"Do I Need a Top 5 Hollywood Talent Agency to Make It as an Actor or Creative?"
Here we go again.
Trying to answer all of the questions people ask me about in life in this journal, our next popular FAQ for âletâs run up and ask Nicole something when she is in the bathroom adjusting her mascaraâ is this diary entry title.
So do you need a top 5 agent?
How much does it matter?
Why donât we begin with the numbers?
As of today, January 1, 2026, here is how many clients are represented by each across the board of film, music, and all spaces of creative employment, excluding brands like Coca-Cola, public speakers, and more folks, which are via their other divisions.
Creative Artists Agency (CAA): 7,516 clients
William Morris Endeavor (WME): 6,011 clients
United Talent Agency (UTA): 7,018 clients
Gersh Agency: 3,712 clients
Paradigm: 2,287 clients
TOTAL: 26,544 clients between them
âWhat about examples of other agenciesâ numbers?â
All right, nosy human. Interrupting me before I can get to the good stuff as you ladies often do when Iâm applying makeup.
A sample respectable talent agency client number outside of the top five:
Independent Artist Group (IAG): 3,004 clients
Youâre one more French fry at McDonaldâs here unless you have something extra for the talent agency to work with.
As seen, the top agencies alone represent 26,000+ human beings. 26,000+ people is the population of some American small towns. There arenât enough jobs for all of those people to be working once a year minimum.
Individual attention on your career is not happening with that many people at an agency.
This is without going into the numbers from every C-list, D-list, and Z as in Zebra-list talent agency in the major USA entertainment hubs. Jumping from previous C-list agencies, I was interviewed at a C-list one a long time ago who had probably 3,000 names on their books and rejected it because they couldnât begin to tell me what they wanted me to audition for or anything relevant about my career direction. I was one more French fry in the fast food deep fryer. A bad feeling.
Tried another C-lister tier. The agent blurted out how he didnât think he would get me much work because I turning 23 in a few months was âtoo oldâ for what he was looking for. He was going to have me there and charge me to make some money getting income for new photos taken. Of course, taken by him. I canât make that up. Washed up at almost 23.
Lots of people walk into this thinking because theyâre talented and/or good looking, that is enough to excel. Guess what? Have a look around you. Everyone else is talented and/or attractive. What makes you special in an already fickle market with short attention spanned people?
âArenât some jobs exclusive to the top agencies?â
Yes, they are. With that many people, there arenât enough jobs to go around. Big TV stars like Christina Hendricks shift from other agencies to outside of the top 5 because they need people focusing on where they are now. Getting them work. I believe she was with a top five. She is currently with Independent Talent Group based in London as an agent and LA-based Link Entertainment as a manager.
You could have the ârightâ guy working for you doing nothing because he doesnât think you have the right fit anymore, or a momager booking you gigs.
You can be an off camera creative sitting with the ârightâ talent manager. Nothing comes your way, because itâs going to the same few people all over again. Are you going to stick with that or find an agent who believes in you?
Thatâs why right now is your focus. Do you want to work as whatever you do on and/or off camera, or do you want to look fancy and never work? If you get taken at all?
You could argue a bad agent at any agency outside of the top five doing little to nothing for you is worse than the alternative.
So much of this really is about luck and making wise decisions.
A very famous director worked for decades without having an agent.
Jennifer Lawrence right now has a talent manager and no agent.
All of my work in composing or anything Iâm getting, a music distribution deal, ANYYYYYYTHING, has largely been after ditching talent agents who werenât good for me.
Getting a talent agent is no guarantee of anything but looking fancy.
xoxo,
Nic
