Entertainment

Javiera Balmaceda

With a landmark regional investment ahead, the Chilean American executive is putting local stories at the center of Prime Video’s global ambitions.

OCTOBER 21, 2026 1:10 PM EDTOCT 21, 2026, 1:10 PM EDT

Javiera Balmaceda has spent years betting that the more specific a Latin American story feels, the further it can travel. In 2026, that philosophy gained considerably more room to grow. Prime Video announced plans to invest more than $2 billion in Latin America between 2027 and 2030, part of which will fund a slate of more than 25 new titles in 2027 and the ambition to increase its local originals across Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Chile.

As head of international originals for Latin America, Canada and Australia at Amazon MGM Studios, Balmaceda is one of the executives shaping what that expansion will look like. For her, the opportunity is not about creating a single image of Latin America for the rest of the world. It is about making space for the differences within it.

That perspective is also personal. Balmaceda was born in Chile and left the country with her family at three, when they went into exile. Raised in Texas and California, she later earned her degree from Wesleyan University and built a career in media that included serving as director of programming at HBO Latin America before joining Prime Video in 2017.

Javiera Balmaceda Is Expanding Prime Video’s View of Latin America — Javiera Balmaceda, Head of Latin America, Canada & Australia Originals.

Since then, her work has helped bring some of the platform’s most ambitious Latin American projects to audiences around the world. The slate includes Diego Luna’s Emmy-winning Pan y Circo and Santiago Mitre’s Argentina, 1985, which won the Golden Globe for Best Non-English Language Film and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature. She was also instrumental in the international strategy for LOL: Last One Laughing, which grew into more than 20 local adaptations.

By 2025, Prime Video was working more closely with producers across the region. With the second season of Betty la Fea: La historia continúa, Amazon went from licensing the series to coproducing it with RCN, taking a more active role in the next chapter of one of Colombia’s most beloved television franchises.

Then, this year, 2026, Balmaceda turned to a story much closer to home with La casa de los espíritus (House of Spirits), Prime Video’s eight-episode adaptation of Isabel Allende’s novel. The first Spanish-language television version featured a predominantly Latin American cast and brought Allende’s story back to Chile, where its history, politics, and family saga are rooted.

It also reflects the larger question driving Balmaceda’s work today: who gets to represent Latin America on screen, and how many versions of the region audiences are allowed to see. Her answer has been to widen that frame, from major literary adaptations and Oscar-nominated films to comedy, true crime and beloved franchises reinvented for a new generation.

With Prime Video entering a new phase of investment in the region, Balmaceda has an opportunity to turn that philosophy into something much larger. The scale may be changing, but her focus remains firmly on the places where these stories begin.