Next Gen 2011: Hollywood's Fastest-Rising Stars
As a middle school student in Pasadena, Gordon kept a binder with the ratings for his favorite TV shows. "I remember graphing out with pencil and ruler the week-to-week ratings of Seinfeld and The Simpsons and trying to figure out what caused the fluctuations," he admits of a passion that began early. The decision to take the agency path came later, when he listened to then-BWCS partner Chris Silbermann address his show-business seminar at Northwestern. Inspired, Gordon reached out and landed a gig with the agency in 2002; four years later, he followed mentors Silbermann and Ted Chervin to ICM. More recently, the newly engaged Gordon has played an instrumental role in bringing James Spader to NBC's The Office, actor-producer Samuel L. Jackson to CBS Paramount and Hell on Wheels showrunner John Shiban to AMC. Hanging on a wall in Gordon's Century City office is a Breaking Bad poster featuring a gun-wielding, pants-less Bryan Cranston standing in front of his character's meth lab, with a note from another Gordon client, Bad creator Vince Gilligan: "To Mark Gordon, soon to be known as THE Mark Gordon. Would this guy be standing here in his underpants if not for you? I THINK NOT."
