Next Gen 2026: 35 Rising Hollywood Executives Under 35

Nobody ever said that Hollywood careers come easy. But right now, with consolidation and layoffs decimating the middle rungs of entertainment’s steep corporate ladder and studio remits changing with each earnings report, dream jobs have never been more difficult to land, much less retain.

Such trends aren’t slowing the ascent of THR’s Next Gen class of 2026, who join such illustrious alumni as Donna Langley, Ari Emanuel, Kevin Feige and Peter Rice. In fact, this group is too busy forging new paths through the chaos — whether that’s bringing Gen Z back to cinemas (as indie producer Christian Vazquez did with both Primetime and You Can See Everything) or fortifying the streaming ecosystem amid endless churn (see Claudia Shin and Louie Hayes, behind the Apple TV Emmy darling Widow’s Bay and the Prime Video breakout Sterling Point, respectively.)

Meet the 35 executives and reps, each of them 35 years old or younger, who should be atop your call list, if they aren’t already.

• Alyssa Altman, 35

  

  RK Films, senior vp

  LOGLINE Championing rom-coms like Anyone But You and Netflix’s upcoming 13 Going on 30 update.

  THE ARC Altman got a unique view of the industry when she would join her father, Steve, who rented out lighting, camera and grip equipment: “I grew up doing my homework in grip trucks, and I just loved being on set.” Her dad’s rom-com adoration rubbed off during their weekly trips to the movies, where films like Love Actually made an early impression. Altman studied journalism at Emerson but caught the producing bug while moonlighting on college TV projects. After time at Gersh, she became then-Universal exec Jeff Kirschenbaum’s assistant and followed him to RK Films. While the company focused on bigger IP plays, she endorsed the script for Anyone But You (“That was my baby”), Sony’s Sydney Sweeney-Glen Powell feature that became a rare theatrical comedy hit. Up next: Amazon MGM’s tennis rom-com Love Love and Netflix’s Millie Bobby Brown-led Just Picture It.

  PERSON IN HOLLYWOOD I’D TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Andy Cohen. My favorite way to de-stress after a long day is to watch and listen to the soothing sound of people fighting on Bravo.”

  WHY ISN’T HOLLYWOOD TALKING ABOUT … “The fact that movies geared towards women do great theatrically. Every time it happens, people act like it’s an anomaly. Women are starved for content and it’s not a coincidence.”

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE HAD “When I was an assistant at Universal, we set up a screening for an A-list star who specifically requested popcorn from the Universal Studios theme park. I had to sneak into the park through the back lot and bring it back before he arrived.”

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “Sally Albright from When Harry Met Sally. She isn’t afraid to speak her mind, is a hopeless romantic, and has strong opinions on how she orders her food.”

• Jenna Berger, 35

  

  Marvel Studios, director of production development

  LOGLINE Berger is serving as co-producer, and Kevin Feige’s right hand, on Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. ’Nuff said.

  THE ARC An L.A. native with industry parents, Berger grew up wanting to make movies. “I had this theory that everybody who didn’t want to make movies was lying to themselves and secretly did,” she says. So, shortly after graduating from University of Pennsylvania with a double major in English and film, she landed a gig at The Mark Gordon Co. Still, it was Marvel that was making some of her favorite films — she saw Spider-Man: Homecoming four times in the theater — but the company felt impenetrable … until it wasn’t. In 2019, Berger scored a position, rising to junior exec before finding herself the solo exec on the Marvel TV series Ms. Marvel, where she earned a supervising producer credit and honed her creative leadership, talent development and production expertise. “It was the best crash course in figuring out how this company worked and making something worthy of the Marvel name,” she says. The higher-ups took note, which is why Berger now oversees some of the studio’s most ambitious films.

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “Kermit the Frog. Because my job is to bring amazingly talented people together to make something special amid total chaos … which sometimes means convincing everyone the show must go on before the set falls down around us.”

  PERSON IN HOLLYWOOD I’D TRADE PLACES WITH “David Heyman. To get to work on Bond and Harry Potter?! A dream. Would love to trade places for a day … or forever.”

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE HAD “Having a sneeze attack while leaving a voicemail for Aaron Sorkin on behalf of my boss.”

• Natalie Berkus, 35

  

  LuckyChap, senior vp TV

  LOGLINE Developing (and producing) your future TV obsessions, including Andrew Garfield’sWild Things.

  THE ARC Rather than follow her agent dad and comedy writer mom into the business, Berkus arrived at University of Michigan eager to be a lawyer. “Then I rushed the law fraternity and didn’t get in,” she says. “I mean, I whiffed it and was like, ‘Shit, now what do I do?’ ” The answer, it turns out, was to parlay her love of TV into a series of PA gigs on shows like The Mindy Project before talking her way into a job as the writers assistant on Girls and, later, with Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner’s company. From there, she logged six years at Imagine Entertainment, where she was intimately involved in a slate that included The ’Burbs and the upcoming Siegfried and Roy series starring Garfield and Jude Law for Apple TV. But LuckyChap came calling a year ago, and the L.A. native and new mom to daughter Roonie jumped at the opportunity to work at the Margot Robbie-led hit factory. In that time, she has built a roster of 10 to 15 projects, including a Life Is Strange series for Amazon Prime Video and a few more Dunham collaborations. Still, Berkus doesn’t take herself too seriously. “If I had to brand myself, I’d say I like to bring a levity to this business,” she says, “because I think sometimes, especially now, things can get really stressful and we lose sight of the fact that ultimately this is just one big party.”

  PERSON IN HOLLYWOOD I’D TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Nina Rosenstein, who does all of the HBO comedy specials. We’ve never met, but Nina, girl, if you’re reading this, let’s link and get our Freaky Friday moment started!”

  WORST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN ABOUT WORKING IN HOLLYWOOD “That having unapproachable girlboss ‘I’m smarter than you’ energy is cool. It’s not, it’s lame! Normalize the quiet power in validating others and having a fun vibe.”

  THE BEST PLACE FOR A COFFEE MEETING IS “Nowhere are you crazy!! No more of these!!”

• Mandi Brooksbank, 34

  

  Netflix, senior manager, business affairs, scripted series

  LOGLINE Helps mold Netflix’s scripted slate, brokering deals with top talent like Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media.

  THE ARC As a kid in Reno, Nevada, Brooksbank figured she was destined for Broadway. While most her age were on the playground, she was busy with casino shows, doing dinner theater (and playing the harp) in vintage Hollywood glam. “It was entertainment or bust,” she recalls with a laugh. Later, she’d speedrun undergrad at USC and law school at Southwestern, finishing both in five years. Since then, she’s built a Hollywood résumé that includes stints at CAA, Donaldson Callif Perez and eOne. Now in her fifth year at Netflix, Brooksbank helps steer the streamer’s scripted series unit, striking deal after deal with TV’s biggest names. It’s a high volume affair, with Brooksbank managing a slate that includes The Altruists, Ransom Canyon and Sirens, among many others. “I’m the third child in a family of six,” she says of her negotiating chops. “They all have big personalities, so they prepared me well for Hollywood.”

  TALENT I’M DYING TO WORK WITH “Miss Piggy.”

  WHY ISN’T HOLLYWOOD TALKING ABOUT … “Women directors’ second and third films. We talk about breaking through, but what about career longevity?”

  BEST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN ABOUT WORKING IN HOLLYWOOD “When I was considering law school, Patti Felker encouraged me to see being a woman as an advantage in negotiations, particularly the ability to read people, adapt and adjust your approach to the person across the table without losing sight of what you’re there to accomplish.”

• Barry Buren, 35

  

  CAA, TV talent agent

  LOGLINE Makes deals for A-listers including Pedro Pascal, Matthew Rhys, Steven Yeun and Eddie Redmayne.

  THE ARC Hollywood has Orlando’s Central Florida Talent agency to thank for putting Buren on his path. After the New Jersey native graduated a semester early from nearby Rollins College, he picked up a gig at the model/talent agency to stay near friends who were still in school. Though he imagined he might become an engineer someday, he accepted an L.A.-based relative’s offer to live with her while giving Hollywood a try. As luck would have it, agenting stuck, and after a stint at Gersh, the avid golfer joined CAA in 2014. Today, the married rep is entrusted by actors including Josh Hartnett, Charlie Hunnam and Hannah Waddingham. Earlier this fall, client (and double Emmy winner) Rhys gave Buren a shout-out from the Emmy stage.

  MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Serving coffee to people in an order determined by seniority and annual earnings. It was my first introduction to the Hollywood hierarchy, and I learned very quickly that even caffeine has a pecking order.”

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE HAD “Being on a call with 15 people to schedule another call with 15 people, only to discover that the one person who actually needed to be there wasn’t invited.”

  PERSON IN HOLLYWOOD I’D TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Lorne Michaels. To have spent five decades at the intersection of comedy, culture, and discovering talent is pretty remarkable.”

• Winnie Carrillo Montiel, 35

  

  Amazon MGM, film executive, production & development

  LOGLINE Oversees films that range from bro-y actioners (The Wrecking Crew) to weepy love stories (Honeymoon With Harry).

  THE ARC Carrillo Montiel’s career in entertainment began with a clerical error. As an Emerson undergrad, she was mistakenly admitted as a screenwriting major instead of the literature and publishing program she had applied to. She ended up staying the course, eventually doubling down by attending graduate school at USC’s famed Peter Stark Producing Program. While there, she landed a temp job in MGM’s film group, which she did by day, leaving classes for night. Ultimately, it was the studio’s then-president Jonathan Glickman who helped push through the Guatemala City native’s visa sponsorship to land her her first full-time Hollywood gig. “He just made me promise that I wouldn’t get my green card and leave,” she remembers. “This was almost a decade ago and I’m still here. So, I really kept my promise.” Carrillo Montiel has since survived several regime changes, not to mention an acquisition, to land at her current spot on Amazon MGM’s film team, where she has overseen such films as The Sheep Detectives and an upcoming slate with projects from Dan Fogelman (Honeymoon) and Michael Showalter (a Serendipity reimagining). One of her proudest accomplishments is shepherding Angel Manuel Soto’sThe Wrecking Crew, explaining, “Latinos are often put in a very specific box, and we are only hired to tell Latino-specific stories. I’m always looking for opportunities to elevate talent that I think are just great filmmakers.”

  IF I HAD A ONE WISH WILLOW, I’D WISH FOR … “Unlimited budgets.”

  WORST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN ABOUT WORKING IN HOLLYWOOD “I was advised to look for an American husband as I was told it would be impossible for me to earn a work visa in this industry.”

  MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Cold calling very specific animal experts in Russia and Brazil to attempt to track down recent sightings of extremely large species of bears and snakes.”

• Margaret Clark, 32

  

  20th Television, director of development

  LOGLINE Manages a roster of overall deals (Liz Meriwether, Drew Goddard) and development projects, including the Hulu hit Furious.

  THE ARC Technically speaking, Clark was discovered at the Panera on South Beverly Drive. At least, that’s where a guy from APA overheard her during an informational coffee with a fellow University of Virginia alum and offered to pass along her résumé to his agency mailroom. She was hired the following week. “I treated it like my grad school,” Clark says of her agency stint. By late 2017, the Virginia native and onetime theater kid had jumped to 20th Television, where she eventually found her way to Dana Walden’s desk for three pivotal years. In that time, she gained both a high-level education and a top-tier mentor. These days, Clark’s back on the 20th team, punching above her weight as she manages a slate of projects and the studio’s IP pipeline.

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “Jennifer Lopez in The Wedding Planner.”

  MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Buying a single old-fashioned donut for the CEO on Friday mornings. It had to be from Winchell’s. I wasn’t his assistant.”

  THE BEST PLACE FOR A COFFEE MEETING IS “The National Theater in London. Or the ABC Riverside Starbucks.”

• Sarah Colvin, 30

  

  Neon, VP acquisitions

  LOGLINE Keeps Neon supplied with art house favorites and horror standouts, including The Secret Agent, Leviticus and All of a Sudden.

  THE ARC Colvin spends a good chunk of her year traveling to Sundance, Berlin, SXSW, Cannes and beyond in the name of supplying Neon’s film slate with titles that will soon be Letterboxd’s new obsession (see: Oliver Laxe’s Sirāt and the long-awaited doc Once Upon a Time in Harlem). Raised in New Mexico by artist parents, young Colvin would spend whatever free time she had with friends at Santa Fe’s one art house cinema. She laughs, “We thought we were so highbrow.” But she took that passion to NYU, where her professor, indie producer David Hinojosa, helped her land an internship at Neon, right as the then-upstart distributor was releasing its first success, I, Tonya. “There was no formal end date to the internship,” she says. “Eventually, Tom [Quinn] was like, ‘You should probably have a job here, then.’ ”

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “A blend of PeeWee Herman and Griffin Mill from The Player.”

  THE TALENT I’D KILL TO WORK WITH IS “Wile E Coyote.”

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE HAD “The great equalizer that is the valet stand after the Academy Awards.”

• Dylan Conklin, 34

  

  Entertainment 360, manager

  LOGLINE Guides the careers of clients like Kaia Gerber and Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story star Ella Beatty.

  THE ARC Conklin was studying international business in China for a summer when he realized the path wasn’t for him. Fortunately, a TV class with guests from Breaking Bad and Mad Men opened his eyes to a career in the entertainment field instead. Following a stint as an assistant to producer Tripp Vinson and some good advice from mentor attorney Howard Weitzman, he landed at 360 in 2016. A decade later, the dad of two has an impressive roster of talent clients, including Costa D’Angelo, for whom he’s lined up back-to-back shows (East of Eden, The Sticks, We Were Liars), and Ji-young Yoo, whose post-KPop Demon Hunters path includes a Paramount movie and Presumed Innocent season two.

  BEST ADVICE ABOUT WORKING IN HOLLYWOOD “Don’t chase hits. Champion exceptional artists, nurture their talent, and the hits will follow.” IT WAS FROM… “Mo Ostin.”

  THE TALENT I’D KILL TO WORK WITH IS “Danny DeVito.”

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE HAD “Making PB&J sandwiches in the office kitchen with Jennifer Garner.”

  PERSON IN HOLLYWOOD I’D TRADE PLACES WITH “Jerry Bruckheimer.”

• Kai Dolbashian, 33

  

  1.21, Film & TV development head

  LOGLINE Identified filmmaker Michael Shanks and helped develop Together from script to splashy Sundance sale.

  THE ARC While attending Chapman’s film school, Dolbashian landed an internship at MGM TV. The problem: The job was an hour away on a good day, and he had no car. Though he racked up credit card bills renting Zipcars, the bet paid off. He scored a post-grad gig and found a mentor in producer Andrew Mittman. And when Mittman launched his own banner in 2020, he was there on day one. Now, as the company’s head of film and TV development, Dolbashian has a slew of projects in development, including Warner Bros.’ remake of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman with Margot Robbie and Tim Burton.

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “Arno from Uncut Gems. We’re both impatient Armenians and both desperately want to do business with Adam Sandler.”

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE HAD “The first time I had lunch with Christoph Waltz, he cut and ate his strudel exactly the way his infamous character Hans Landa does in Inglourious Basterds. Thankfully, unlike Hans, Christoph is one of the nicest human beings.”

  TALENT I’M DYING TO WORK WITH “Bill Hader. There is literally no one else who could write and direct that epic motorcycle chase and shootout from season three of Barry, yet also perfectly embody the unhinged role of Officer Slater in Superbad.”

• Carly Elter, 32

  

  Hidden Pictures, senior vp film and TV

  LOGLINE The architect behind The Housemaid is also behind lit-centric packages based on best-sellers from Rebecca Yarros and V. E. Schwab.

  THE ARC When Elter first walked into the house at the center of her 2025 movie The Housemaid, she cried. “It was such a surreal moment,” she says. “In my apartment, I read a book that I thought was a good idea for a movie, and now we have 100 people-plus employed making that movie.” Elter sold the film adaptation when it was self-published by author Freida McFadden; it would later land a publishing deal and sell 6 million copies, while the movie earned more than $400 million and quickly scored a sequel, which is in production. It’s not the married New Jersey native’s only claim to fame. While still an assistant — with stints at WME, Pascal Pictures and Mandeville — she also founded Women Wednesdays (now The Real Champions), where she’d screen films from women and nonbinary filmmakers for fellow assistants with the goal of getting the directors studio jobs. Later, Elter — who lives in Playa Vista with her husband and mutt Archie and also counts TV as a part of her remit with MGM+’s Robin Hood — started a mentorship program that’s helped place over 150 people into jobs.

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE HAD “Being approached by a famous actor on a red carpet who told me he was a huge fan of mine. Turns out he thought I was Alana Haim.”

  PERSON IN HOLLYWOOD I’D TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Amanda Seyfried. She has built a life where she makes incredible movies and TV shows and then goes home to her farm to hang out with goats and emus. She’s cracked the code.”

  BEST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN ABOUT WORKING IN HOLLYWOOD “You have to work hard to build the version of Hollywood you want to be a part of.” IT WAS FROM “Sara Scott.”

• Anna Flickinger, 34

  

  UTA, motion picture lit agent

  LOGLINE From Mary Beth Barone to Sterling Point producer Raffi Donatich, she gets funny women’s work to screen.

  THE ARC “I read these goddamn think pieces like, ‘Comedy’s dead,’ ” says Flickinger, whose response is often: “Really?! There’s always going to be a big theatrical comedy that gets people back in the seats.” She saw it happen firsthand when writer client Ilana Wolpert’s Anyone But You made over $200 million at the box office. Initially, the Chicago native and oldest of eight thought she’d pursue a career in politics, but after interning in the office of Sen. Dick Durbin (“loveliest man in America”) and a DC lobbying firm (“fucking depressing”), she realized her love of The West Wing was more about an interest in entertainment than government. After temping her way around L.A., she landed at UTA, where she ultimately found a home in the motion picture lit group. Now, Flickinger, who lives with her husband and their Rottweiler and Chihuahua, guides clients like Sammi Cohen (You Are So Not Invited to My Bar Mitzvah) and Barone, who’s writing and starring in her own rom-com.

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “C.J. Cregg sun, Josh Lyman rising, Toby Ziegler moon.”

  IF I HAD A ONE WISH WILLOW, I’D WISH FOR … “The public transit infrastructure of New York in L.A.”

  WHY ISN’T HOLLYWOOD TALKING ABOUT … “Why it takes women making their first, second, third and fourth movie to get the compensation and resources that men get to make their second movie.”

• Carly Frankel, 32

  

  WME, digital agent

  LOGLINE Brokers deals for top podcasts, including Giggly Squad’s nine-figure pact with SiriusXM.

  THE ARC An L.A. native, Frankel got an early taste of agency life while booking comedy shows, including Chelsea Peretti’s, as an undergrad at UC Berkeley. It led to an assistant gig in UTA’s comedy touring department, then another at then-podcasting startup Wondery. But after greenlighting Wondery shows including Baby, This Is Keke Palmer, Frankel was called back to the agency side at WME, where she’s helped Maria Sharapova launch a podcast with Vox Media and brokered Tinx’s deal with SiriusXM and Dr. Mary Claire Haver’s deal with Audacy. As more and more people consider starting a podcast, Frankel advises talent about the hard work required, including recording a minimum of 45 episodes a year. “I think the number one thing is someone who is genuinely enthusiastic about it,” she said.

  MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Chasing comedians down Melrose to introduce myself after their stand-up sets. Saying hi on behalf of the agency was my cardio.”

  THE BEST PLACE FOR A COFFEE MEETING IS “Truly anywhere that offers a 16-ounce cup. The ‘default 10-ounce latte’ trend is killing me.”

  BEST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN ABOUT WORKING IN HOLLYWOOD “Your reputation is your greatest currency. Work hard and be kind.”
  

• Katie Giarla, 35

  

  Cut To, founding member/partner

  LOGLINE Building a slate of hot projects, including the upcoming Elle Fanning-Nicole Kidman legal thriller Discretion, for the A24-based company.

  THE ARC Raised by a psychologist and a lawyer in Pittsburgh, Giarla’s only link to the entertainment business was her childhood birthday parties at the local movie theater. “I thought I’d be a lawyer,” she says, “and then I did some internships in law and realized I could make money and I would hate my life.” Upon graduating from University of Pennsylvania, Giarla parlayed her love of reading into a gig in the books department at WME. The trouble, she’d soon learn, was that she was more interested in the books than the dealmaking. So, she shifted groups before segueing to Endeavor Content (later, Fifth Season), where she championed projects including East of Eden as a series for Netflix. Giarla would later jump with boss Joe Hipps to Cut To, a red-hot company that will soon have more shows than executives. Among its recent sales, all of which prompted frenzied bidding wars: the Joel Edgerton-led crime drama Trigger Point and a two-season order for a Gwyneth Paltrow drama. At press time, however, Giarla was more focused on her other major project, her newborn son, with whom she’s now home on maternity leave.

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “Lady Olenna Tyrell. I’ve been rewatching GoT on maternity leave. She’s inquisitive, sharp-tongued and loyal to a fault.“

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE HAD “When I realized there was a typo on a deck that my boss was en route to present to Obama — at the White House. That was a crazy two hours.”

  PERSON IN HOLLYWOOD I’D TRADE PLACES WITH “Andy Cohen. The writers’ strike was in full swing when Scandoval hit, which gave me way too much downtime to stumble into the Bravoverse.”
  

• Jordan Gorelick, 34

  

  UTA, talent agent

  LOGLINE Steers the career of rising stars Odessa A’zion and Alien: Earth lead Sydney Chandler.

  THE ARC As an undergrad at Colgate, Gorelick had his sights set on a career in screenwriting. The dream shifted, however, once he stumbled upon HBO’s Hollywood show Entourage and David Rensin’s book The Mailroom: Hollywood History From the Bottom Up. Suddenly, agenting was the goal, which led to an early gig in UTA’s mailroom. It was everything Gorelick had hoped for: “Watching the agents, the intensity, being a 21-year-old kid and driving around Hollywood and seeing the billboards on the Sunset Strip — I loved being in it.” Eleven years on, he’s constructing a list of rising stars (Nicholas Braun, Ray Nicholson, Lili Reinhart) and helping craft the next stage for established actors (Lizzy Caplan, Adam Scott, Timothy Olyphant, Paul Bettany). He feels his abandoned writing ambitions are actually key to his success. “The way I analyze and interpret and discuss material, that comes from a writer’s perspective and has set me apart in the way I work with actors.”

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “Kevin McCallister eating that cheese pizza in the stretch limo.”

  TALENT I’M DYING TO WORK WITH “Buddy from Air Bud.”

  MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Driving a young Chalamet to general meetings.”

• Angie Haney, 31

  

  Netflix, director, film

  LOGLINE Supplies Netflix with rom-com hits like Voicemails From Isabelle and People We Meet on Vacation.

  THE ARC Haney was outside the Vatican on vacation when she saw two girls filming themselves doing a choreographed dance featured in her latest movie, Voicemails for Isabelle. “I was like, ‘There’s no way that’s what they’re doing!’” She approached the girls in St. Peter’s Square and that was exactly what they were doing. While Haney is now Netflix’s romantic comedy whisperer, she grew up envisioning a career in politics. In high school, the L.A. native and future Columbia poli-sci major was a congressional intern for outgoing L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. But a series of entertainment internships — not to mention a childhood watching classics like Singin’ in the Rain with her voiceover actress mom, theater director dad and screenwriter twin brother — prompted a change of heart. After a cold email led to a stint at Disney, she landed a job as the assistant to then-Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy as the Star Wars series were starting to populate Disney+. She’d later jump to Netflix, where she has found success with rom-coms and coming-of-age films. Up next: a reimagining of 13 Going on 30. “I’ve heard it said before that we should all make movies for our 12-year-old self,” she says, “And that is very true for me.”

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE EVER HAD “Watching George Lucas meet Grogu on the set of The Mandalorian.”

  IF I HAD A ONE WISH WILLOW, I’D WISH FOR “Nora Ephron to have written 20 more movies.”

• Louie Hayes, 35

  

  LuckyChap, vp TV

  LOGLINE The on-set producer for the summer smash Sterling Point.

  THE ARC Hayes’ family moved half a dozen times before he left for college. The constant in his home growing up was TV, which he claims he watched “an unhealthy amount of.” Eager to put down roots after graduating from Northwestern, he settled in L.A. with some college buddies. “At the time, everyone started at a talent agency,” he says, so he dutifully lined up a gig at Gersh. And while agenting wasn’t Hayes’ calling, it was there that he’d meet his future wife (and fellow Next Gen honoree), Samantha Militante, who’d later follow him to FX. But after nearly a decade as a buyer — working on hits like Dave and Alien: Earth — he jumped to LuckyChap, where he’s built an impressive roster. In fact, one of Hayes’ very first projects at the uber-successful Margot Robbie outfit was the runaway hit Sterling Point, which he was intimately involved with every step of the way. Up next: series Sex Criminals, from Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon, and an adaptation of The Retrievals from Molly Smith Metzler.

  PERSON IN HOLLYWOOD I’D TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Jeff Probst. I consider Survivor America’s fifth major sport, and I have some ideas.”

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “Arnold from Hey Arnold! An idealist with an oversized head and a compulsive need to help.”

  WORST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN ABOUT WORKING IN HOLLYWOOD “Don’t date anyone in the industry. My wife is on this list.”

• Julia Iglesias, 34

  

  Focus Features, VP

  LOGLINE Shepherds artistic films including Sense and Sensibility and Nosferatu, along with the upcoming Werwulf and the adaptation of The Bell Jar.

  THE ARC Growing up in South Florida, Iglesias would regularly make her little sister act in her home movies. It wasn’t until she landed at Boston University that she learned how to turn her passion for storytelling into a career. “I did tons of internships,” she says, “and took all of the screenwriting and production classes I could get my hands on.” After a brief, post-grad stint as an unscripted postproduction coordinator at Relativity Media, she landed at NBCUniversal. A job working for then-Universal Filmed Entertainment Group chairman Jeff Shell turned into a gig at Focus Features, where Rodriguez has been ever since. Now, the newly engaged exec — her fiancé proposed at this year’s Sundance Film Festival — cherishes seeing projects through to the end with auteurs like Sarah Polley and Robert Eggers.

  BEST ADVICE ABOUT WORKING IN HOLLYWOOD “Pick your boss, not your job.”

  PERSON IN HOLLYWOOD I’D TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “The dog handler on Sense and Sensibility.”

  THE BEST PLACE FOR A COFFEE MEETING IS “Somewhere neither person has to valet.”

• Ben Iguchi, 32

  

  Netflix, manager, original series, live-action comedy

  LOGLINE Champions buzzy comedies including Cobra Kai and Doozer Productions’ upcoming I Suck at Girls and Nick Kroll’s A Hundred Percent for Netflix.

  THE ARC Iguchi can’t remember a time when comedy wasn’t a central focus in his life. As he tells it, his Ph.D. dad had proposed to his dancer mom during an episode of The Golden Girls, and every memory in his childhood home seems to feature a sitcom of some kind. In fact, by the time Iguchi turned 13, Jewish comedy became his bar mitzvah theme. “It definitely was not cool,” he jokes as he recounts the Groucho Marx glasses with the mustache that adorned every table. Still, the L.A. native turned up at Georgetown thinking finance would be his path, a plan he swiftly abandoned once a career in comedy presented itself as a viable option. An early gig at APA led to a brief stint at Mosaic and, later, to Netflix, where he’s risen over the past eight years. In that time, he’s become known for his ingenuity, with more than one producer sharing projects that began as Iguchi ideas.

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “Ronnie from ‘Summer Loving.’ I’m just here for the zipline.”

  TALENT I’D DIE TO WORK WITH “Tyler the Creator, Matt Stone & Trey Parker, and Carlos Alcaraz (my backhand could really use some help).”

  WHY ISN’T HOLLYWOOD TALKING ABOUT … “Picking up and moving to Santa Monica. It’s time we stop pretending the Eastside is better than the West.”
  

• Kendall Jackson, 34

  

  JSSK, associate

  LOGLINE Assists with Oscar winners like Michael B. Jordan and Daniel Kaluuya, while dealmaking for up-and-comers like PinkPantheress.

  THE ARC While Jackson helps shepherd big deals for A-list talent (see: Jordan directing The Thomas Crown Affair remake or Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Emmy-nominated turn in Wonder Man), she jokes that she’s recognized in Hollywood circles almost as frequently for her Philadelphia Eagles fandom. “It’s a huge part of my personality,” she says of her hometown team, which she recently flew to London to see, a fact that has gotten brought up in a negotiation or two. Back in L.A., the Columbia Law School grad has been busy building out her own client list, which now includes pop star PinkPantheress, who will make her acting debut in the Daniels’ Universal event film, and negoitating Kaluuya’s return the big screen in A24 and Chris Rock’s Misty Green.

  PERSON IN HOLLYWOOD I’D TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Law Roach.”

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “Joan from Girlfriends or Molly from Insecure. Not only because they are Black female lawyers in L.A., but because they are the ‘responsible friend’ but still going through it in their personal lives.”

  MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Getting a client out of jury duty, which now feels like such small potatoes.”

  TALENT I’M DYING TO WORK WITH “Teyana Taylor. She’s amazing, multi-talented, stylish, funny, and her star is only going up! I’ve been following her since My Super Sweet 16.”

• Adam Klein, 34

  

  Untitled, manager

  LOGLINE Genre whisperer who counts Smile’s Parker Finn as an early client.

  THE ARC When Klein shifted from WME assistant to a gig at upstart Grandview, he focused on finding hot genre short filmmakers ready for the next step. After getting promoted to manager, one of the Michigan native’s first signings was Finn, whom he helped sell what would blossom into the Smile franchise ($350 million globally). He also guided Finn to a first-look at Paramount, where the director is now in post on his Possession remake. Other clients signed by Klein, who’s engaged to a manager at Range, include Together’s Michael Shanks (in post on the Daniel Kaluuya starrer Hotel Hotel Hotel Hotel), emerging YouTube horror filmmaker Sam Evenson, Argentinian filmmaker Demián Rugna (When Evil Lurks) and David Bruckner, who was recently tapped to helm Smile 3.

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “I think I oscillate between Josh Lyman and Toby Ziegler from The West Wing.”

  PERSON IN HOLLYWOOD I’D TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “I’d take Mike De Luca for a spin.”

  TALENT I’D DIE TO WORK WITH “Tom Cruise.”

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE EVER HAD “Meeting my fiancée, Lauren, at the CAA Sundance Party.”

  IF I HAD A ONE WISH WILLOW, I’D WISH FOR “Detroit Lions Super Bowl. I’m not sure if Curry can deliver that.”
  

• Tim Kressman, 35

  

  Gersh, motion picture lit and production agent

  LOGLINE Reps Oscar-winning below-the-line talent and international directors.

  THE ARC In high school, Kressman was known as both a marching band drum major and a major film buff who devoured the Blu-ray special features for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies. These taught him that behind the glitz and glamor of Hollywood were craftspeople who made it all happen. After Yale, where he was president of the film society and conducted the pops orchestra, he found his way to Gersh as David Gersh’s assistant. There, he has carved out a niche repping Oscar-worthy below-the-line talent, meaning the film geek in him gets to have 20 conversations a day about different aspects of production. He’s now a perennial Oscar and Emmy attendee, with clients including production designer Shona Heath (Oscar winner for Poor Things), Charles Wood (in the race for designing Project Hail Mary) and visual effects supervisor Michael Ralla (nominated for Sinners). He also signs international directors and brings them to Hollywood, as he did with Kenji Tanigaki, director of the acclaimed action hit The Furious, and Venice Golden Lion winner Tran Anh Hung (The Taste of Things).

  PERSON IN HOLLYWOOD I’D TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Joe Hisaishi, so I could conduct the world’s best orchestras with his incredible music.”

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE EVER HAD “Going backstage at the Oscars when Shona Heath won for her extraordinary production design in Poor Things and later introducing her to LeBron James with Oscar in hand.”

  BEST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN ABOUT WORKING IN HOLLYWOOD “Always listen to advice with an open mind, but make your experiences your own and find out for yourself.” IT WAS FROM … “My mom, who has never worked in Hollywood.”

  IF I HAD A ONE WISH WILLOW, I’D WISH FOR … “Costume designer Shawna Trpcic to have seen the moment when she posthumously won the Emmy for Ahsoka, which was a lifelong dream of hers.”

• Albert Lee, 35

  

  CAA, motion picture lit agent

  LOGLINE Train Dreams filmmakers Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar and Heated Rivalry breakout Connor Storrie look to Lee for their filmmaking deals.

  THE ARC Growing up in a working-class neighborhood of L.A., Lee’s early exposure to film was strictly via VHS tapes at his grandmother’s — or what he borrowed from the library. Ironically, it wasn’t until he arrived at Harvard, where he was studying biology, that he got serious about filmmaking as a potential profession. At first, he was taking film electives in between science courses because, he reasoned, they’d be easier than reading textbooks. “Spoiler alert: They weren’t,” says Lee. He did, however, get the bug, which led him to production work on everything from car commercials to a Kurt Cobain documentary. By 2015, Lee started at CAA as an intern the week of the Sundance Film Festival, where he’s now a regular. These days, he works on the agency’s biggest lit clients, from Chloé Zhao to LuckyChap, but he’s really made a name for himself moving indie directors to bigger projects that let them retain their artistic sensibilities, as he did recently with Georgia Oakley, who went from Venice standout Blue Jean to Focus’ Sense and Sensibility.

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “Depending on the day, Remy from Ratatouille, Lucille Bluth or Maya Ishii-Peters.”

  MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Getting an early read of Drive as it headed into production. Not a bad start for an unpaid intern at an international sales company.”

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE EVER HAD “Belting karaoke in the wee hours of a party to an empty room … empty except for Madonna trying to have a quiet conversation and, I can only assume, wishing we’d stop.”

• Jeremy Lowe, 34

  

  Dick Clark Productions, vp talent and partnerships

  LOGLINE Books talent (for the red carpet and the stage) at major TV events and award shows.

  THE ARC For more than a decade, Lowe has worked New Year’s Eve, though he’s doing so from a prime seat — at the center of the action in Times Square. Through his role at DCP, the Boston University grad has helped book major performers, including Sabrina Carpenter on the heels of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour and Druski as the Chicago co-host for this year, for the iconic holiday celebration. During his 12 years, the onetime intern has had a keen eye for artists on the rise (he booked Raye for the 50th anniversary special of the American Music Awards). He’s also continued to work on social and digital strategies, including revitalizing the red carpet for major events like the Golden Globes, where he’s booked Chicken Shop’s Amelia Dimoldenberg and Recess Therapy’s Julian Shapiro-Barnum. “I very much feel a responsibility as somebody who works at a company that’s been around for 50-plus years to bring these younger, very of the moment, creator-driven talent to our shows and to meaningfully involve them,” says Lowe.

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE EVER HAD “Answering the phone and it’s Diana Ross, asking me a question about her New Year’s Rockin’ Eve performance.”

  MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Live posting on the American Music Awards Twitter account in 2009, on my first-generation iPhone, from a seat in the auditorium.”

  TALENT I’D DIE TO WORK WITH “Rihanna.”
  

• Mitch Mason, 34

  

  Untitled, manager

  LOGLINE Guides the careers of stars like Hunter Schafer and The White Lotus’ Charlie Hall.

  THE ARC The Pittsburgh native had his sights on a career in broadcast news until a chance meeting with a manager during an internship at the American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival put him on a different path. After a successful PowerPoint presentation convinced Mason’s very skeptical father to let him move to L.A. — yes, one slide had his face on the Hollywood sign — he began with an internship at Untitled, where he’s largely remained for 12 years. In 2023, Mason relocated to New York, where he’s busy navigating the careers of talent like Schafer, who will star in Blade Runner 2099 and an untitled A24 horror movie, and Poorna Jagannathan, who became a key player on HBO’s Lanterns.

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH … “Jimmy LuSaque Jr. from Hacks.”

  PERSON IN HOLLYWOOD I’D TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “Mariska Hargitay.”

  IF I HAD A ONE WISH WILLOW, I’D WISH FOR … “The Lizzie McGuire reboot but made just for adults.”

  WHY ISN’T HOLLYWOOD TALKING ABOUT … “Making comedies funny again.”

• Andrea Massaro, 33

  

  Goddard Textiles, VP

  LOGLINE Produces High Potential, Phony and the upcoming Pagans at Drew Goddard’s prolific production company.

  THE ARC “I feel like my whole story is just a lot of people telling me that I’d be good at this until I believed them,” says Massaro, who admits she needed the boost. First, it was a digital video teacher at her arts vocational high school on the Jersey Shore who saw talent and encouraged her to study film. Then a professor at Johns Hopkins said she’d make a great producer. To Massaro’s credit, she listened, which led her to UCLA’s Producers Program and eventually to a gig as If Beale Street Could Talk producer Sarah Esberg’s assistant at Plan B. Seven years later, the duo is still together, now at Goddard Textiles, where Massaro is making her mark. In fact, she was the first person to send the French format that inspired ABC’s hit series High Potential to Goddard, who went on to direct the pilot (Massaro produces). Now, she’s working on Pagans, the Steven Yeun-led supernatural drama series that sparked a major bidding war won by Netflix. When she’s off the clock, Massaro’s often either walking her golden retriever or baking.

  TALENT I’D DIE TO WORK WITH “Zach Cregger or Megan Park.”

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “Carl from Up, for many reasons but most importantly because I also have an adopted golden retriever obsessed with squirrels like Dug.”

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE EVER HAD “Bringing my dad to the Porject Hail Mary premiere and getting a photo of him standing next to the back of Ryan Gosling’s head.”

  WHY ISN’T HOLLYWOOD TALKING ABOUT … “How female executives throughout both film and TV are being pushed out of decision-making roles.”
  

• Erick Mendoza, 33

  

  Untitled, manager

  LOGLINE In early on writers and filmmakers like Primetime’s Ajon Singh and Lurker’s Alex Russell.

  THE ARC In high school, Mendoza spent an hour on the 405 each way from his home in Inglewood to Brentwood School as part of the Young Eisner Scholars program that helps place talented kids from around L.A. at elite private schools. There, he learned Hollywood was a career path, as many of the school’s parents were agents, lawyers and execs, including Dawn Ostroff, then head of The CW, where he interned. USC and the UTA mailroom came next before he settled at management firm Grandview. “My first day, I’m building my desk from an Amazon box, but also got to attend the big staff meeting,” he recalls. Lurker’s Russell was an early client (he won two Indie Spirits this year). His list also includes Kalos Chu, a former DreamWorks Animation assistant who sold the elite university pitch Imposter to HBO in a bidding war. Mendoza was also behind The Waffle House Index’s splashy sale to Apple from Andrew Nunnelly, with Inde Navarrette starring. And Ajon Singh hit it big with his spec Primetime, which became the A24 movie starring Robert Pattinson.

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE EVER HAD “Curb Your Enthusiasm, season nine, episode nine. I’m somewhere in the background.”

  TALENT I’D DIE TO WORK WITH “Alex Garland.”

  MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Sorting through fan mail for the Vampire Diaries cast. People sent some gnarly stuff.”

  PERSON IN HOLLYWOOD I’D LOVE TO TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “CEO of LEGO … my nephews would find that very cool.”

• Samantha Militante, 34

  

  FX, vp current series

  LOGLINE Guides FX series including Adults to a bigger and far buzzier season two.

  THE ARC Militante’s love of TV began with Filipino soap operas, which she spent her Orange County childhood devouring with her mom and grandma. Initially, it was a way to learn their language. “Then I just fell in love with the bonkers storytelling,” she says, following that passion all the way to Chapman, where she got her film school degree in three years and managed to squeeze in roughly 10 internships in the process. “It was aggressive,” she jokes, but it set her on a path, ultimately landing at Gersh, where she’d meet her future husband (and fellow Next Gen honoree) Louie Hayes. In fact, it was Hayes who first jumped to FX and later put Militante, then just his friend, up for a job. In the decade since, she’s been intimately involved in projects like Reservation Dogs, What We Do in the Shadows and the zoomer hit Adults. Despite her “current” executive title, the self-proclaimed foodie has also, at various points, been deployed to develop new shows, oversee a doc slate and work with short-form content.

  MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “When the stand-in on a Wendy’s shoot called in sick, I was the only brown person on set, so naturally I got promoted from PA. Ate a lot of hamburgers that day. No spit bucket.”

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE EVER HAD “Riding a private jet for the first time to go to a film festival. Also, getting on this list with my husband.”

  WORST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN ABOUT WORKING IN HOLLYWOOD “There is such a thing as stupid questions.” IT WAS FROM … “My internship supervisor when I asked about my pay.”

• Sam Rabinowitz, 33

  

  WME, talent agent

  LOGLINE Confidant of A-listers Teyana Taylor, Austin Butler, Nicolas Cage and Dwayne Johnson.

  THE ARC Rabinowitz’s early education in the art of the cold call came from a college-era internship selling life insurance for Northwestern Mutual. “It was amazing prep for this whole business because it’s just rejection every day,” says the Cornell grad, who entered Hollywood via another internship (at Paradigm) before ultimately landing in the WME mailroom and working his way up to assistant, going into the office seven days a week. In those days, the Rochester, New York, native lived so cheaply that he didn’t have Wi-Fi at his apartment, and would go to a nearby Starbucks for Wi-Fi so that he could stream shows like Dwayne Johnson’s Ballers. Now, Rabinowitz is on Johnson’s team, as he is for Taylor (who just directed her first movie, Paramount’s Get Lite), Butler (filming Joe Kosinski’s Miami Vice ’85) and Cage (starring in the next season of True Detective). In recent years, he also signed Dave Bautista, now starring in Amazon’s God of War, and helped Will Poulter go from well-regarded actor to TV producer on Apple’s Beat the Reaper. His roster also includes Lukas Gage, who just wrapped on the Prison Break revival, and Michael Gandolfini, who just shot a role in Daniels’ untitled Universal movie.

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “George Costanza.”

  MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Getting a Vitamin D deficiency from spending every hour of daylight in the mailroom.”

  THE BEST PLACE FOR A COFFEE MEETING IS “The Fountain Room.”

  BEST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN ABOUT WORKING IN HOLLYWOOD “It’s a relationship business.”

• Claudia Shin, 33

  

  Chum Films, senior vp film and TV

  LOGLINE Guides projects including Emmy darling Widow’s Bay for Hiro Murai’s busy production shingle.

  THE ARC How did a biomedical engineering major at Yale end up at one of Hollywood’s coolest production companies? For Shin, the story began with the Spike Jonze film Her. The 2013 movie inspired the Pasadena native to take a film class. Before long, she was taking on a second major in film and, later, landing a gig in UTA’s mailroom. “I thought I’d just start it off in Hollywood, and then really one job led to another and I never left,” she says. While working at Paramount TV Studios, she reconnected with Atlanta director-producer Murai, a client of a former UTA boss, and they hit it off. When Murai launched his first production company, Super Frog, Shin was his first hire. She’s worked with Murai ever since (now at his Chum Films), through season one of Amazon Prime’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith to FX’sThe Bear and Apple’s Widow’s Bay, which Shin produced. When she’s not on set, you can find her taking coffee meetings at her climbing gym, doing karaoke in Koreatown or traveling the world with her partner.

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes.”

  IF I HAD ONE WISH WILLOW, I’D WISH FOR … “Teleportation powers, so that I can be on set and sleep in my own bed.”

• Alix Taylor, 33

  

  Gloria Sanchez, head of TV

  LOGLINE Oversees a slate of nearly a dozen upcoming projects, including adaptations of Dream State and Prep.

  THE ARC Raised two blocks from her public library in Atlanta, Taylor was a self-proclaimed “psychotic reader.” In fact, she says, “We’d joke that when my mom was working, she’d drop me there and that was my day care.” Fittingly, she became a comparative literature major at Brown, though Taylor thought she, like her mom, would ultimately pursue a career in the art world. There were a few internships and early gigs, but in the end, Hollywood proved more alluring. After a quick stint with producer Nathan Kahane, Taylor found her way to Amazon’s comedy team, where she worked on series like Undone, Modern Love and Overcompensating before jumping to Will Ferrell’s company to run the TV division three and a half years ago. She’s since built a considerable slate, with projects in various stages of development, including several adaptations and one idea loosely inspired by Taylor’s time interning at Christie’s.

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “Jane from Broadcast News — but not in a depressing way.”

  MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Spending every Friday afternoon at my boss’ house turning on and off all the lights to check for burned-out bulbs.”

  IF I HAD A ONE WISH WILLOW, I’D WISH FOR … “Dramaturgically, this feels like a trap.”

• Christian Vazquez, 30

  

  Indie producer

  LOGLINE Lance Oppenheim’s right hand on You Can See Everything and Primetime.

  THE ARC If you were a firefighter in the mid-aughts and flashed your badge at Long Beach’s Regal movie theater, they’d usher you in for free. Such was the experience of Vazquez and his two siblings thanks to their firefighter dad, an immigrant from Mexico. Vazquez was a driven student and track athlete, and ultimately made his way to Harvard, where he met Oppenheim, who asked for his help producing his senior thesis film. That film became the Sundance darling Some Kind of Heaven, about the Villages retirement community in Florida. Spermworld and the HBO docuseries Ren Faire followed, but nothing compares to this year’s Elizabeth Holmes doc, a box office hit and an Oscar contender. The latter came just weeks after their first narrative feature, the Robert Pattinson starrer Primetime. Vazquez, a hands-on producer who never misses a day on set, has been out of town working on HBO’s Neighbors for the rollout of both films. His firefighter dad (now retired) has attended the premieres in his place, and has been introducing himself to talent, including Nathan Fielder.

  TALENT I’M DYING TO WORK WITH “Danny McBride.”

  BEST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN ABOUT WORKING IN HOLLYWOOD “Never ask someone to do something you wouldn’t do yourself.”

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “Shelley ‘The Machine’ Levene.”

• Allie Veneris, 34

  

  Brillstein, manager

  LOGLINE Navigating the careers of Cara Delevingne, whom she put in Club Kid, as well as Phil Dunster and Reacher spinoff star Maria Sten.

  THE ARC The Huntington Beach native grew up as a sports enthusiast who loved softball and golf. She studied film editing at Boulder before a friend suggested becoming a rep: “I was way too extroverted to be an editor,” she says with a laugh. The revelation led to an internship at Brillstein and then stints at Gersh, 360 and Authentic. Amid the strikes, she returned to Brillstein and has leaned into a personal passion for music and sports. The latter space fueled recent wins, like Sophie Nélisse booking Heated Rivalry a month after Veneris set up a general with creator Jacob Tierney. Ted Lasso breakout Dunster — Veneris’ frequent companion for Dodgers and Arsenal games — is not only joining the How to Train Your Dragon live-action franchise but has moved into writing and producing, as has longtime client Jessica Rothe, who leads the TIFF horror favorite River. Thanks to her obsession with online trends, Veneris jumped to work with gymnast-turned-content creator Livvy Dunne — making her acting debut on Fox’s Baywatch reboot — and would not rest until Cara Delevingne landed Club Kid, the Cannes sensation from former viral comedian Jordan Firstman.

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “A mix of Liz Lemon (30 Rock), Sutton Brady (The Bold Type) and Jimmy from Hacks.”

  IF I HAD ONE WISH WILLOW, I’D WISH … “To have the attention span of someone who has never heard of TikTok.”

  TALENT I’M DYING TO WORK WITH “Kristen Stewart … and any or all members of Blackpink.”

• Paige Wandling, 33

  

  Range, manager

  LOGLINE Reps hot TV talent Shailene Woodley and Fallout’s Ella Purnell.

  THE ARC A hostessing gig at a small Malibu restaurant gave Wandling her earliest brushes with Hollywood notables. “If I thought they could be someone, I would Google them,” she says. “Oh! That’s David Ellison. Oh my God, that’s Nicole Avant and Ted Sarandos.” The Pepperdine grad would have many more such brushes when she moved from ID PR to CAA, where she worked for David Bugliari, whom she’d later follow to Range. After getting a tip from an assistant friend that Woodley had parted ways with her manager, she spent the next year working sources for intel that could woo the actress. One such piece of intel paid off when she learned an actress had dropped out of Michael Mann’s Ferrari. Wandling helped coordinate a meeting between the actress and the filmmaker. Woodley got the part and signed with Range, with Wandling attending the Emmys this to watch her client win for Paradise. The Minneapolis native and former competitive dancer has also guided the careers of Purnell, Gabrielle Union and Furious star Lola Petticrew, who landed the co-lead in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed.

  MY FIRST JOB IN HOLLYWOOD ENTAILED … “Finding six dozen sunflowers the Saturday before Oscars Sunday for a client who wanted to decorate a fellow nominee’s hotel room with them.”

  BEST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN ABOUT WORKING IN HOLLYWOOD “The most important thing about any job in representation is to ‘anticipate the need.'” IT WAS FROM … “Publicist Leah Chang.”

• Caroline Warner, 33

  

  Apple TV, domestic programming executive

  LOGLINE Supports some of the streamer’s most ambitious TV bets, from Ascension to Disclaimer.

  THE ARC “I’ve always been obsessed with TV,” says Warner, who received a script from Charmed for her 10th birthday. The New York native parlayed that passion into a series of internships — at Katie Couric’s short-lived talk show, Piers Morgan Live and at Showtime — while still at Yale and, later, a post-grad gig in the WME mailroom. But after a job at Chernin, she was debating a career pivot, beginning with business school. It was her dad who advised her to try one more gig before deciding. That job was at Apple TV+, where Warner was the fourth-ever hire. Rising through the ranks, she’s now working with Alfonso Cuarón for the second time on his upcoming series Ascension and, already mother to a rescue dog named Winston, is expecting her first child.

  FICTIONAL CHARACTER I MOST IDENTIFY WITH “Dream: Rory Gilmore. Reality: Paris Geller.”

  PERSON IN HOLLYWOOD I’D TRADE PLACES WITH FOR A DAY “I feel like this is a cliche but I’d be lying if I said anyone other than Jeff Probst!”

  MOST HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE I’VE HAD “I had to babysit a puppet for four days on my first business trip. It was awesome.”

  This story appears in the Nov. 12 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.