With major Hollywood talent agencies often seeking to cannibalize smaller companies or make acquisitions, some smaller companies face the question of whether to merge — out of necessity or out of choice — to avoid that fate.
For Dattner Dispoto & Associates (founded 1987) and Worldwide Production Agency (founded 2010), principals say their merger was the result of opportunity and the opportunity to work with like-minded agents. “This is how we can maintain independence without having to stay somewhere,” says Steve Jacob, co-CEO of the global production agency. Hollywood Reporter.
Both companies represent notable film, television and commercial talent, including Academy Award winners Mank cinematographer Eric Messerschmidt, Social network lensed by Jeff Cronenweth, Doctrine Cinematographer Maryse Alberti, Back rooms Production designer Danny Vermette, X-Men producer Ralph Winter, After fishing Cinematographer Malik Saeed W Mr. Cinematographer Mihai Malimard Jr
Dattner Dispoto & Associates, now known as DDA Talent following the retirement of Faye Dattner, who founded the company in her New York City apartment in 1987, has 9 employees in the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles, where it is run by President Bill Dispoto and Vice President Juanita Tiangco.
The global production agency has a presence in both Los Angeles and the UK, a key aspect of the deal in terms of expanding the combined company’s scope to match clients with more opportunities globally in a production landscape that has become a race for tax incentives for film and TV shooting. The company, run by Jacob and co-CEO Frank Balkin, has 25 employees. The bulk of the agency will move in with the DDA in the Bradbury Building in August.
This is around the same time that the combined agency will be rebranded and renamed, ending the individual identities of Dattner Dispoto and Worldwide Production Agency. Dispoto began working with Dattner in 1995, and became a partner several years later (“Dattner Dispoto was neither a small business nor a huge conglomerate, but was thriving as a hybrid company”). THR I once described the agency.)
“Bringing our teams together allows us to offer our clients greater opportunities, deeper resources and a truly global platform while maintaining the individual approach that defines both agencies,” Tiangco added.
While Jacob and Despoto have known each other for years, talks to merge the two companies began in earnest during a meeting at the Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival last fall. As the business changed and film and television production increasingly moved overseas, the directors decided that expansion finally made sense to offer more agent resources as well as having a firm foothold in the main production center of London as well as Los Angeles.
Jacob began his Hollywood career at Gersh and started his first woodworking business in 2000, Gravity Talent Agency, which was signed by the Julia Kole Agency a year later. In 2010, he merged his company with Richard Caleel’s Caleel Agency to form Global Production Agency (Caleel left in 2020 to launch production services company In Plain Sight).
Now another merger aims to bring together the below-the-line company. “The entertainment industry is evolving rapidly and the demand for world-class creative talent has never been greater,” said Frank Balkin, co-CEO of the global production agency. “This merger creates one of the largest independent agencies dedicated to below-the-line talent. It positions us to better serve our clients across film, television, streaming, advertising and emerging media while continuing to champion the artists who bring stories to life.”
