UTA names Matt Rice President of new Filmed Entertainment unit
Matt Rice has been promoted to President of UTA Filmed Entertainment. He will run a new division that brings the agency's film, television and talent teams under one roof.
UTA chief executive David Kramer announced the changes in a memo to staff, as reported by Variety. Rice will lead overall strategy and execution across all areas of the unit. Kramer sent the note to staff on the day of the announcement.
The Filmed Entertainment group combines three departments. They are Motion Picture Literary, Television Literary and Talent. Literary agents work with writers. Talent agents work with actors and performers.
Amanda Hymson and Jordan Lonner will lead Motion Picture Literary, the film writing side. Lucinda Moorhead and Mickey Berman will run TV Literary, the television writing side. The appointments put day to day leadership of both writing teams in the hands of paired co-heads.
On the talent side, Hanley Baxter and John Sacks will steer the department alongside longstanding talent chief Mike Jelline. That keeps an established name in place while adding two senior agents to the leadership.
Four agents have been elevated to managing partners of Filmed Entertainment. They are Allan Haldeman, Blair Kohan, Jay Gassner and Julien Thuan. Managing partners sit above department heads and help set priorities across the business.
UTA has also formed a wider Filmed Entertainment board to support the new structure. The 16-person group includes Jelline, Berman and Moorhead, plus Jason Burns, Marissa Devins, Dan Erlij, Chris Hart, Jason Heyman, Keya Khayatian, Rich Klubeck, Billy Lazarus, Gregory McKnight, David Park, Theresa Peters, Shani Rosenzweig and Larry Salz.
Rice is a long-time figure inside the agency. He joined UTA in 2002 after starting at the Broder Kurland literary agency. He later became head of the television department, which covers literary, talent, scripted and unscripted work, and he joined UTA's Board of Directors in 2014, according to earlier trade reports.
For viewers at home, this kind of change rarely appears on screen. Agencies negotiate deals for writers and actors and help assemble the packages that studios and streamers buy. Putting film, television and talent in one organisation can make it simpler to connect a script, its writer and its cast.
