What is the difference between an talent agent, a casting director and a manager?
Talent Agent: An Agent’s job is to help get their talent work by exposing them to as many opportunities as possible. That’s the only way we get paid–when you work, we earn a commission from you of 10-20%. Our fiduciary responsibility is to you. That means that when we negotiate for rates, usage, etc we try to get the best possible deal for you. (Which makes sense since our earnings are tied directly to yours.) Talent Agents should be licensed by the State of CA (we are) and are required to go through background checks and to put up a bond so that if they go out of business there will be money set aside to pay the talent. Agents are the only ones legally able to negotiate contracts and collect money for talent. As an Agency, our loyalty is to current talent—while we want a variety of people for clients to choose from, we try not to have too many people on file that are alike. This is one reason why it is hard to secure an agent. We also can only sign people who we are fairly sure will
