president and head of creative at Eyeline Studios, is suing the company after they launched an investigation into his comments, according to a lawsuit.
Baillie revealed that he had taken the drug under medical supervision in October and November of 2022 at a clinic in Santa Barbara. He sought this treatment for clinical depression following the death of his mother, as stated in the lawsuit.
Baille (right) is now suing the company(Image: fxnerd/Instagram)
During a “Vulnerability-Trust exercise” at an exclusive January 2026 retreat at Sendero Ranch, a Northern California property owned by Netflix, Baillie disclosed to his colleagues that he had undergone the treatment, according to the suit.
Baillie alleges that he clarified why he had taken the drug but was subsequently investigated by Netflix. On 18 March 2026, a company investigator raised the incident, “in a manner suggesting suspicion of recreational drug use,” the lawsuit states.
The executive was dismissed from his £820k-a-year job in April, with the company’s lawyer confirming “the ketamine therapy issue has factored into the termination,” the documents reveal, and suggest that Baillie was denied up to a year of severance pay.
The former exec revealed the drug-taking during a ‘trust exercise’ (Image: fxnerd/Instagram)
In the lawsuit, Baillie asserts that the “scope” of the investigation pertained to alleged profanity and drinking. He had been cautioned during his performance review that he should “drop one or two less f-bombs but don’t stop entirely.”
The lawsuit further reveals that at the same retreat, Baillie performed a trick of drinking a Guinness while standing on his head, after sharing that he had learned this from his former father-in-law during a conversation sparked by the trust session.
“His colleague immediately asked for a demonstration, rather than withhold the openness that the session had encouraged,” the papers say.
