Netflix Exec Reportedly Fired Over Revelation at Company Trust Retreat

A Netflix executive says he lost his lucrative job after disclosing at a company “trust” retreat that he had once received medically prescribed ketamine treatment, according to a newly filed lawsuit.

Kevin Baillie, vice president and head of creative at Eyeline Studios, claims Netflix opened an internal investigation after the disclosure and later terminated him because of it, according to a complaint obtained by the New York Post .

Eyeline Studios is Netflix’s in-house brand for visual effects, known as VFX, and virtual production work.

Baillie, who earned $1.1 million a year in the role, attended the January 2026 retreat at Sendero Ranch, an exclusive Northern California property owned by Netflix, the court filing states.

During what the lawsuit describes as a “Vulnerability-Trust exercise,” the 48-year-old executive said he shared that he had undergone ketamine treatment under medical supervision in October and November 2022 at a Santa Barbara clinic to address clinical depression following his mother’s death.

Baillie, whose visual effects credits include major franchises such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter, alleges he made clear to Netflix that the drug was taken as part of supervised therapy, but the company investigated him anyway after the retreat.

The lawsuit says that on March 18, several months after the retreat, a company investigator raised the disclosure in a way that Baillie believed suggested suspicion of recreational drug use.

By April, Baillie had been dismissed, and a Netflix attorney later confirmed that “the ketamine therapy issue has factored into the termination,” according to the complaint.

Following his termination, the suit claims that Baillie was denied up to a year of severance pay, the outlet reported. 

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Other than his admission to doing ketamine, Baillie said the investigation also looked into his alleged profanity use and drinking – but he wasn’t the only one participating in those acts, the filing detailed. 

According to the former executive, he had been warned that he should ‘drop one or two less f-bombs but don’t stop entirely’ during a performance review with his superiors, the lawsuit stated. 

As for the drinking allegations, Baillie said he drank a Guinness beer while standing on his head at the same company retreat after he shared he learned the trick from his former father-in-law during a conversation that took place during the trust exercise, the lawsuit read. 

‘His colleague immediately asked for a demonstration, rather than withhold the openness that the session had encouraged, he performed the trick,’ the legal papers read. 

Baillie also noted that the company environment, in his opinion, is alcohol friendly and was even encouraged by Jeff Shapiro, the CEO of Eyeline Studios, the suit said. 

The filing revealed that ‘Shapiro purchased beer at a corner store and brought it into the vehicle for the group to share’ during two company outings. 

Shapiro, who joined Netflix in May 2019, also had a personal bar in his office ‘from which he served alcohol (to Baillie) including after a successful meeting with Netflix’s CEO Ted Sarandos,’ the filing stated. 

Baillie has asked for a jury trial, lost wages, compensatory damages, punitive damages and damages for his emotional stress. 

The Daily Mail contacted Netflix and Eyeline for comment.