Next Gen 2025: 35 Rising Hollywood Executives Under 35

LOGLINE Produces everything from features like Tommy Dorfman’s directorial debut to podcast tours at Alex Cooper’s company Unwell.

THE ARC This October, Bochner found himself in Las Vegas juggling showgirls, Thunder Down Under dancers and several Real Housewives. “I like dreaming up entertainment that might seem weird but also weirdly makes sense,” says the New York City native of producing a live variety show for super podcaster (and boss) Cooper. In a time when experiences are as important to Hollywood as film slates, the Emerson grad has built the ideal résumé, filling his workdays producing films like the upcoming Netflix holiday movie Jingle Bell Heist and ideating new podcasts with talent like Owen Thiele. After starting his career at Hello Sunshine, Bochner was hired by Unwell co-head Matt Kaplan and produced his first feature, Tommy Dorfman’s I Wish You All the Best, which wrapped right before the Hollywood-halting labor strikes. With production shut down, Bochner, a self-proclaimed lover of tennis and “overpriced sweatpants,” was tapped to plan Cooper’s first multi-city tour and produce what would become a multi-part documentary, Call Her Alex: “I’d never done a tour or a documentary, and now I’m doing both of these things at the same time.” The tour sold out, and the doc sold to Hulu.

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH “Shoshanna from Girls. Type-A, neurotic and always loyal.”

LOGLINE Growing scripted offerings with crowd-pleasers like Chad Powers at the Peyton Manning outfit.

THE ARC Brown has long been confident in his ability to impact the sports world. Back in middle school, this led the lifelong Laker fan and son of a William Morris agent to write late owner Jerry Buss with suggestions for fixing the team. After a few more letters, Buss actually responded. “He said, ‘Don’t worry, the Lakers will be on top again soon,'” Brown recalls. “A couple of weeks later, they traded for Pau Gasol. It taught me persistence.” Now, the uber-ambitious University of Oregon grad, who did time at CAA and WWE, is busy building out Omaha’s slate via his deal with 20th TV. First up was the Glen Powell-starring Hulu comedy series, which Brown executive produces. Brown says Omaha’s slate won’t be strictly sports-focused, and he praises the NFL Hall of Famer head, saying, “You could not have more of a dream boss than Peyton.”

I’D LOVE TO TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Ina Garten’s husband, Jefferey, or the location scout for The White Lotus.”

TALENT I’D KILL TO WORK WITH “Jerry Seinfeld. I also believe life’s greatest mysteries are found in breakfast cereal and parking garages.”

LOGLINE Helps steer shows like Shrinking and Margo’s Got Money Troubles for the streamer.

THE ARC Burton’s first love was theater. Growing up in San Jose, she was, by her own admission, a huge theater nerd, though she knew early on that, as she puts it, “I was not meant to be in front of any sort of camera.” So, she began producing plays in high school, and, later, made her way to Chapman University, where she set her sights on becoming a TV executive. After a series of internships (Sony, The Late Late Show) and early gigs (Paradigm, Lionsgate), Burton found herself on the ground floor of Apple TV. She remembers those early days fondly. “Six of us in a room being like, ‘What are we going to do?’ It was so blue-sky and, honestly, so magical,” she says. In the eight years since, the now married exec, who still carves out plenty of time for theater, has been integral to projects like Shrinkingwhich, with all due respect to her husband, she calls “the love of my life.” Up next: a Margo’s Got Money Troubles adaptation with Elle Fanning and a half-hour thriller with Tatiana Maslany.

MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Begging tourists at the Grove to be last-minute The Late Late Show audience members. It was good rejection therapy, and thankfully, the families eating pancakes at DuPars were my warmest crowd.”

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “A mix of Leslie Knope and Monica Geller. Doesn’t get more painfully Type A than that.”

LOGLINE Acquires the indie outfit’s award-winning offerings like Sing Sing and Aftersun.

THE ARC The Washington, DC, native long thought she would end up teaching film, not making films. After getting a master’s from Kings College in London, she landed a gig at the Guggenheim, where she curated multimedia installations. (A personal favorite exhibit was “One Hand Clapping,” filled with Chinese video artists.) She had plans of getting a Ph.D. when a friend sent her a job opening at A24. While the jump from a storied New York art institution to one of Hollywood’s coolest film studios was not a well-worn path, Castaneda applied anyway. “I was like, ‘Why not?’ They might find something interesting in my résumé,’ ” she says. The exec is now a mainstay on the film festival circuit, from Park City to Berlin, acquiring titles like Talk to Me and Sorry, Baby. Castaneda also works on homegrown productions like the upcoming Glen Powell-John Patton Ford team-up and Robert Pattinson starrer Primetime. She says, “What drives me is being the home for these storytellers and championing them and their vision.”

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH “Ripley[from[fromAlien].”

LOGLINE Shepherds high-end horror like New Line’s Companion and the Stephen King adaptation The Long Walk.

THE ARC After graduating from the University of Kansas, he made the move to LA, where his biggest challenge came in adjusting to the city’s parking: “I never got a single ticket in Kansas or Missouri and then got one every single day here.” The Joplin, Missouri, native has been at Vertigo since 2015, beginning as an assistant to horror megaproducer Roy Lee, getting a close-up look at making hits like It. Now, the father of a 4-month-old is packaging a remake of Possession with Robert Pattinson and a Night of the Living Dead revival for Amazon, where he is also overseeing Ronald D. Moore’s God of War series. “I love the idea of ​​having the latitude to move from passion projects and elevated genre movies to franchises and the IP that I love,” says Childs.

MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE “An exec walking into an active meeting, watching sports on their phone, sitting down, and telling us to continue while they watched without headphones.”

BEST PLACE FOR A COFFEE MEETING “Bob’s Big Boy.”

LOGLINE After years (and a best picture win) with Sean Baker, he brings his producing chops to first-time and veteran indie filmmakers.

THE ARC What do beloved auteur Baker and TikToker turned pop star Addison Rae have in common? Coco. Last year, the Connecticut native, who found his love for filmmaking in high school, had producing credits on Baker’s Anorawhich netted him an Oscar, and Rae’s music video for “Diet Pepsi,” directed by Sean Price Williams (Coco also produced Williams’ Cannes-bowing The Sweet East). Coco, who welcomed her first child last year, met Baker as a grad student at USC’s film school. “A couple of days after I graduated, I drove out to Florida to work on The Florida Project as Sean’s assistant,” says Coco. He jumped to full-fledged producer on the next film, Red Rocketand reteamed for Anora. Says Coco, who’s wrapping up production on Jordan Firstman’s feature debut, Club Kid“I want to keep supporting these filmmakers, whatever the budget or scale.”

WHO I’D LOVE TO TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Ted Sarandos, so I could bring back DVDs by mail.”

MY FIRST HOLLYWOOD JOB ENTAILED … “I made all the baggies of prop weed on Straight Outta Compton.”

THE ARC While other teen boys in Sydney, Australia would be on their phones looking up sports scores, Flannery remembers checking his for overnight ratings of US TV shows. By 14, the son of an Aussie news reader was already obsessed with the machinations of the TV pilot season, which he’d followed closely from afar – even making his own grids with predictions about which pilots would get picked up. Out of what he calls “a mix of delusion and ambition” in his early 20s, he applied and was accepted into the prestigious Peter Stark Producing Program at USC. From there, a brief stint at WME made it clear agency work wasn’t his calling. In 2018, Flannery jumped to Netflix, where he has risen swiftly. In that time, the exec – who swears by an extracurricular diet of pilates and travel – has been integral to shows like Maid, You and XO Kittyalong with upcoming, high-profile adaptations of Harlan Coben and Dan Brown novels.

WHO I’D LOVE TO TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Any prod ucer of Love Island.”

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH “Crocodile Dundee? Purely because of the accent.”

LOGLINE Finds hidden gems before anyone else—like YouTuber turned TIFF breakout Curry Barker

THE ARC Late one night, Folbe was skimming Reddit when he came across a 4-year-old horror story written by English teacher Joe Cote. The movie buff and history major from Michigan knew the Gone Girl-style tale would make a good movie and DM’d the teacher. Now, it’s set up at Warner Bros. with Sydney Sweeney and Forrest Gump scribe Eric Roth. In his 18 months as a manager, Folbe, who did early stints at ICM and Artists First, has sold a stunning number of projects. In many ways, he is like his clients, upstarts who punch above their weight class. The Cooper Brothers sold a high-concept short story to Amazon and Ryan Gosling, while Daniel Gold, Folbe’s friend from summer camp, sold Tough Guys to Amazon with Gosling and Will Ferrell starring. His splashiest deal yet came at TIFF, where client Barker, whom he discovered years earlier thanks to his YouTube comedy sketches, sold his horror Obsession to Focus Features for nearly $15 million just days after Blumhouse and Weapons producer Roy Lee preemptively bought Barker’s next script. The manager keeps his client list small, and is known for two-hour notes meetings to hone ideas.

BEST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN “You should ask for more.” IT WAS FROM … “My mother.”

THE TALENT I’D KILL TO WORK WITH “Edgar Wright.”

I’D LOVE TO TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Edgar Wright — so I can get him to agree to work with me, then switch back. Edgar, for the love of God, please just give me a chance.”

LOGLINE Steers the careers of skyrocketing performers like Monica Barbaro.

THE ARC Seeing the musical Wicked at age 15 was a turning point for Gates. “I became completely obsessed with this actress named Idina Menzel,” she says. Now, Gates is obsessed with her own clients, serving as a guiding force for talent like the Oscar-nominated Barbaro, Anora breakout Yura Borisov and Severance favorite Britt Lower. When she’s not negotiating deals, Gates can be found reading (her Kindle, stacked with Kristin Hannah and Dolly Alderton titles, is never far) or hanging out at her West Hollywood home with her husband, fellow UTA agent Joe Grossman, and their 75-pound cuddly pit bull, Hippo.

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH “Annie Porter from Speed: Steady hands on a fast bus.”

MY FIRST HOLLYWOOD JOB ENTAILED … “As a last resort, faking a British accent to get my boss a highly-coveted dinner reservation. It worked.”

LOGLINE A master of all things digital, Gayoso manages talent like streamer Valkyrae and recently launched a marketing division.

THE ARC “I was fully convinced I was going to be Ryan Seacrest,” says Gayoso of his longtime love of singing competition shows. That plan changed after meeting the head of the agent trainee program at UTA during his last year at Notre Dame. After a stint as an assistant in the agency’s digital department, the OC native jumped to Meta, where he courted creators like MrBeast to Facebook and helped launch Reels on Instagram. In 2020, Gayoso, who could have a side hustle as a matchmaker, having set up 26 of his friends who are now either married or in long-term relationships, joined Range to lead the company’s digital efforts, guiding clients like Brooklyn Beckham. Most recently, he launched a social media-focused marketing division targeting a young audience for clients that range from Neon to Applebee’s.

MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE “I didn’t have any money to move to LA after college, so I auditioned for the Heads Up! game show and subsequently won the grand prize of $10,000. That money became my deposit for my first apartment and helped subsidize my mailroom salary.”

MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Fixing printers. I was the only assistant in [UTA’s] Digital department that knew how to fix a paper jam, and unfortunately contributed to the misconception that the Digital department is also IT.”

LOGLINE After co-founding his own company, Goldfarb manages a stable of fast-rising writ –ers like Blue Beetle’s Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer.

THE ARC Goldfarb’s English degree from Bates College with a concentration in poetry writing “was every parent’s nightmare,” says the manager. “But it gives me an appreciation of the writers I work with — the blank page is terrifying.” Filling his own blank page took some doing. After starting in the Gersh mailroom, stints at CAA and the Gotham Group followed. It was at the latter that he signed Juel Taylor and landed the scribe a co-writing gig on Creed IIall while he was still an assistant. Since leaving to launch Redefine in 2021, his clients have worked nonstop: Dunnet-Alcocer is creating The Boys: Mexico City spinoff for Amazon, while Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier are writing the Hot Wheels movie for producer JJ Abrams at Warner Bros.

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH “Harrison Ford’s character in Shrinking because I aspire to be an old, wise, grumpy grandpa who’s always right about everything.”

MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE “Paul Bettany on set perfectly reciting every amazing monologue from the greatest films of all time. Seeing his passion and encyclopedic knowledge of cinema is a constant inspiration and fuel for my imposters syndrome.”

LOGLINE Wrangling projects like the Sundance hit Together and Kim Kardashian’s Bratz movie.

THE ARC Hammer’s dad had a decidedly non-Hollywood path in mind for her when encouraging her to study Mandarin in middle school. “Doing diplomatic work was always the Sliding Doors path for me,” she says. Instead, the NYC native wrote her Princeton undergrad thesis on Chinese avant-garde theater and then spent a year earning her master’s in China. While she was there, she picked up a gig tutoring a Chinese actress in English on a film set. With this taste of filmmaking under her belt, Hammer soon moved to LA, where she now shepherds features like the Sundance hits Theater Camp and Together. Up next is A24’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptation Masque of the Red Death with Mikey Madison. When she’s not working, Hammer and her husband spend time with their border terrier, who came into their lives after the puppy wrapped on a Picturestart production, Will Ferrell’s talking dog comedy Strays.

MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE “Meeting my husband in the UTA mailroom.”

I’D LOVE TO TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Wally the SNL cue card holder.”

LOGLINE Entrusted with big-budget blockbusters, from F1 to a Highlander reboot.

THE ARC The Dallas-raised exec grew up on a diet of Jerry Bruckheimer blockbusters, so it was particularly special to travel the world as a studio exec on the uber-producer’s latest, F1shooting at real races. Heighten’s Hollywood résumé also includes stints at CAA and Netflix’s big-budget movie division, where she worked on the Julia Roberts starrer Leave the World Behind. Now, Heighten’s happily reunited with former boss Scott Stuber at his revived legacy label United Artists, where she’s shepherding projects from Benny Safdie, Chad Stahelski’s Highlander reboot and psychological thriller The Tennant. “Building a slate from scratch at UA has been really, really cool. We all have very diverse tastes here,” says Heighten. “I watch Nancy Meyers movies on repeat as much as I watch Pirates of the Caribbean.” Other big life milestones in 2025 include welcoming her first daughter (born on F1‘s opening weekend!).

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH “You either die Andy Sachs or you live long enough to see yourself become Miranda Priestly.”

I’D LOVE TO SWITCH PLACES WITH “Mike White on Survivor 50.”

LOGLINE Juggles up-and-comers like Friendship writer-director Andrew DeYoung and established players such as Alexandre Aja and M. Night Shyamalan.

THE ARC The Washington, DC-born Hoagland was sleeping on his sister’s couch in Santa Monica when an encounter at a bar led him to a WME mailroom gig. As he rose over the past 12 years, he signed auteur hopefuls (see: Kneecap director Rich Peppiatt) and developed a reputation for exceptional taste, to the point that he was brought on the teams of bigger players like Scott Derrickson, Shawn Levy and David S. Goyer. Recently, Hoagland found himself in a multi-agency pursuit for Ian Tuason, the hot filmmaker behind The Undertonewhile he was at the hospital awaiting the birth of his first child with his Fifth Season film executive wife (she was supportive of the in-hospital agent). He signed Tuason and welcomed his son in August.

WHO I’D LOVE TO TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Any studio head, so I can immediately greenlight 10 of my clients’ weirdest, most original screenplays.”

WHY ISN’T HOLLYWOOD TALKING ABOUT … “How 2025 has been such an incredible year for film. People love to be doom and gloom about the state of the industry, but audiences have been rewarding filmmakers taking big swings.”

LOGLINE Guides the careers of talent like Danielle Deadwyler and Yvonne Strahovski.

THE ARC Thanks to entertainmentjobs.com, Izzo got her foothold in Hollywood. Through the site, the former ballerina landed a receptionist gig at Rebel Entertainment, where an agent later referred her to an opening at Paradigm. An early goal: landing on THR’s Next Gen list. “I wrote in my goals that I want to be on this list,” says the soon-to-be-married rep. “What do I need to do to get there?” Fast-forward a decade, and the East Coast native now handles a roster of rising stars like Brec Bassinger (Final Destination: Bloodlines), Hannah John-Kamen (Thunderbolts) and Deadwyler, whom she signed after seeing her in a 2018 episode of Atlanta. She’s since guided the star through a career that now includes awards contenders (Station Eleven, Till) and commercial hits (Carry-On).

WHO I’D LOVE TO TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Donna Langley.”

BEST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN “Be true to yourself and success will follow, which is what my late father instilled in me.”

LOGLINE Steers talent like Arkasha Stevenson through indies and studio titles.

THE ARC As an undergrad at Northwestern, Jaeger, a lifelong basketball player, knew he wouldn’t make the Division 1 men’s team. “I’m decent, but I’m 5-foot-10 on a good day,” he jokes. So instead, he approached the women’s basketball team, which offered him a spot as a practice player. It’s that out-of-the-box thinking that Jaeger has extended to his business as a manager for clients like Emmy-winning The Pitt writer Cynthia Adarkwa and playwright turned HBO writer Eboni Booth. When he was an agent at ICM, Jaeger learned that he didn’t “have to sign established voices in order to have big business.” His focus has long been on helping emerging talent level up their careers. When he signed Raffi Donatich, she was still the assistant of 2AM client Jeremy O. Harris. This year, she wrote Maude Apatow’s directorial debut, Poetic Licensee, and sold the Sarah Paulson-starring Sex act to Netflix. As for basketball, Jaeger still plays on weekday nights at Fairfax High School.

TALENT I’D LOVE TO WORK WITH “Timmy Chalamet. We played basketball together at the JCC on the Upper West Side when we were 12, and I know the chemistry is there.”

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “Coach Eric Taylor from Friday Night Lights because clear eyes, full hearts can’t lose.”

LOGLINE Helps broker deals for The Studio co-creator Frida Perez and comedians John Mulaney and Robby Hoffman.

THE ARC When Lamba was first starting out in Hollywood, she was often placed in film buyers screenings after gaining a reputation for, as she puts it, being an “easy laugh.” Back then, Lamba, who’d dabbled in improv herself, knew she wanted to work in entertainment but didn’t know exactly where she fit. Graduating from Columbia Law School, she’s since carved out a niche signing comedy talent like Perez and The Paper actor Eric Rahill while also working with firm clients (see: Mulaney). Like her clients, Lamba, an audience staple at LA’s comedy venues who’s been to 34 shows this year already, has a good sense of humor. While her law degree has stayed packed away, she often jokes about hanging her graduation certificate from UCB’s improv courses in her office.

MY SEASON TWO PITCH FOR THE STUDIO “A plotline about an amazing talent lawyer. I have not suggested that to Frida, but I’m thinking about it …”

BEST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN “My dad always said that just because you like burgers doesn’t mean you should work in a slaughterhouse. It came back to how hard it is to work in entertainment. You really have to be passionate about working with artists.”

LOGLINE From The Idea of ​​You that Spaceballs 2the exec is on the streamer’s most-watched and anticipated films.

THE ARC “I go wherever the Lululemon belt bags are,” Ledonne says of her female-forward projects, including hits Red, White & Royal Blue and The Idea of ​​You. The Boston native was initially pre-med at USC, but the theater kid inside her couldn’t be denied as she started dabbling in film classes for fun. When she made the formal switch to film school, her Italian-born parents were supportive, if not a little worried. When she got a job in the WME mailroom, she described it to them as “what Anne Hathaway does in Devil Wears Prada except in movies.” They promptly sent her a suitcase filled with food. Now, Ledonne helps shepherd projects like that The Love Hypothesis with Lili Reinhart and the Bratz movie with Kim Kardashian. The married exec and mother of one, who commutes from Palos Verdes, is also overseeing the Spaceballs sequel.

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH “Gracie Hart from Miss Congeniality.”

WHY ISN’T HOLLYWOOD TALKING ABOUT … “Creating the next generation of great producers.”

LOGLINE Guides a roster that includes Martha Stewart, Padma Lakshmi and Fremantle.

THE ARC When Levine was 13, his mother dropped him off in the village of Scarsdale, New York, where she urged him to find a job. “I said to her, ‘I’m 13, I don’t have working papers yet,'” he recounts, “and she’s like, ‘Figure it out.’ ” Levine’s been figuring it out ever since. He talked his way into a gig with Anderson Cooper while still at Boston University, then moved to Oxygen and, later, CAA. The rep has negotiated with cardinals so that client Pharrell Williams could perform the first-ever concert at the Vatican. He also packaged Padma Lakshmi’s next cooking competition, put CAA clients Jimmy Fallon, Johnny Knoxville and Savannah Guthrie into game shows and reinvigorated Martha Stewart’s career. In fact, Levine now drives Stewart’s vintage Aston Martin, which she agreed to give him if he got her a deal worth $5 million. So, during the pandemic, he brokered a pact for Stewart to be the face of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine — “$5.1 million just to make sure she couldn’t back out,” he says with a megawatt smile.

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH “Elle Woods because ‘no’ is just my first step to a ‘yes.’”

TALENT I’D KILL TO WORK WITH “The Pope. I recently pitched the Vatican on Pope Leo doing a podcast – waiting to hear back!”

MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Operating the teleprompter on my first day of working for Anderson Cooper. That night the show ended 5 minutes early.”

LOGLINE Guides theater artists like Celine Song, Ashley Park and Darren Criss from the stage to the screen.

THE ARC There’s a surprising amount of overlap between working in a science lab and working at an agency. Or so says Lin, who was “shocked by how nerdy everyone was — in the best way,” when he made the transition from Harvard biology major to CAA intern. “There’s that hunger for information.” Born to science PhDs from China, Lin was happy spending long hours in the lab and planned on following in his parents’ footsteps. Then, a friend invited him to check out Harvard’s American Repertory Theater. He was hooked. At CAA, Lin signed Past Lives and Materialists filmmaker Celine Song and Red White & Royal Blue filmmaker Matthew López when they were known as playwrights, and as a 25-year-old, convinced Leslie Odom Jr. — hot off of Hamilton — to entrust him with his career. “It’s been amazing to watch these artists take their craft and spread it to so many more people around the world,” says Lin, who is also active in the company’s agent training program.

MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Dog-handling for the Broadway revival of Pippin.”

THE MOST HOLLYWOOD THING I HAVE EXPERIENCED IS … “Getting mistaken for BTS.”

LOGLINE Reps filmmakers like Novocaine directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen and Air scribe Alex Convery.

THE ARC The third-generation agent has formative memories of hours-long drives with his father to Dodger Stadium as his father rolled calls. “It might sound boring,” says the LA native, who is married to a fellow UTA agent, “but I started to understand how you get somebody a job, who is the power and who is Amy Pascal.” Lonner interned at UTA (the only agency his father hadn’t worked) during a summer break from studying political science at the University of Arizona before climbing his way up to agent, where he’s carved out a niche tapping filmmakers before they lift off. Among them is Francis Galluppi, who will soon shoot a new one Evil Dead movie, Seth Whirley (Sketch), Curry Barker, director of the TIFF horror title Obsession.

WHY ISN’T HOLLYWOOD TALKING ABOUT … “Making a sequel to Armageddon.”

LOGLINE Building the MTV of the internet generation, with short-form shows like Hollywood IQ that land A-listers like Emma Stone.

THE ARC Producer. Creator. Executive. Ma wears many hats for her Soho-based startup — the digital producer/distributor of popular social shows like Shop Cats — but what sets her apart from her do-it-all peers is her engineering know-how. Back at UC Berkeley, where she was a computer science major (and Arabic minor), she founded an online platform that offers a verification tool for journalists to authenticate public data — and won a medal from the Department of the Treasury. While building out that venture, she came to a realization: “News is effective as a form of entertainment,” says Ma. “If you want to reach Gen Z at scale, you have to meet them where they’re having fun.” Mad Realities was born from the software Ma built and now has a number of popular series hosted by TikTok and Instagram creators like Hollywood IQ and Shop Cats. Up next: a standalone app and live events.

WHY ISN’T HOLLYWOOD TALKING ABOUT … “Gen Alpha and even Gen Beta! Gen Z is old now.”

LOGLINE The YA whisperer guides the careers of up-and-comers alike Ginny & Georgia star Antonia Gentry.

THE ARC As a teenager in the San Fernando Valley, Mausner, the daughter of a lawyer and a stay-at-home mom, often said she wanted to be a talent agent. The one problem? “I had absolutely no idea what that was,” she recalls with a laugh. She’s since learned, and virtually all of the hottest YA shows are filled with Mausner’s clients. Among them: XO Kitty lead Anna Cathcart and The Summer I Turned Pretty breakout Isabella Briggs. “The niche that I’ve carved out,” she says, “is identifying the actors who are a single job away from being able to define their careers,” says the rep, whose viewing ha bits run the gamut from Dodgers to Real Housewives (Mausner named her dog Andy Cohen). Mausner also gets brought onto the teams of the agency’s legacy clients like Christopher Lloyd and James Remar to offer, as she puts it, “fresh eyes.” Remar’s busy year includes It series Welcome to Derry and Christopher Nolan’s next feature, The Odyssey.

MY SEASON TWO PITCH FOR THE STUDIO “Sal Saperstein gets invited to Taylor and Travis’ wedding, but Matt Remick does not.”

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH “Valerie Cherish. Her level of confidence/delusion is aspirational.”

LOGLINE Oversees specials, from tentpole awards shows like the Grammys to bespoke events like An Evening With Dua Lipa.

THE ARC Growing up, Mitchell couldn’t wait to leave her native Orange County. Back then, the fashion school student envisioned a big career in visual merchandising. But a gap year temp gig working in specials at CBS threw a wrench in Mitchell’s plans. Eleven years later, the self-described “fashion school dropout” is now running the network’s specials division, which has her overseeing a mix of legacy awards shows and one-offs like Nate Bargatze’s holiday special. “My goal is to honor that incredible legacy and history, but also help usher in a new era with fresh perspective and energy,” says Mitchell. Not too long ago, Mitchell moved back home to the OC And while the commute can be gnarly, it’s allowed her to be closer to family and have an identity outside of Hollywood. To hear her tell it, her primary source of pride is not, say, growing this year’s Emmy ratings but rather being an aunt to her sister’s almost four-year-old.

MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE “Helen Mirren stepping on my dress at the Globes. It was a privilege and an honor.”

I’D LOVE TO TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Amy Poehler. I look forward to my Tuesday morning commute so I can listen to a new episode of her podcast.”

LOGLINE From Ben Affleck’s Air to Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowestthe exec is bringing back the midbudget adult drama.

THE ARC After stints at The Weinstein Co. and Bron, Moldo landed at Mandalay Pictures, where the first thing he did was find Alex Convery’s script about the making of Air Jordans. Nine months later, the movie was in production with Affleck and Matt Damon. Moldo, an LA native and self-professed Diet Coke addict, joined Mandalay boss Jason Berman at the newly launched banner A/Vantage in the spring with the goal of “wanting to apply the indie mentality to studio filmmaking.” He next goes into production on a Ramin Bahrani drama. “I love the idea of ​​bringing dreams to life,” says the West Hollywood resident. “This is one of the few jobs in the world where you can do that.”

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH “Paul Downs’ Jimmy in Hacks.”

WHY ISN’T HOLLYWOOD TALKING ABOUT … “How RottenTomatoes just ain’t it. We need a better system for “rating” movies that encourages viewing, not discourages.”

LOGLINE Casting films for Ryan Coogler, Luca Guadagnino and Denis Villeneuve.

THE ARC While growing up on a farm in rural Indiana with four sisters, Rose embraced the statewide adoration for native son James Dean, watching all of his movies. She then made her way through the catalogs of other greats like Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. Studying an individual actor’s body of work was an appropriate foundation for Rose, who worked her way up the ranks with casting legend Maisler. Rose’s recent projects include Challengers, Sinners and The Running Manand she has put her stamp on upcoming features like Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning. She is particularly proud of her work on the Netflix hit Rebel Ridgewhich became a breakout for star Aaron Pierre.

MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Keeping secrets about The Force Awakens.”

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “A combination of Jo and Amy March.”

LOGLINE Producer and brain behind an expansive Neon co-financing slate with a hand in projects like Charlie Kaufman’s next film.

THE ARC Rosenbaum had dreams of making it big with the screamo band he formed with his Arizona high school pals, but after majoring in business with a minor in music industry at USC, he landed in the WME mailroom, and then on to the assistant route. “I have to wear a suit and tie every day, and then they see me just screaming and jumping around on stage,” he recalls of coworkers (and even the bosses) coming to see him gig around town. While at WME, he met Ken Kao, the Waypoint founder and son of billionaire Min Kao. “Ken asked me, ‘Do you know anyone who wants to help me run this company?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah! Me.’” A decade later, he’s now negotiated a co-financing deal with Neon for films in the $10 million-$25 million range (see: Sentimental Value) and also produces titles like the horror film Cuckoo. Upcoming features include Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters. The newly engaged Rosenbaum still jams with his band during Thanksgiving breaks. Says the exec: “We call it Screams-giving.”

MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Sorting through disturbing Twilight fan mail while dressed in a rotating wardrobe of ill-fitting Jos. A. Bank three-for-one suits.”

TALENT I’D KILL TO WORK WITH “Comedic metal lord thespian musical genius Jack Black. Put that man in everything.”

LOGLINE Reps talent behind 2025’s theatrical successes, from Naked Gun producer Seth MacFarlane to Minecraft writer Chris Bowman.

THE ARC After UCLA law school and a stint at Donaldson Callif Perez, known for representing indie producers, Rosenberg landed at Jackoway Austen, where his first splashy deal was brokering Kate Hudson’s contract for Knives Out 2. Now, the Minnesota native is working on blockbuster deals for MacFarlane and his Fuzzy Door Entertainment, which produced The Naked Gunplus up-and-comers like Bowman and Jeremy Davies (Black Phone 2). Among the deals he’s most proud of is Cristo Fernández’s pact for Ted Lasso season three. “He was a fan favorite,” he says of the actor who plays football-loving Dani Rojas, “but his life, financially at least, changed overnight.”

WHY ISN’T HOLLYWOOD TALKING ABOUT “The immeasurable value to artists of owning their projects.”

I’D LOVE TO TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Taylor Sheridan. Mostly so I could wear a cowboy hat and boots into the office without any funny looks.”

LOGLINE KPop Demon Hunters writing duo Danya Jimenez and Hannah McMechan look to the rep for guidance.

THE ARC A high-pressure summer job as a busy lifeguard helped prepare Shenfield for his pressure-cooker entry into Hollywood: the WME mailroom. “It was such a funny cheat code,” says the Santa Cruz, California, native of feeling ready for the stress of the 14-hour days. After moving over to Mosaic, he showed a knack for comedy — scouring the internet and LA shows for untapped talent. Among his discoveries: the KPop Demon Hunters scribes fresh out of college, along with Austin Kolodney, who penned the Gus Van Sant awards contender Dead Man’s Wireand Liam Cullagh and Billy Langdon, part of the sketch comedy group Almost Friday TV, who sold the series Last Night Was a Movie to FX.

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH … “The husband in Past Lives.”

MY SEASON TWO PITCH FOR THE STUDIO “A prequel season that takes place in the late 2000s that still follows our main character but is in the same world as Entourage.”

LOGLINE The former LuckyChap vp and on-set producer of the Netflix hit Sirens is now making moves on the buyer side.

THE ARC Shepard Orozco arrived at UCLA to study musical theater because, for as long as she could remember, the Pittsburgh area native was told that this was her path. “I joke that I was an obedient child in the sense that people were like, ‘This is your thing,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, okay, great, this is my thing,'” she says. But her interests expanded over four years, and, upon graduating, she took a job at a music video production company, where she got boots-on-the-ground production experience. From there, she worked for Giovanni Ribisi – “he was my film school,” she says – before segueing to LuckyChap, where she was intimately involved in hits like Maid and Sirens. In June, Shepard Orozco moved to Netflix, eager to learn the buyer side of the business. And while she has big plans, she’s currently on maternity leave, having given birth to a son she shares with her sports agent husband in August.

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH “Monica Geller because cleaning brings me joy and I probably take game night too seriously.”

BEST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” IT WAS FROM … “My mother.”

LOGLINE Helps clients like Meghann Fahy land roles like her Emmy-nominated turn in Sirens.

THE ARC “I’ve always been someone who can’t shut up,” jokes Simbari, a New York native whose bar mitzvah was Hollywood-themed. “Management is one of the only jobs in the industry where you are able to just talk all the time to people, and I’m a people person.” These days, the manager’s “people” include Thomas Doherty, Sally Field and Fahy, the latter of whom Simbari signed after watching her on the Freeform series The Bold Type and helped navigate her post-White Lotus options, forgoing brand deals and network offers in favor of working with heroes like Nicole Kidman (Hulu’s The Perfect Couple) and Julianne Moore (Netflix’s Sirens). Says Simbari of helping engineer a career, “If you wait a beat and fight t for the right things, then you can actually build something really amazing.” Other clients include Graham Campbell, who landed a role in Ryan Murphy’s anticipated Brett Easton Ellis series, The Shards.

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH “Miranda Priestley.”

WHO I’D LOVE TO TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Donna Langley or Rihanna.”

LOGLINE The on-set producer (and Emmy winner) for Netflix’s Adolescence is now scooping up TV projects for the buzzy upstart.

THE ARC For Sposato, film became a way to see a world that her family didn’t otherwise have the means to show her. From an early age, she remembers pulling movies from the Criterion collection at her local library in Syracuse, New York, and found herself transported. She’d later attend film school at Yale, before relocating to LA, where she did stints at MRC, Parkes + MacDonald Productions. From there, she landed at Scott Free, where she spent six years at the height of peak TV, then moved to Plan B, where she secured a greenlight (and later an Emmy) for the Netflix smash hit Adolescence. In April, Sposato – a married yogi, who takes cake baking as seriously as she does TV production – moved to Department M, where she’s now running TV for the talent-forward independent studio.

WHO I’D LOVE TO TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Prue Leith. Pastries and gentle judgment in a pastoral setting? How delightful.

MY SEASON TWO PITCH FOR THE STUDIO “A season-long studio reorg that starts with a coup and ends with a coup.”

LOGLINE Brokers deals for top producers, from Sarah Adina Smith (Little House on the Prairie) to Jack Burditt (Ted Lasso).

THE ARC Szurgot arrived at USC with every intention of graduating and becoming a dermatologist. Then the Chicago native began dabbling in film classes, and her plan went out the window. She lined up internships at Universal and WME while still in school, then landed a full-time gig in the agency’s mailroom immediately after. In the 11 years since, Szurgot built a formidable list of clients, which includes showrunners Kim Rosenstock (Dying for Sex), Dario Scardapane (Daredevil: Born Again) and Alison Schapker (Dune: Prophecy), and met her husband, who’s also a WME agent. (His client, Benito Skinner, officiated their 2024 wedding.) Earlier this summer, the two, both avid travelers, picked up and moved temporarily to London, where they’ve been tasked with expanding the agency’s UK partnerships. They keep pushing back their return date.

TALENT I’D LOVE TO WORK WITH “Emerald Fennell.”

BEST PLACE FOR A DRINKS MEETING “London Edition: Martinis at Duke’s. Los Angeles Edition: Martinis at Sunset Tower.”

LOGLINE Oversees unique, profitable branded and creative content with partners like Dick’s Sporting Goods, Old Spice and Kevin Hart.

THE ARC Getting diagnosed with metastatic thyroid cancer at 25 was a wake-up call for Tanner, who was working in corporate crisis management. “There was this [feeling of]’Life’s too short, what the hell are we doing working with literally the worst people on the planet?’ ” he recalls. So he pivoted, writing and directing a comedy web series with a friend, which proved fortuitous. Not only did it sell to former digital media company Fullscreen, but also, through it, he met OBB founder (and now boss) Michael D. Ratner. At OBB, Tanner works at the intersection of branded (think: Allbirds and Old Spice) and traditional narrative content, helping launch Sabrina Carpenter’s A Nonsense Christmas and Stanley Tucci’s latest with National Geographic. Outside of work, Tanner, who lives with his wife and their blind cat Stevie, says he’s a “recovering Philadelphia sports fan on the hunt for interests that have less impact on my general well-being.”

FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH “Gladys from Weaponsand I’d prefer not to say why.”

TALENT I’D KILL TO WORK WITH “Two-way tie between Tony Gilroy & Doechii.”

LOGLINE Shepherds buzzy comedies like Rachel Sennott’s I Love LA for HBO.

THE ARC Not too long ago, someone told Wasserman that she gives “eighth grade stage manager energy,” which, she says now, “I choose to believe is a compliment.” In truth, it was the position she created for herself at her San Francisco middle school. Her desire was never to be in front of or behind the camera, but rather to ensure things got done – and done well. She ultimately made her way to Northwestern, where she studied film and, as she puts it, “found my people.” In LA, she landed on a comedy desk at CAA, and later segued to a gig as Casey Bloys’ assistant at HBO. Now, Wasserman’s a cornerstone of the network’s small but mighty comedy team, where she’s been instrumental to critical darlings like Betty and How To with John Wilson. More recently, her focus has been I Love LA from creator/star Rachel Sennott, who she’s been courting for years, along with upcoming entries from Michaela Coel and Sharon Horgan.

BEST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN “Eyes on your own paper. IT WAS FROM … Casey Bloys.”

MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Getting prank-called daily by my boss’s comedian clients.”