Verve, known for its surprise promotions — in 2019 it flew in the mothers of motion picture coordinator Michael Chung and TV coordinator Jake Dillman to give them the good news — didn’t let the roller coaster that was 2020 upend its tradition.
In December, Verve hosted a virtual event that kicked off with a mixology class hosted by This Girl Walks Into a Bar. After that, Verve client Milo Ventimiglia, who joined the agency earlier in the year following their expansion into talent headed by Sean Grumman, logged on and did a replay of sorts of the scene from Love, Actually. The This Is Us star held up a series of cards that ended with: “Roberto Larios: You Are an Agent.”
Larios, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, started in Verve’s mailroom in 2017 and has since worked on the desks of Amy Beecroft, Melissa Darman and Rich Rogers. He will transition to his field of choice in TV lit with a focus on fostering careers in the Latinx creative community.
It wasn’t the only way Ventimiglia helped make the holidays special for Verve: The actor and DiVide Pictures producing partner Russ Cundiff dropped off a bag on behalf of their company from famed L.A. fast food restaurant Astro Burger. It came accompanied with a note that the contents were to be distributed to assistants, mailroom, cleaning staff, coordinators, office support, human resources, finance and communication staffers, etc. Confused staffers wondered how they were to split burgers and fries with the whole team, but once they opened it, they found it was filled with stacks of cash.
No ketchup needed.
A version of this story first appeared in the Jan. 6 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
