A talent agency is a company that represents
actor
An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...
s,
author
In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...
s,
musician
A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...
s,
model
A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , .
Models can be divided in ...
s,
athlete
An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...
s,
writer
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...
s,
dance
Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
rs, and other professionals in various industries. Talent agencies specialize, either by creating departments within the agency or developing entire agencies that primarily or wholly represent one specialty. For example, there are
modeling agencies, commercial talent agencies,
literary agencies, voice-over agencies, broadcast journalist agencies, sports agencies, music agencies and many more.
History
Since the decline in viewership in theaters from the 1950s to 1960s, a monumental shift occurred in how studios produced films and reduced the cost of exclusive and expensive actors. After the shift, actors and actresses were working for the studios but were not owned by one major studio entity, so they were able to work with other studios. This shift has meant that agents were now seen as a necessity instead of an option. Agents became third parties who negotiated between studios and clients, making the need for the agents' services an imperative for each party.
In the 1980s, new agencies were established to compete with the "Big five". In 1991, Bauer-Benedek merged with Leading Artists Agency to form what became United Talent Agency. These agencies were Traid Artists and InterTalent. Traid Artist would eventually be sold to
William Morris Agency
The William Morris Agency (WMA) was a Hollywood-based talent agency. It represented some of the best-known 20th-century entertainers in film, television, and music. During its 109-year tenure it came to be regarded as the "first great talent ...
in 1992, and InterTalent would diminish when its partners dispersed between UTA and ICM in the same year.
, the top three Hollywood talent agencies are
William Morris Endeavor
Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. (formerly William Morris Endeavor and WME-IMG) is an American holding company for talent and media agencies with its primary offices in Beverly Hills, California. The company was founded in April 2009 after the me ...
(WME),
Creative Artists Agency (CAA), and
United Talent Agency (UTA). Except for
ICM Partners, each agency has its own affiliated production company, which may hire the agency's clients.
In 1989, the three major agencies were William Morris, ICM, and CAA.
During the 2000s, the majors were known as the "big five." or "top five". In 2009,
Endeavor Talent Agency and William Morris merged. Later, CAA and ICM merged in 2022.
Types of talent agencies
Broadcast journalistic agencies
Some talent agencies specialize in the representation of television news broadcast journalists and television news magazine hosts. The journalists and hosts represented by these agents primarily work at television stations in local markets or at networks. There are many job titles for broadcast news journalists, such as anchors, reporters, weathercasters, sportscasters, correspondents and hosts.
Literary agencies
Modeling agencies
Music agencies
In the music world, booking agents are different from talent managers. Booking agents are the people who actually book concerts for the artists they represent. These agents make all of the arrangements with the promoters of the shows. The booking agent presents the
promoter or producer of the concert with a
performance agreement, which stipulates the artist's requirements. Items may include
lighting
Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylight. ...
, sound, meals, hotel accommodations, and transportation. For concert buyers, they work to find the artist who will fit their needs and available budget.
Many of the major booking agencies refuse to represent clients who are not already signed to a major record label and have national distribution of their music. Because of this, artists on independent record labels often seek representation with an independent booking agency.
Sports agencies
References
External links
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