Endeavor Talent Agency

All you want to know about Endeavor Talent Agency

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Endeavor Talent Agency
Type Private
Founded Beverly Hills, California, USA (1995)
Headquarters Flag of the United States Beverly Hills, California
Key people Tom Strickler
Ari Emanuel
Rick Rosen
Adam Venit
Patrick Whitesell

The Endeavor Talent Agency is a Beverly Hills, California based talent and literary agency, representing actors, writers, authors, producers and directors primarily for film and television. Currently, there are around 275 employees: 26 partners, another 50 agents, and nearly 200 support staff including trainees, assistants, business affairs, and finance/accounting.

In addition to their California headquarters, Endeavor also maintains an office in New York City. In addition to the core areas of film, tv, and talent, Endeavor has built businesses in publishing, marketing, commercials, licensing, and below-the-line representation.

Contents

Early success in television

Endeavor formed when a group of four agents left ICM in 1995: Ari Emanuel, David Greenblatt, Rick Rosen and Tom Strickler.
The agency began operations March 30, 1995 (after a midnight departure from ICM) working from an office above Islands Restaurant in South Beverly Hills.

Expansion

In 1996, Endeavor moved to a new high rise building on Wilshire Boulevard. Three new partners from CAA joined the company: David Lonner, Doug Robinson, and Adam Venit. Lonner's clientele included the feature directors that Endeavor needed to solidify its standing as a full service agency. Robinson and Venit were the first actors' agents; their clients still populate the Endeavor roster: Hank Azaria, Lisa Kudrow, Adam Sandler, and David Spade.

Endeavor steadily built the agent ranks and the client list through promotion, outside hires, and an aggressive signing philosophy. The talent department grew dramatically during the next 8 years, mainly with the addition of Patrick Whitesell. Whitesell led the development of the agency's list of leading men that includes Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jude Law, Hugh Jackman, and Christian Bale. On the comedy side, that group helped develop the business including Sacha Baron Cohen, Kevin James, and Charlie Sheen.

Meanwhile, the motion picture literary division provided the material that helped the other areas grow. The agency became known for new directors, starting with its first director client Kevin Smith. The agency's focus on filmmakers paid off with The Blair Witch Project, Little Miss Sunshine, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Fahrenheit 911, and An Inconvenient Truth. Commercial success for the agency's writers and directors came from films like Charlie's Angels, Night at the Museum, Enchanted, and Meet the Parents.

Growing from within

The agency pushed beyond a dozen partners by 2002, many of which were people that had started in the company mail room. The television group continued to develop industry leaders including Larry David, Tina Fey, Ricky Gervais, Conan O'Brien, Seth McFarlane, and Josh Schwartz. The company packaged hit series: The OC, Curb Your Enthusiasm, 30Rock, The Office, Family Guy, Gossip Girl, Without a Trace, Heroes, Medium, Prison Break, and more.

The addition of Sean Perry in 1998 began Endeavor's push into non-fiction television. Endeavor's alternative department worked on shows like Kitchen Nightmares, Punk'd, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Whose Line is it Anyway? andExtreme Makeover Home Edition. The group has been responsible for deals at MTV for The Osbournes, the television deals for the World Wrestling Federation, and more recently, the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The company has made a big push into representing foreign producers in their effort to bring shows to the US: Whose Line, The Ex List, Worst Week, Ugly Betty and In Treatment are recent examples.

In 2007, all five adapted screenplay nominees at the Academy Awards were Endeavor clients, including winner William Monahan for The Departed. Original screenplay winner Michael Arndt thanked his agents for fighting for five years to help get Little Miss Sunshine made. Documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim shared the stage with Al Gore. But the culmination of the evening was the first Oscar for client Martin Scorsese. His film, The Departed, was packaged by the agency with clients William Monahan, Matt Damon, and Mark Wahlberg.

The agency packaged the series Entourage, based loosely on the life of client Mark Wahlberg and his manager/producer Steve Levinson. Client Doug Ellin created the series and the infamous character of Ari Gold, who bears a striking resemblance to Endeavor founder Ariel Emanuel.[citation needed] Many story lines on Entourage seem to have been lifted right out of Endeavor staff meetings, most notably, the "tsetse fly" episode detailing Gold's departure from his firm.[citation needed]

New areas

In 2003, the agency moved down Wilshire Boulevard. The Beverly Hills Endeavor office was designed by UCLA professor and architect Neil Denari with wall graphics by 2x4 of New York.[1] For this project NMDA Inc., the company of Neil Denari, and associate architect Interior Architects received the 2007 Institute Honor Award for Interior Architecture from AIA, The American Institute of Architects. [2][3]

Recent changes

Despite constant rumors of mergers and acquisition, Endeavor has stayed independent. However, the agency has built its partnership since 2007 through the acquisition of key players from its competitors.

In 2006, Nancy Josephson left ICM after the company went through an ownership change. Endeavor quickly brought in Josephson and her clients -- Friends creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane, Craig Ferguson, Tyra Banks, and director David Frankel. Soon after, ICM agents Matt Solo and Robert Newman joined as well. Solo's roster includes The Shield creator Shawn Ryan. Newman's director list is among the most respected in Hollywood, including: Guillermo Del Toro, Baz Luhrman, Danny Boyle, and Robert Rodriguez.

2008 brought four key additions from UTA including talent agents Sharon Sheinwold, Nick Stevens and Lisa Hallerman. Their clients Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill, Jason Lee, Jonathan Rhys Myers, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, Clark Duke, and more bolstered the agency's comedy department.

Clients

References

  1. ^ Neil M. Denari Architects Official site
  2. ^ Matt Tinder, 2007 AIA Honor Awards Recognize Excellence in Architecture, Interiors, and Urban Design AIA, Official site
  3. ^ 2007 INSTITUTE HONOR AWARDS FOR INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE AIA, Official site, .pdf Endeavor Agency
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i The Endeavor Agency Company Profile, at Yahoo, accessed June 21, 2008
  5. ^ a b http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117995001.html?categoryId=29&cs=1
  6. ^ a b Kimberly Nordyke, New Endeavor for Branagh, Levy at backstage.com, August 10, 2007
  7. ^ Summit Entertainment Press Release, December 12, 2007

External links

v • d • e
Talent agencies
The "big five"
entertainment agencies
CAA  · Endeavor  · ICM  · UTA  · William Morris
Leading modeling agencies
Elite  · Ford  · IMG  · Wilhelmina
Agents
See also
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endeavor_Talent_Agency"

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