Bahman Naraghi has joined Graham King's GK Films in the newly created role of COO and will lead the Santa Monica-based company's financial and operational development and plan and implement the distribution structure.

Naraghi reports directly to King and arrives from Netflix, where he spearheaded that company's push into the acquiring and developing original content and played an integral role in establishing the now-defunct Red Envelope.

Prior to Netflix he served three years as Intermedia Films COO and before that held key executive posts at Miramax, Universal Pictures and MGM.

King and business partner Tim Headington launched GK Films in 2007 and the company is in post-production on the romance The Young Victoria starring Emily Blunt and will start shooting the adaptation of the BBC crime series Edge Of Darkness with Mel Gibson and Robert De Niro later this month in Massachusetts.