Agencies
APA: Comedian, actress and author Paula Poundstone has signed with John Griffin for talent and literary representation. She continues to be repped by WME Entertainment for personal appearances. Poundstone recently released her second comedy album I Heart Jokes: Paula Tells Them in Boston. She also continues to be a regular panelist on the NPR weekly quiz show Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me. Poundstone started her comedy career at open-mic nights in Boston in the late seventies, eventually moving to Los Angeles under the encouragement of Robin Williams. She soon landed a stand-up comedy set on Saturday Night Live and appeared in her first HBO comedy special Cats, Cops and Stuff. For her performance on the HBO special, Poundstone became the first woman to win a CableACE best comedy special award. She has since appeared in multiple comedy specials, including Paula Poundstone Goes to Harvard, the first time Harvard allowed its name to be used in conjunction with a television show. In addition to her talk show appearances, Poundstone worked as a political correspondent for The Tonight Show during the 1992 Presidential Campaig and also had a recurring role on the series Cybill. She is an author as well and penned the humor book Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say in 2006. Poundstone was inducted into the Comedy Hall of Fame in 2010 and has been named one of Comedy Central’s 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All-Time.
CAA: Actor Tony Danza is now repped by Jimmy Darmody, Matthew Del Piano, Michael Rosenfeld and Bryan Lourd. Danza is currently in the midst of a career comeback, after giving a memorable performance earlier this year in the Joseph Gordon-Levitt feature Don Jon. He also earned raves playing Vegas kingpin Tommy Korman in the stage adaptation of Honeymoon in Vegas. Danza started out as a professional boxer when a television producer discovered him at a boxing gym in New York. Danza was soon cast in the iconic television series Taxi, playing the role of Tony Banta, a cab driver and part-time boxer. Immediately after Taxi’s run ended, Danza went on to star in another classic sitcom Who’s the Boss?, which ran for eight seasons. Danza’s subsequent television roles have included a voice role on the Look Who’s Talking follow-up, Baby Talk, as well as Hudson Street, The Tony Danza Show, The Practice and Family Law. On the feature side, Danza’s roles have included appearances in Cannonball Run II, She’s Out of Control, Angels in the Outfield and Meet Wally Sparks. More recently, Danza became an author, writing I’d like to Apologize to Every Teacher I’ve Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High, a memoir about his year-long experience teaching in an inner city high school. Award-wise, Danza was nominated in 1998 for an Emmy for his guest role on The Practice. He has also been nominated for four Golden Globes for his work on both Who’s The Boss? and Taxi.
CAA: Writer and director Ben Lewin is now repped by Craig J. Brody and Spencer Baumgarten. Lewin recently returned to directing after almost a decade away from the screen, helming 2012’s indie hit The Sessions. The buzzed-about feature garnered its star Helen Hunt an Oscar nomination. It also won the 2012 Sundance Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Cast, as well as acting awards at the Independent Spirit Awards. Lewin originally started out as a criminal barrister before he joined National Film School in England. First making a splash with his episode of ITV Playhouse “The Case of Cruelty to Prawns,” Lewin began a prolific directing career in both the U.K. and Australia. Among his more notable credits were the feature film Georgia, starring Judy Davis, which received eight Australian Film Institute nominations and Dunera Boys starring Bob Hoskins, which won an Australian Writers’ Guild award. Lewin’s U.S. credits have included mostly comedies, such as Paperback Romance with Anthony LaPaglia, The Favor, the Watch and the Really Big Fish with Bob Hoskins and Jeff Goldblum, as well as the documentary Hollywood Gold. His U.S. television credits include an episode of Ally McBeal, as well as Touched by Angel. Lewin currently has several projects in development.
Equitable Stewardship for Artists (ESA): Busy television director and producer Sanford Bookstaver is now repped by Paul Alan Smith. Bookstaver most recently directed episodes of White Collar, Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Graceland and The Night Shift. After graduating from the USC School of Cinema-Television in 1995, Bookstaver wrote and directed the indie feature Scriptfellas, which starred Paul Carafotes and Paul Sorvino. Soon after, Bookstaver landed his first television directing gigs, helming episodes of The Others and Manhattan, AZ. He quickly became a sought after director and producer of television dramas, handling multiple episodes of such series as The Chronicle and Fastlane. More recently, he has directed multiple episodes series such as The OC, Bones, Jericho, Cane, Harper’s Island and Revenge. Over his career, he has also directed single episodes of Dawson’s Creek, One Tree Hill Burn Notice, Crash, Prison Break and many others. Bookstaver remains co-repped by CAA.
ICM Partners: Actor Derek Luke is now repped by Carter Cohen, Brian Mann, Doug MacLaren and Dar Rollins. Luke will next be seen in the Ryan Reynolds sci-fi feature Self/Less, as well as an untitled feature directed by Chris Messina. Luke also appeared in the feature comedy Baggage Claim earlier this year, opposite Paula Patton. Luke got his big break when he won the lead role as Antwone Fisher in 2002’s Antwone Fisher. The film was Denzel Washington’s directorial debut and Luke ended up winning an Independent Spirit Award for his performance. He subsequently went on to appear in features such as Pieces of April, Friday Night Lights, Catch a Fire, Glory Road, Lions for Lambs, Miracle at St. Anna, Notorious, Captain America: The First Avenger, Sparkle and Seeking A Friend for the End of the World. He also played the character Cameron Boone on the television series Trauma and has appeared in an arc on TNT’s Hawthorne. He also appeared in the CBS drama pilot Second Sight and had an arc on FX’s The Americans earlier this year.
ICM Partners: Actor Jonas Armstrong is now repped by Carter Cohn, Dar Rollins and Andrew Kurland. Armstrong will next be seen in the Tom Cruise feature Edge of Tomorrow, currently in post-production. Armstrong is also starring in the Mark Schmidt-directed feature Walking with the Enemy, which screened at this year’s Hamptons International Film Festival. After graduating from Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2003, Armstrong worked as a stage actor before landing role in six episodes on the Channel 4 comedy-drama Teachers. Following that series, he landed his breakout role as the title character in the BBC One series Robin Hood. Armstrong has since gone on to appear in multiple episodes of series such as The Street, The Field of Blood, Prisoners Wives and Hit & Miss. He also appeared in the horror film Book of Blood and the thriller Twenty8k. Armstrong will soon appear opposite Martin Sheen in the television film The Whale, which is slated to air on Animal Planet in the summer of 2014.
WME Entertainment: British actress Michelle Dockery has been signed in all areas. Dockery currently stars as Lady Mary Crawley on PBS’ hit series Downton Abbey, a role for which she received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She was also nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for the role, as well as a Golden Globe. Dockery started out in theatre making her professional debut in His Dark Materials at the Royal National Theatre. She has since continued to lead a highly successful career as a stage actress, winning an Olivier nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 2009’s Burnt by the Sun. In 2005, Dockery made her television debut, appearing as Betty on the BBC mini-series Fingersmith. She has appeared in many television roles since that point, including playing Kathryn Taylor in the Red Riding Trilogy, as well as guest role on Waking the Dead. In 2012, Dockery landed her breakout role on Downton Abbey. She has subsequently appeared in the Joe Wright feature Hanna, as well as last year’s Anna Karenina. Dockery will next appear in the feature Non-Stop, opposite Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore. She was also cast as Sir Ben Kingsley’s daughter in the Tarsem Singh-directed feature Self/Less.
Management Companies
Brillstein Entertainment Partners: Big Time Rush star James Maslow is now repped by Andrea Pett-Joseph and Colton Gramm. Acting since childhood, Maslow began vocal training at the age of six and was cast in the San Diego Opera’s production of La bohème at only ten years old. After graduating from Coronado School of the Arts in 2007, Maslow garnered success early, landing a guest role on iCarly the very same year he graduated. Soon afterwards, Maslow was cast in the Nickelodeon series Big Time Rush, which became a hit with tween viewers and turned Maslow into a teen idol. Maslow starred on that series for four seasons and has even toured as a member of the band. He has also appeared on the series See Dad Run as Ricky and Marvin Marvin as himself. Maslow and Big Time Rush released a new album called 24/Seven earlier this year.