EXCLUSIVE: Kelly Devine has been elevated to an agent on Verve‘s TV Literary team. She is the second new agent in the department following the hire of TV Lit Agent Jillian Holch last week. Devine, a USC graduate who started her career in the feature talent department at WME, joined Verve in 2020 as an
Agencies
EXCLUSIVE: Actress Jaime King (Black Summer) has taken on new agents at Paradigm. A series regular for four seasons on The CW’s Hart of Dixie, King has more recently been seen leading Netflix’s post-apocalyptic drama Black Summer, which ran for two seasons. On the film side, she most recently wrapped a role in Lights Out,
EXCLUSIVE: An actress who featured in the final season of The Crown and a series regular in Jack Whitehall’s Bad Education have said they are owed thousands in unpaid fees by scandal-hit agency Bodhi Talent. Thea Beyleveld and Jack Bence were both loyal Bodhi clients but said they discovered that the agency had withheld money
EXCLUSIVE: Verve has grown its partner roster. The agency has promoted Parker Davis and Tyler Reynolds to partners. Davis has been Co-Head of the Motion Picture Literary since 2022, while Reynolds is Head of Television Directing. The move is the latest internal move at the agency, which hired Jenni Ferrari-Adler to its media rights team
EXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed writer, director, comedian and actor Jordan Firstman (Rotting in the Sun) for representation in all areas, with an eye toward securing him new opportunities across film, television, theater and more. Firstman is coming off of his breakout starring role in the darkly comedic thriller Rotting in the Sun, co-written and directed
UTA-backed Klutch Sports Group has acquired sports agency REP 1 Baseball, using it as a foundation for a newly formed division, Klutch Baseball. Chris Koras, CEO of REP 1 Baseball, will serve as the Head of Baseball for the new division. In 2019, UTA made an investment in Klutch, which was founded by Rich Paul.
EXCLUSIVE: Scott Foley, the actor known for his work in film and television and on stage, who most recently starred in the Broadway production of The Thanksgiving Play, has signed with Independent Artist Group. Perhaps best known for starring in Shonda Rhimes’ hit ABC series Scandal, and for his breakout performance opposite Keri Russell in
EXCLUSIVE: CAA has signed Luke Davies, the decorated Australian screenwriter, novelist and poet best known for his work on the 2016 Dev Patel drama, Lion. Marking the feature directorial debut of Garth Davis, who’s currently back in theaters with the Amazon sci-fi thriller Foe, Lion is based on the true story of Saroo Brierley (Patel),
EXCLUSIVE: The Republican contenders for his old job were debating up at the Reagan Library in Simi Valleylast night, but today Barack Obama was in town seeking more higher ground. The 44th President of the United States was on the westside of LA Thursday for a sit-down at CAA with the agents for his and
Lou Alexander, a comedian who worked the national nightclub circuit in the U.S. and Canada in the 1950s and 1960s before becoming an agent and manager, died earlier this month in Beverly Hills. He was 91 and no details on the cause were available, according to his friend, Jeremy Vernon. Alexander grew up as the
EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of Saturday’s Season 2 premiere for his Apple sports drama series Swagger at the Tribeca Festival, actor Isaiah Hill has taken on new representation, signing with APA in all areas. In the series created by Reggie Rock Blythewood, which returns to Apple TV+ on June 23rd, Hill plays Jayce Carson, a character loosely
Sean Perry, a veteran WME non-scripted packaging agent and partner, is leaving the agency to set up his own production company. Perry is leaving the talent firm after 25 years. 2500 Media will focus on non-scripted television and will touch on documentary and scripted programming. The company will be based in LA with offices in New
EXCLUSIVE: Sagar Radia has signed with Mosaic for representation. Radia is best known for his role in the HBO / BBC series, Industry, in which he plays the scene-stealing role of Rishi Ramdani. Previous to this he starred in three seasons of ITV/Tiger Aspects ratings hit, The Good Karma Hospital. Within theatre, Radia was also
Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel ruled out any major stock deal right how and indicated reluctance to increase debt, both at a time when the UFC’s main rival, WWE, is up for sale. “Here’s what I would say to you, I don’t talk about M&A,” he told a Morgan Stanley investor conference when asked about a
EXCLUSIVE: Australian actor Pallavi Sharda has signed with ColorCreative and WME for representation in all areas. Sharda most recently starred in the Netflix romantic comedy feature Wedding Season, which was in their top five globally for the first two weeks after it premiered in August 2022. She recently wrapped filming the role of “Ash” in
EXCLUSIVE: Performance artist, comedian, actress, playwright and elected Koreatown Los Angeles representative Kristina Wong has inked with CAA in all areas. Wong has mounted several solo shows here in Los Angeles, and her latest Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama last year. Sweatshop Overlord, a co-production between Center Theatre Group
EXCLUSIVE: As Deadline reported earlier this week, United Talent Agency has been undergoing layoffs across many of its departments. While most of the cuts are believed to involve admin/support staff, there are 2-3 agents per department affected, sources tell Deadline. UTA would not comment, but the list is believed to include talent agents Steven Bombino
EXCLUSIVE: WME has signed writer-director Geremy Jasper for representation. Jasper’s first feature film, Patti Cake$, was a breakout hit at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. The film played at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival Directors’ Fortnight and was released theatrically by Fox Searchlight over the summer. Jasper also wrote all the movie’s original songs, which
UPDATED with comments from post-earnings conference call: Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel said today that if there is a dip in content spending underway, his company “isn’t feeling it.” Responding to the question he gets from Wall Street every quarter now, he ticked off all the high-end deals Endeavor’s made across the entertainment spectrum. “Endeavor is
Christopher Storer, the creator, executive producer, director and co-showrunner of FX’s breakout comedy hit The Bear, has signed with WME for representation. Storer became one of the most sought-after comedy creators following the critical and commercial success of The Bear, which emerged as the hottest comedy series of the summer. I hear a team of
The Chernin Group and Night, Inc. are launching Night Capital, a new investment company with commitments of $100 million, to acquire established consumer-facing companies in partnership with leading talent. Alexandra Moore, a former executive from Amazon who focused on mergers and acquisitions, will lead Night Capital as its founding managing director. TCG has also invested
EXCLUSIVE: Tyler Blackburn, who plays the lead role of Alex Manes in Roswell, New Mexico, has signed with APA for representation. Blackburn just wrapped filming Roswell, New Mexico, which is currently airing its fourth and final season on the CW. Blackburn, who garnered a massive following on social media, is maybe best known for his
EXCLUSIVE: Kit Connor, the breakout star of Netflix’s Heartstopper, has signed with WME for representation. The rising British actor is best known for his performance as Nick Nelson opposite Joe Locke’s Charlie in the television adaptation of Heartstopper for Netflix. The buzzy coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama was given a rare two-season renewal by Netflix in May.
EXCLUSIVE: Sugar23 has signed Rainn Wilson. Wilson is Emmy-nominated and a SAG Award winner best known for his scene-stealing role as Dwight on The Office. He is currently in production on Geography of Bliss, a six-part travel docuseries in which he travels around the world to discover the happiest places on Earth. He can currently
EXCLUSIVE: Maria Shriver has signed with CAA for representation. The agency will now help to identify opportunities for the Peabody and multiple Emmy Award-winning journalist, and for her company Shriver Media, through unscripted and scripted television content, film, summits—like her recent Sounds True collaboration, Radically Reframing Aging—and podcasting. CAA will also pursue opportunities in the publishing
EXCLUSIVE: Ashley Holland, a TV lit agent and partner at WME, is leaving the agency to join Onyx Collective, Disney’s curated content brand for creators of color and underrepresented voices. I hear her deal is still being finalized, and she will stay at WME for a few more weeks, but Holland is expected to be
EXCLUSIVE: Actor-comedian Pete Davidson has parted ways with Brillstein Entertainment Partners, sources tell Deadline. The Saturday Night Live star, who remains repped by ICM Partners, had been at Brillstein for awhile, and his manager there, Tim Sarkes, executive produced Pete Davidson’s standup specials, Pete Davidson: SMD (2016), and Pete Davidson: Alive from New York (2020).
EXCLUSIVE: Vico Oritz has signed with Paradigm for representation. Ortiz is a Latinx, non-binary and gender fluid actor known for their work in HBO Max’s Our Flag Means Death and The Sex Lives of College Girls, and Starz’s Vida. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Ortiz’s first breakthrough role was in Amazon Prime Video’s Transparent. They
EXCLUSIVE: Rising young actor Oakes Fegley has signed with Verve for representation. Fegley, who was formerly with ICM Partners, follows his agent JR Ringer, who recently moved to Verve from ICM. Fegley will next be seen co-starring in Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans for Amblin and Universal. He previously starred in The Goldfinch for
Kovert Creative has hired Stephanie Alperin, who most recently a communications manager at Peacock. In her new role she will help lead the marketing, communications and entertainment agency’s programming clients, including Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Bill Simmons’ The Ringer Network. At Peacock, Alperin led campaigns including for the late-night series The Amber Ruffin Show, Girls5eva,