UTA Agents Discuss LGBTQ+ Representation and the Business of Drag Artists in Hollywood

Last year, United Talent Agency was one of the first agencies in Hollywood to achieve the Human Rights Campaign Equality 100 award as leaders in the LGBTQ workspace inclusion. Not only is it a positive environment for its queer agents, but those agents also have the autonomy in who they want to represent. “We’ve built a really great business in representing overall LGBTQ+ talent, specifically within that niche, representation for drag artists,” said agent Pranav Mandavia.

Mandavia recalled when the company signed its first drag artist a few years ago. “There were no phone calls from the leader saying, ‘Why did you sign this person? What’s the business proposition?’” Rather, the response was accepting that the agents were passionate and were told “build a business.”

Since then, UTA has become a trailblazing leader in representing drag artists including Monét X Change, Violet Chachki, Bob the Drag Queen, Trixie Mattel, Katya Zamolodchikova and Gottmik. And that roster is ever growing.

Mandavia was joined by his colleagues Jacob Fenton – partner and agent (TV Talent), Ugo Obioha, agent (MP Lit), Michael Grinspan, agent (Comedy Touring) and Lucinda Moorhead, partner and agent (TV Lit) to discuss the business of pride, drag and LGBTQ+ representation within UTA, but also externally.

Having been with the agency for over 24 years, Fenton has seen UTA evolve and create a comfortable, strong and supportive environment for its LGBTQ+ employees. “It’s a good business decision because it creates more opportunities for clients in that community,” he said.

Moorhead, who has been with the agency for 13 years, added the internal support ripples down to its agents and empowers them to reflect that strength in work. The community is still greatly underrepresented in many ways, but progress is being made slowly.

While Pride month is important to many brands ensuring they’re working to be allies, the agents work year-round with brands, businesses and Hollywood executives all year round. Globally, LGBTQ+ spending power sits at $3.1 trillion. Companies and brands are looking to do better with LGBTQ+ inclusion and show support for equality, and strategically explore ways of tapping into that spending power.

Grinspan fields calls to potential buyers across the country explaining the commercial value of drag shows. The spending power speaks for itself, as do ticket sales. Grinspan said, “Drag has one of the highest average ticket prices of any touring standup. The social media following of a drag queen is generally five to ten times higher than a standup who sells a similar number of tickets.”

Drag queens are also renowned for doing their makeup and hair, and many thrive in that space using their social media platforms as a place to showcase their talent. When Mandavia talks to brands, he’ll share backend analytics from social media to show the value and power of drag artists who do their glam.

However, for every brand willing to form partnerships, some are rooted in conservative values — that’s where he steps forward to educate clients. “It’s my job as an agent, as a representative of these queens or these artists, whether they’re a drag artist or just an LGBTQ+ creator to show that there’s an audience and you should be partnering with these voices because they’re prolific.”

It’s not just drag queens on their roster. Elliot Page and Mj Rodriguez are among their many LGBTQ+ clients. Fenton noted brands such as Gucci and Charlotte Tilbury have used their clients for campaigns. Page recently was the face of Gucci. Such a partnership is essential and signals a move of the needle in the right direction of representation.

Unfortunately, certain states aren’t as progressive and have been pushing forward anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Obioha points out that this has negatively impacted LGBTQ+. representation in entertainment. But despite that, production houses are pushing back to counter that narrative. “Many of these production houses are led by LGBTQ+ creators. So I do think that there has been an increase and a trend to push for said narratives, and a lot of it is driven by the production houses, but also driven by our clients who write these stories either on the spec script that they’d like to set up these production homes.”

The agents also discussed the importance of allyship and the ways Hollywood and businesses have moved forward in their endeavors to support LGBTQ+ representation.

Fenton said there’s still a way for Hollywood to go. “I think it equally important to shift their representation on screen to not being the story, but being part of the story.”

Watch the conversation above.