Hollywood moved deeper into the rabbit hole of internet culture this week.
United Talent Agency signed a deal with Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of the Reddit forum WallStreetBets, to represent the entrepreneur and author. Rogozinski previously sold rights to his life story to RatPac Entertainment.
And both UTA and A3 Artists Agency announced plans to help their clients make money from non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a form of digital art that has surged in popularity among celebrities and internet stars in recent weeks.
Every Friday, Insider gives a rundown of news on hires, promotions, and other creator company announcements from the past week. Are we missing anything? Let us know.
New hires, promotions, and departures
- Clubhouse, the buzzy audio chat-room app, hired Fadia Kader as its new head of media partnerships and creators and Maya Watson as its new head of global marketing. Kader joins the company after working on music partnerships at Instagram. Watson previously worked at Netflix.
- Underscore Talent added Frankie Ray as a talent manager and Matilda Donovan as a talent coordinator. Ray previously worked at TalentX Entertainment, which was acquired by esports organization ReKTGlobal last week. Donovan joins Underscore from Fullscreen.
- Paula Kaplan left ViacomCBS where she served as EVP of talent at Nickelodeon, Deadline reported.
- Activision Blizzard laid off dozens of staffers, including 50 employees focused on esports and live events, Bloomberg reported.
- CAA promoted podcast agent Josh Lindgren to serve as the head of its podcast department, Variety reported.
New talent signings
- United Talent Agency (UTA) signed Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of the Reddit forum WallStreetBets, for global representation in all areas. WallStreetBets has around 9.6 million Reddit subscribers and about 850,000 Twitter followers.
- Andbox, a New York-based esports organization that counts Kevin Durant's Thirty Five Ventures among its investors, signed Call of Duty: Warzone player Aydan Conrad (2.1 million Twitch followers) to join its New York Subliners team.
Other creator economy updates
- Both A3 Artists Agency and UTA are committing resources to find ways for their clients to take advantage of a spike in interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs). A3's NFT task force will be led by its co-managing partner Alec Shankman. Lesley Silverman will be UTA's first full-time executive focused on digital assets, working with its chief innovations officer Brent Weinstein.
- SnapacquiredFit Analytics, a Berlin-based tech company that helps e-commerce customers buy clothing, for an undisclosed sum.
- Netflixacquired the rights to Miramax's film remake "He's All That," which stars TikTok star Addison Rae Easterling.
- Epidemic Sound, a Swedish company that works with content creators on music licensing, raised $450 million from Blackstone Group and EQT Growth in a funding round that values the company at $1.4 billion.
Read last week's creator economy updates, here.
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