UTA Agents Discuss LGBTQ+ Representation and the Business of Drag Artists in Hollywood
Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor 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.
