UTA Partner Promotions - P 2013
UTA has promoted four talent agents — Jay Gassner, Chris Hart, Mike Jelline and Josh Katz — to the agency’s partnership, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
“There are many ways an agency grows, and organic matriculation into the partnership is in many ways the most rewarding for all concerned,” the UTA board of directors said in a joint statement. “This elevation recognizes not just what they have accomplished but perhaps more importantly the responsibility of further accomplishment that we have placed on them as future leaders.”
Between the motion picture and television departments, the four agents’ clients include Aziz Ansari, Morena Baccarin, Lake Bell, Sarah Chalke, Dane Cook, David Cross, Chris D’Elia, Nick Frost, Brad Garrett, Maggie Grace, Kelsey Grammer, Anna Gunn, Bill Hader, Dan Harmon, Kevin Hart, Anne Heche, Simon Helberg, Sam Hueghan, Jack Huston, Jake Johnson, January Jones, Keegan Michael Key, Jane Krakowski, Diane Kruger, John Leguizamo, Lucy Liu, Virginia Madsen, Jennette McCurdy, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bobby Moynihan, Megan Mullally, Annie Mumolo, Becki Newton, Alex O’Loughlin, Jason O’Mara, Nick Offerman, Nancy Oliver, Aaron Paul, Andrew Rannells, Stephen Rannazzisi, Naya Rivera, Jordan Vogt Roberts, Craig Robinson, Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Paul Scheer, Amy Schumer, Jimmy Smits, Rafe Spall, Corey Stoll, Jorma Taccone, Amber Tamblyn, Maura Tierney, Aisha Tyler, Liv Tyler, Paul Walker, Kristen Wiig and Vanessa Williams.
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Native Bostonian Gassner, a motion picture talent agent, joined the agency shortly after graduating from Babson College in 1997, joining UTA’s agent training program a year later. He became a TV lit agent in 2001 and moved into the talent department in 2007.
Hart, a Philadelphia native, began his career in the William Morris mailroom after receiving his B.A. in English from George Washington University in 2000. Shortly thereafter, he moved to ICM and worked as an agent there for nine years, joining UTA in 2010, where he is now in the motion picture talent department.
His department colleague Katz, a native New Yorker, entered the UTA agent training program in 1996 after graduating from SUNY Albany. He was promoted to agent in 1999.
The Portland, Ore.-raised Jelline majored in journalism at the University of Oregon and began his career at ICM in 1997. Ten years later, he was named the head of TV talent there. He joined UTA in 2011 and was named co-head of the agency’s TV talent department, alongside agent Nancy Gates in the New York City office, a year later.
