Creative Artists Agency

Creative Artists Agency

CAA logo
Company type	Private
Founded	Beverly Hills, California, USA (1975)
Founder	Michael Ovitz
Headquarters	Century City, Los Angeles, California (USA)
Key people	Richard Lovett, President Kevin Huvane, Managing Partner Steve Lafferty, Head of Television Rob Light, Managing Partner and Head of Music Bryan Lourd, Managing Partner David O'Connor, Managing Partner
Website	http://www.caa.com

New CAA building in Century City, California

Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is a prominent entertainment and sports agency headquartered in Los Angeles. CAA represents A-list and emerging stars in movies, television, music, and sports. It is often cited as the leading talent agency, and its clients include Steven Spielberg, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Charice, LeBron James, Peyton Manning, Sidney Crosby, Will Ferrell and Will Smith.

History

CAA was founded in 1975 by five dissident talent agents employed by the William Morris Agency. Michael Rosenfeld, Michael Ovitz, Ron Meyer, William Haber and Rowland Perkins met over dinner one night after they discovered that they all had the same idea in mind: creating an agency of their own. As Ovitz reminisced in a 1985 New York Times article, 'We all sang the same tune, and we came out of that dinner with a clear understanding of how we were going to do it.' However, before they could obtain adequate financing for their new venture, they were fired.

By early 1975, Creative Artists Agency was in business, with a $35,000 line of credit and a $21,000 bank loan, in a small rented office outfitted with card tables and folding chairs. The five agents had only two cars among them, and their wives took turns as agency receptionist. Within about a week, according to one industry insider, they had sold their first three packages, a game show called 'Rhyme and Reason', the 'Rich Little Show' and the 'Jackson Five Show'.

At first, CAA's founders planned to form a medium-sized, full-service agency — one that was as unlike Morris as possible in approach and feel. Ovitz, who shortly assumed de facto leadership of the agency, described the company's corporate culture as a blend of Eastern philosophy and team sports. 'I liken myself to the guy running down the court with four other players and throwing the ball to the open guy,' he once said. Their partnership was based on teamwork with proceeds shared equally. There were no nameplates on doors, no formal titles, no individual agent client lists. Work practices followed the company's two 'commandments': Be a team player and return phone calls promptly. There was an endless stream of meetings and talk. Because of this, others sometimes referred to CAA agents as the "Moonies" of the business according to the authors of Hit and Run, the best-selling Hollywood insider account by Griffin and Masters.

Beverly Hills building

Original CAA building in Beverly Hills, designed by I.M. Pei

By the mid 1980s, CAA had outgrown its leased office space, and in 1989 the company moved into its own I.M. Pei designed building at the intersection of Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevards in Beverly Hills. The building was Pei's first work in the Los Angeles area and is considered one of his best buildings.

Like most of Pei's work, the 75,000-square-foot (7,000 m²), three story building is a series of geometric forms: consisting of two curved wings, one mainly of glass and one mainly of masonry, set around a central atrium with a skylight that rises to become a low, conical glass tower. The vast 57-foot (17 m) high atrium was designed as an art-filled formal reception hall with a 100-seat screening room and gourmet kitchen and displays a 27-foot (8.2 m) by 18-foot (5.5 m) mural by Roy Lichtenstein, "Bauhaus Stairway: The Large Version". The mural was created specifically for the building and is too large to move. Ovitz was enamored of Asian culture, and incorporated feng shui design practices to allow chi, or positive energy, to flow smoothly through the building.

The building became an icon in the entertainment industry because of its location in Beverly Hills and symbolized the power and influence of CAA. Ovitz still owns the building along with three of his former CAA colleagues — Universal Studios President Ron Meyer, producer Bill Haber and former Chief Financial Officer Robert Goldman.

Expansion

With its stable full of actors and about $90 million in annual bookings in the late 1980s, the agency, led by Ovitz, decided to get into movies. CAA used its growing leverage to apply packaging to the film industry.

Instead of the ten percent agents typically made on a contract, CAA insisted upon a share in the product. Some, including former William Morris Agency agent David Geffen, blamed CAA in the press for throwing Hollywood's economy out of balance. Representing much of the major talent in the industry, CAA reputedly drove up salaries, and thus, the cost of making movies.

By the mid-1990s, CAA divided its agents into two camps: traditional agents, who oversaw the careers of CAA's 1,000 stars, and specialists, whose expertise in investment banking, consulting, and advertising made CAA into a one-stop shop for digital media. When Ron Meyer and Michael Ovitz left in 1995 for MCA and Disney respectively, the entertainment community watched to see if CAA would fall from the top.

New management

The new team headed by Richard Lovett, devised a four-point strategy for keeping competitors at bay during its transitional year: Make sure the 100-plus agents remain committed to the new CAA; re-sign longtime clients whose primary relationship was with Ovitz or Meyer; sign up new clients; and put together new movies.

Ovitz, Meyer, and Haber's departure led inevitably to an exodus of some of CAA's top-marquee names. In addition, there was some internal turmoil with respect to management. Talent Agent Jay Moloney was originally part of the transition team. However, due to his increasingly serious drug addiction, he was fired and later committed suicide.

In 2006, CAA began its expansion into sports. Athletes such as LeBron James, Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning, David Beckham, and Cristiano Ronaldo and many agents from IMG have joined CAA. The Sports Business Journal called CAA "the dominant sports agency in the United States." And USA Today said, "In little more than one rim-rattling year, Creative Artists Agency--longtime superpower of actors, directors, writers, musicians and entertainment/corporate deal-making--has built CAA Sports from concept to colossus."

After years in Beverly Hills, in January 2007 CAA moved to a new building in Century City, a district in Los Angeles. The new headquarters are sometimes referred to by those outside of CAA as "The Death Star". The new building is even featured in the video game Midnight Club: Los Angeles.

In March 2009 Fast Company named CAA among the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World, alongside Apple, Google, Team Obama and others, noting that "in Hollywood, there's CAA and then there's everybody else." Fortune named CAA "the entertainment industry's most influential organization."

CAA has offices in Los Angeles, CA; New York City, NY; Nashville, TN; London, England; Beijing, China; St. Louis, MO; Calgary, Canada; and Stockholm, Sweden.

External links

• CAA Touring Website
• CAA Speakers Website
• CAA Entertainment Website
• CAA Sports Website
• CAA College Entertainment Website
• IMDBPro information
• Article in Variety about CAA
• Slideshow: CAA's Innovation Machine