United Talent Agency

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The United Talent Agency (UTA) was founded in 1991 as the result of a merger between two medium-size talent agencies, Bauer-Benedek Agency and Leading Artists Agency, and is one of the world's largest full-service talent and literary agencies.

Located in Beverly Hills, California, it is considered one of the "big five" talent agencies in Hollywood along with the Creative Artists Agency, International Creative Management, Endeavor Agency, and William Morris Agency.[1] UTA represents actors, writers, directors, producers and below the line talent, for film, television, music, publishing, fashion, and computer and video games. UTA also has a growing marketing division, representing a number of corporations and their brands.

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[edit] Beginnings

UTA seemed well positioned for success by bringing the best agents in from a variety of agencies. Their first packages on shows included hits like The Simpsons, Married...With Children, and The Wonder Years. Others represented by the agency included movie writer/directors Lawrence Kasdan, Brian De Palma, Steven Soderbergh, and brothers Joel and Ethan Coen; Seinfeld creator/writer Larry David; and actors Mike Myers, Bridget Fonda, Alan Alda, and Charles Grodin. As its business grew, the firm soon began to add agents to the 26 it had started with. [2]

[edit] Growing Pains

Like most talent agencies, growth is often accompanied with assets and egos. In the spring of 1996 UTA dismissed partner and television department head Gavin Polone, after an agent accused him of sexual harassment and threatened to go public if she was not released from her contract. Polone immediately threatened legal action, and UTA soon issued a public apology and agreed to buy out his contract. He was one of the firm's most powerful agents, and his departure cost UTA Seinfeld's Larry David, among others. A year later the agency sued Polone, alleging that he was guilty of defrauding clients, sexual misconduct, and other unethical behavior. His subsequent cross-complaint included allegations of improprieties by others in the agency and also revealed that UTA had agreed to pay him $6 million over two years to settle the broken contract as well as for libel and defamation. The suits were resolved several years later with Polone (who had by now begun working with former partner Judy Hofflund) receiving an undisclosed settlement.

The fracas with Polone was one of several during 1996, which had also seen UTA sue agent Jay Sures after he, too, threatened to reveal improprieties if he was not let out of his contract. That case was resolved more amicably, however; Sures stayed with the firm and was later named co-head of its television unit and made a partner. The turmoil of the Polone and Sures situations and partner Robert Stein's move to William Morris, along with other departures, reportedly led the agency to hire an in-house therapist to soothe its staff's frayed nerves.

In June of 1996 UTA's partners voted to name Marty Bauer and Jim Berkus co-chairmen, with Bauer also named president. The firm had always been run by the consensus of its partners, though Bauer had earlier given up the title of president because he reportedly felt his duties were unclear. In 1997 he again stepped down and the following year left the firm to found a management company, leaving UTA to be run by a board of six senior partners led by chairman Jim Berkus.[3]


[edit] The Digital Age

UTA has long recovered from their early growing pains and is known today as one of the best agencies in the business. The agency has been the most aggressive in the new digital content space aiming to represent the best on the internet. Clients like Ask a Ninja and Big Fantastic are early leaders in the digital space.[4][5] In July 2007, UTA and the Internet-based advertising agency Spot Runner announced they were launching an independent studio for digital entertainment from professional actors, directors, writers and producers called 60Frames Entertainment.[6] The Coen Brothers, the filmmakers behind movies like “Fargo” and “The Big Lebowski,” are producing programming for the venture and serve on an advisory board.


[edit] UTA Job List

One of the things UTA is famous for is the elusive "UTA Job List". The list includes many assistant position job listings for agent/publicist/manager hopefuls. UTA will not confirm the existence of such a list, but it does exist and is only available to those lucky enough to have connections to people within Hollywood to be able to obtain it. Although the list does offer excellent opportunity for success in the talent business, it is rumored that the assistants at United Talent Agency (creators of the list) weed out most of the truly promising job opportunities.

[edit] People represented by UTA[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Top Talent Agencies.
  2. ^ United Talent Agency, Inc.
  3. ^ United Talent Agency, Inc.
  4. ^ UTA Online.
  5. ^ NYTimes Article.
  6. ^ A New Studio Will Market Videos for the Web.
  7. ^ Company Information at IMDB Pro.

[edit] External links