And then there was “House of Cards.” Love it or hate it, Netflix’s $100 million venture into scripted original programming—David Fincher! Shakespearean undertones!—signified a Gutenberg moment. From this point on, high-end entertainment with genuine artistic ambitions would no longer only come first through a cable box or a cinema projector; it can and will come from anywhere. Or to put it another way, when Kevin Spacey choked that dog to death he changed the world.
Backstage’s first-ever “Digital All-Stars” issue takes a broad look at the people defining that world—actors, producers, podcasters, and even one gray-haired former U.S. senator. The stage on which this and future generations of performers will play is being built right now, in the digital space. These are the workers.
