Passion Artis ’14, Accounting

"I got from Bucknell to Netflix by having the passion to merge the artistic, creative side of me with the numbers side of me."

At Bucknell, Passion Artis '14 overloaded her schedule to meet the rigorous course requirements she'd need to earn her CPA. But the accounting major still found room for classes in theatre and dance that remain some of her fondest college memories. Even in accounting classes, the consummate performer (who appeared in Bucknell's production of For Colored Girls) found ways to inject her creativity and love for a stage into class presentations.

Today, Artis blends her love for numbers and the arts as a finance operations business partner with Netflix, where she tracks film costs and streamlines publicity spending for the leading streaming entertainment service.

"I got from Bucknell to Netflix by having the passion to merge the artistic, creative side of me with the numbers side of me," Artis says. "At a liberal arts university you study a lot of different disciplines that help you look at your work in different ways."

Artis broke into show business through an internship with PwC's entertainment division that she found while still at Bucknell. That led to her to a full-time job as an associate, and next to managing the creative and publicity budgets for the film producer and distributor A24, which produced the 2017 Academy Award winning film Moonlight. Now at Netflix, Artis says she's drawn on the versatility she gained by exploring different interests at Bucknell to help her reset how she thinks about her role in film productions.

At the smaller studio, Artis explains, she worked to keep films on budget from beginning to end. At Netflix, where the volume of films is much larger, she focuses on ways to build efficiency and ensure accounting accuracy for the marketing campaigns of many simultaneous productions, which can have budgets as large as Hollywood films.

It's fast-paced, but it gives Artis the chance to put the management skills she honed at Bucknell to work on projects she's passionate about — and that offers its own intrinsic rewards.

"I've always enjoyed sharing stories, whether it be sharing my story or putting someone else's story on a platform," she says. "I learned how to share stories in theatre, and I use that in my professional career and other areas of my life."