Chris Van Dusen Brings Calabasas to Netflix With 16-Year-Old Heroine
Chris Van Dusen is bringing calabasas to Netflix as creator, showrunner, and executive producer of the YA drama. The project pairs the Bridgerton creator with a story set in one of Southern California’s most exclusive enclaves, and it adds another teen drama to Netflix’s development pipeline.
Van Dusen and Netflix
Van Dusen created Netflix’s Bridgerton, which the company said was viewed by 82 million households in its first 28 days and reached the number one spot in 83 countries. That track record makes his move to Calabasas a clear vote for a familiar builder of serialized, high-heat drama rather than a fresh hire learning the platform from scratch.
Calabasas is a newly announced YA drama based on Via Bleidner’s novel If You Lived Here You’d Be Famous By Now. Olivia Harrison described the series this way: "Bridgerton creator Chris Van Dusen will soon transport fans from the elite world of Regency London’s high society to one of Southern California’s most exclusive enclaves in his new series, Calabasas."
Via in Calabasas
The story centers on Via, a sheltered 16-year-old Midwestern Catholic school student forced to navigate the image-conscious and socially competitive world of Calabasas. That setup pushes the series toward the same kind of status pressure and social sorting that powered classic teen dramas like The O.C., but with a newer Netflix package and a stronger creator brand attached.
Kim Kardashian, Alexandra Milchan, and Emma Roberts will executive produce the series, alongside Martin Salgo, Karah Preiss, Matt Matruski, and David Sweeney. With Van Dusen in the top creative slot and multiple executive producers attached, Netflix is treating Calabasas as a built-out franchise play rather than a one-off genre experiment.
2025 to Netflix
Van Dusen’s connection to Calabasas first became public in 2025, when Deadline reported that he would take over as showrunner and writer for the adaptation. The new Netflix announcement moves that earlier report from possibility to rollout, and it gives the streamer a high-profile YA project that can be sold on both source material and creator pedigree.
For viewers, the practical takeaway is simple: the series is now positioned with a defined creative lead, a literary source, and a cast of executive producers with names that travel. For Netflix, Calabasas is another test of whether the company can keep turning prestige-TV talent into youth-skewing series that arrive with built-in recognition before a frame has aired.
