The University of California, Los Angeles has released a new report examining diversity in 2025 streaming films. The study includes information on women’s representation among lead actors, directors, and writers for the 89 English-language streaming original films released in 2025.
Women represented 58.4 percent of lead actors in 2025 streaming films. This was a slight decrease from 2024 (61 percent), but an increase from 2023 (51 percent) and 2022 (50.5 percent). Within racial and ethnic groups, women outnumbered men among White, Latinx, Asian, multiracial, and Middle Eastern/North African streaming film leads, while men outnumbered women among Black lead actors. Notably, White men are significantly more likely than White women and actors of color to star in films with a budget over $30 million, and less likely to star in films with budgets less than $10 million.
The share of streaming films directed by women declined in 2025, dropping to 23.6 percent, the lowest level since UCLA began tracking streaming film diversity in 2022. Women’s representation among streaming directors peaked at 31 percent in 2023. Compared to directors of color and White men, White women directors had the smallest budgets. All streaming films released in 2025 that were directed by a White woman had a budget of less than $20 million, with 60 percent of those films having a budget under $10 million. In contrast, one quarter of streaming films directed by a White man had a budget over $50 million.
In 2025, women’s representation among streaming film writers remained unchanged from the prior year, hovering around 37 percent. This is still below women writers’ representation in 2023 (41 percent), but up slightly from their representation in 2022 (35 percent). Among all writers of 2025 streaming films, Black and Asian women outnumbered their male counterparts, while women did not reach parity with men among White and Latinx streaming film writers. There were no multiracial, Native American, or Middle Eastern/North African women streaming film writers in 2025.