UTA creates a unified Filmed Entertainment structure
United Talent Agency has reorganized the leadership of its film, television and talent operations around a new Filmed Entertainment structure, elevating longtime partner Matt Rice to president of the unit. The move brings major client-facing businesses under a more coordinated leadership model at a time when the traditional boundaries between film, television, streaming, talent packaging and intellectual property development continue to blur.
Rice most recently led the agency’s television department, giving him direct experience in one of the areas most transformed by streaming and changing buyer strategies. His expanded role now places him over a wider group of businesses whose clients increasingly move between formats. A writer may develop a feature and a limited series at the same time. An actor may also be a producer. A filmmaker may build a company that works with studios, streamers and digital platforms. The new structure is designed to make those overlaps easier to manage.
Why agencies are reorganizing now
The entertainment business no longer moves in cleanly separated lanes. Studios, streaming services, independent financiers and creator-led companies all compete for the same talent and intellectual property. That means an agency must do more than negotiate individual deals. It has to help clients build careers and businesses across multiple markets.
A more integrated structure can reduce the friction that develops when separate departments operate as isolated units. If a client’s film project has television potential, or a television creator wants to move into features, information can move more quickly when the teams are already connected at the leadership level. That coordination becomes even more valuable when a client is packaging a project that may require writers, actors, directors, producers, financing and distribution relationships at once.
Matt Rice’s expanded mandate
Rice’s promotion is more than a title change. It gives him responsibility for strategy and execution across the broader Filmed Entertainment organization. That means influencing how the agency allocates attention, connects departments, develops client opportunities and responds to shifts in demand from studios and streamers.
His television background is relevant because television has become a central meeting point for feature-film talent, premium storytelling and global streaming. Actors and directors who once operated mainly in movies now move easily into limited series. Television writers often become showrunners, producers and company founders. The boundaries are commercial as well as creative, and leadership that understands those overlaps can help an agency respond faster when the market shifts.
A wider group of managing partners
The reorganization also elevates Allan Haldeman, Blair Kohan, Jay Gassner and Julien Thuan to managing partner roles within Filmed Entertainment. That creates a senior leadership group rather than concentrating operational responsibility in a single office.
A broader management team can be useful in a business where relationships are spread across many buyers and creative communities. One leader may have deep ties to film studios, another to television platforms, another to talent and another to packaging. Bringing those perspectives into a common structure gives the agency a way to make larger strategic decisions while still preserving specialist expertise.
UTA is also establishing a Filmed Entertainment board made up of senior partners across several disciplines. The board is intended to use collective experience and industry relationships to pursue client development and new initiatives. In practical terms, it formalizes collaboration that may previously have depended more heavily on informal networks between departments.
Department heads give the plan operational depth
The changes extend below the top leadership tier. New department heads have been named across Motion Picture Literary, TV Literary and Talent. Amanda Hymson and Jordan Lonner take leadership roles in Motion Picture Literary. Lucinda Moorhead and Mickey Berman are named for TV Literary. Hanley Baxter and John Sacks join Mike Jelline in Talent leadership.
Those appointments matter because a reorganization succeeds only when day-to-day decision making changes with it. Senior executives can set direction, but department heads determine how teams are assembled, how information moves and how quickly opportunities are acted on. The new appointments show that the agency is not treating the move as a cosmetic reshuffle.
What the structure could mean for clients
For clients, the promised benefit is simpler access to the agency’s full network. A writer-director developing both a feature and a series should not have to navigate completely separate internal systems to build a unified career strategy. An actor with producing ambitions may need talent representation, literary relationships, financing introductions and packaging support at the same time.
A more integrated Filmed Entertainment group can theoretically make those connections faster. It can also help identify opportunities that might be missed when departments operate independently. A project that begins as a screenplay may become a limited series. A television creator may have a feature idea. An actor’s production company may need literary material. The value of the agency increasingly depends on how effectively it can see those connections early.
The competitive context
Major talent agencies are competing not only for marquee actors, writers and directors but also for producers, creators, intellectual property, financing relationships and media entrepreneurs. The business has become more strategic because buyers are consolidating and production volumes can change sharply from year to year.
UTA’s leadership reset can therefore be read as a competitive move as much as an internal management decision. By emphasizing coordination, the agency is positioning itself to pursue business in an environment where clients expect more than traditional deal negotiation. They increasingly want help building production companies, finding financing, expanding intellectual property and moving across platforms.
A structural bet on convergence
The most important idea behind the reorganization is convergence. Film and television remain different businesses with different economics, but the careers of the people who make them are increasingly interconnected. Streaming accelerated that shift, and creator-led companies have pushed it further.
UTA’s new leadership model is a bet that the agency will serve clients more effectively by organizing around that convergence rather than older departmental boundaries. Whether the structure produces measurable gains will become clearer over time, but the direction is unmistakable: representation is becoming more integrated, more strategic and more focused on building long-term careers across formats.
PUBLISHED
BY
SUYASH PACHAURI,
FOUNDER & OWNER,
GLOBAL BOLLYWOOD | THE HOLLYWOOD SCOPE