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CAA Layoffs Hit TV & Film Departments – Update

EXCLUSIVE, UPDATED with names: CAA is letting go of a number of agents Friday. I hear the cuts are primarily impacting the television — scripted and unscripted — and film departments. Overall, the staff reductions are said to involve more than 20 people, with one estimate putting the number in the 20-30 range. Not all of the cuts are happening today; more departures are expected in the coming weeks.

As Deadline reported last month, CAA in October started the process of year-end evaluations and department reviews that would result in staff exits; today’s layoffs are said to be part of that.

UPDATE: Names of agents impacted by the cuts have started to emerge. The list includes TV lit agent Adam Biren and non-scripted TV agent Shade Grant, who represent the two sides of the merged agency, CAA and ICM, respectively. Their departures came as a surprise as they were not among names bandied about.

Watch on Deadline

Other notable, established agents leaving CAA include Joel Begleiter, Tyler Kroos and Kara Petit (TV) and Ashley Harrison and Ruby Kaye (film). There are a couple of agents who are transitioning to other companies; we will report on their whereabouts when they land in the next few days. The list also includes several coordinators.

A rep for CAA, which employees about 3,400 people, declined comment.

The move comes amid intense scrutiny, with lists of CAA agents rumored to exit, including veterans with established client rosters, circulating around town over the past couple of weeks. It also joins a similar round of end-of-year staff cuts at UTA last week.

Today’s departures follow CAA’s March layoffs when just under 20 people were let go across a handful of departments in content areas including talent.

CAA just crossed the one-year mark under its new owner, Francois-Henri Pinault’s Artémis, which completed a majority stake acquisition in September 2023. Just before that, in August 2023 — amid the double WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike — about 60 CAA staffers were laid off in departments such as TV Lit, music and IT.

Peter White and Matt Grobar contributed to this report.

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