The United Talent Agency (UTA), one of the largest talent agencies in Hollywood, is opening a full-service office in Atlanta, yet another sign of maturation for the state’s burgeoning entertainment business, fueled by generous film and TV tax credits passed 13 years ago.
This is not a satellite office. Two key members of UTA will run the Atlanta office: Steve Cohen, partner and agent of motion picture talent, and Arthur Lewis, partner and creative director of UTA Fine Arts and UTA Artist Space. Both have Atlanta ties. Cohen graduated from Emory University in 2004. Lewis attended Morehouse in the late 1980s.
“Atlanta is an epicenter of sports, music, art, business and culture,” said UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer in a press release. “There is a huge and growing opportunity to connect talent with new possibilities that help them build their careers, where they live and on their terms.”
Lewis and Cohen discussed the office’s opening further in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“We’ve watched this $4 billion industry come to life in Georgia,” Lewis said. “For us, it’s a matter of being part of that narrative. It’s the right time to make this move.”
Cohen noted that even as more people work remotely, having boots on the ground matters. “I don’t think the idea of human contact is ever going away,” he said.
It also doesn’t hurt that many major corporate partners are based in Atlanta, he said, such as Coca-Cola, UPS, Home Depot and Delta Air Lines, which is also a client.
All 40 of its divisions will be actively represented in Atlanta, from film and TV to gaming and sports to podcasting and music.
According to IMDb Pro, UTA has more than 5,000 clients including A-list names such as Tiffany Haddish, Paul Rudd, Kevin Hart, Benedict Cumberbatch, Sofia Vergara, Jason Sudeikis, Will Ferrell, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Beyoncé, Sandra Oh, Viggo Mortensen, Ewan McGregor, Issa Rae, Post Malone, the Jonas Brothers and Chris Pratt.
Many of its clients have been in Georgia with projects such as Owen Wilson (”Wedding Crashers 2″), Zachary Levi (”Shazam! Fury of the Gods”), Gillian Anderson (Showtime’s upcoming ”The First Lady”), Dennis Quaid (”On a Wing and a Prayer”), Bryan Cranston (”Jerry and Marge Go Large”), Anna Friel (Fox’s “Monarch”), Julia Garner (”Ozark”) and Melissa McBride (”The Walking Dead”).
Former Georgia residents Elle and Dakota Fanning, Kenan Thompson, Jack McBrayer, producer Alan Ball, David Cross, Ed Helms and Josh Holloway are clients. Among metro Atlanta residents who are repped by UTA are Georgia gubernatorial candidate and author Stacey Abrams, actor Billy Magnussen (HBO Max’s “Made for Love”) and Offset of hip-hop act Migos.
UTA’s Atlanta Midtown office is set to open this fall with the company still finalizing leasing arrangements. Their other offices are based in Beverly Hills, New York City, Nashville and London. Most of its agents are based out of Los Angeles, where a majority of talent still resides.
Klutch, a leading sports agency and UTA partner based in Beverly Hills run by Rich Paul, will also expand its existing presence in Atlanta at the new UTA office, repping Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young among others. The Klutch Atlanta office is run by Georgia Tech grad Damarius Bilbo.
UTA also plans to debut an art gallery in Atlanta, open to the public, to highlight art from its clients and local artists.
The agency’s biggest competitors are Creative Artists Agency, which has an office in Buckhead, and William Morris Endeavor Entertainment.
Notably, UTA co-president David Kramer is a University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication graduate from 1990.
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