You must want to know what the talent agency does in the
performing industry. This could be a very complex answer
but I’ll try to break it down to you as simple as
I can. In Hollywood, agents act as the intermediary or middlemen
between the actors (which is you) and the studios. In the
golden days of Hollywood filmmaking, it was the studios
that had great power and control over the actors. The studios
would discover and groom their own actors. Talent agencies
came into existence because actors had many financial and
legal disputes with the big studios and needed someone to
represent them. Today, even though the major studios are
still a dominant force in the industry, talent agencies
are just as powerful if not more powerful than the studios
because the studios must go through the talent agents in
order to hire the actors.
While, talent agents can be basically broken down into different
categories, A, B, and C. An “A level" agency
has the greatest power, “pull”, and prestige.
Most new actors are not even considered by these top agencies
because they mostly handle the big stars. It is very well
possible that one of these agents will approach you one
day. I say “approach you” because the majority
of the time these agents cannot be acquired. They seek you
out. Of course, you’d have to be out there in film
or television doing something in order for these agents
to approach you. The top four agents in Hollywood are Creative
Artists (CAA), The William Morris Agency (WMA), International
Creative Management (ICM), United Talent Agency (UTA) and
tons of others in between but those are the top four. Just
about every major star you see in the movies or on television
most likely are represented by one of these four agents.
