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User:JSFarman/sandbox/Aleen Keshishian

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Aleen Keshishian
Born (1968-02-03) February 3, 1968 (age 56)
Beirut, Lebanon
NationalityArmenian
CitizenshipAmerican
Alma materHarvard University
OccupationTalent manager
Years active1990-present
OrganizationLighthouse Management & Media
SpouseKit Troyer (m. 2000)
Parent(s)Cecile and Kevork Keshishian
RelativesAlek Keshishian (brother)

Aleen Keshishian is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American talent manager and producer. She is the founder and CEO of Lighthouse Management & Media, a Los Angeles-based talent management, production & media company.[1][2][3]

Early life and education[edit]

Keshishian was born in Beirut, Lebanon to Armenian parents, Cecile Keshishian and Dr Kevork Keshishian. The family immigrated to the United States in 1969, when Aleen was nine months old. They lived briefly in Brookline, Massachusetts, and then moved to Manchester, New Hampshire. [4] Immersed in the Armenian community, the Keshishians often housed Armenian refugees, and Keshishian and her older brother, Alek, grew up speaking English and Armenian.[5]

As a child, she studied acting, dancing, and singing at the American Children's School the Performing Arts, and at 7, she joined the American Children's Theater. She toured nationally as a member of ACT, and played a leading role in musicals such asThe Sound of Music and The King and I. She played Gretel in several productions of Hansel and Gretel, a role she repeated when ACT debuted at Lincoln Center. She was cast in Use Your Smarts, a television series produced by WCVB, the ABC affiliate in Boston, when she was 14. [6][4]

Keshishian went to secondary school at St. Paul's School, a private boarding school in Concord, New Hampshire. She became interested in production for the stage, and directed a musical in her senior year at St. Paul's. [7] [8] She attended Harvard University, where she focused on the arts and women's studies. She considered becoming a photographer, and in her senior year a collection of her photographs was exhibited in Images of Desire, a group show at Tryptich Gallery. [9]She graduated magna cum laude in 1990 with a degree in fine arts.[1]

Career[edit]

Juliet Taylor, ICM, Natalie Portman[edit]

Following her sophomore year at Harvard, through the Armenian General Benevolent Union Summer Internship Program, Keshishian interned for Paula Herold, a Manhattan-based casting agent. After her graduation, she returned to New York and "set out to do the impossible" -- get a job with Juliet Taylor, a casting director then considered "the best and by far the most important" casting director. Keshishian came to Taylor's attention through a Harvard classmate who was working in the production office of a Woody Allen film Taylor was casting. She was hired in late 1990, and with Taylor, she worked on films directed by Allen, Martin Scorcese, and Steven Spielberg, among others.[10]

Keshishian interacted with talent agents while working with Taylor, and at 25 she was recruited by Sam Cohn of ICM.[3] She was encouraged to take a job at ICM by her brother, Alek, who had directed the Madonna documentary Truth or Dare, and become a successful filmmaker at the age of 26.[11] Mentored by Cohn, a "super-agent of the modern age" with "near-mythical powers as a dealmaker,"[12] Keshishian's first client was Natalie Portman. They originally met when Keshishian worked with Taylor, and Portman, then 10, auditioned for a film role.[13] At ICM, in addition to working with directors such as Spike Lee and Darren Aronofsky, she focused on building the careers of young artists including Adrien Brody, Edward Norton, Julianna Margulies, Orlando Bloom and Skeet Ulrich. [14] Cohn and others urged Keshishian was to move to Los Angeles to be closer to the film industry, but she remained in New York for several years, based in part on her work in the city's theater and independent film industry.[15]

AMG/The Firm, Brillstein Entertainment Partners[edit]

In the late 1990s Keshishian began to consider a move to Los Angeles, a reflection of her interest in a career change as well as an increasing concentration in film. Her ICM contract expired in 1999, and after a lengthy campaign to recruit her by AMG principals Rick Yorn and Michael Ovitz, [16]she accepted a position as the company's co-head of talent. Several of her ICM clients followed her to AMG, including Bloom, Laura Linney, Marguiles, Norton, Emily Mortimer, Portman and Paul Rudd.[17][18] In 2002, as Ovitz withdrew from the entertainment industry "after a string of failures and the rise of a new generation of Hollywood talent brokers," AMG was was acquired by The Firm. Keshishian remained at the Firm until 2005.[19]

In August 2005 Keshishian left The Firm to join Brillstein Entertainment Partners (then known as Brillstein Grey). As with her transition from ICM to AMG, she was followed by most of her clients.[20] She later became a partner in the company, and over the next ten years, with her client list expanding to include Jennifer Aniston, Selena Gomez, Gwyneth Paltrow and Mark Ruffalo, she "built one of the company’s most impressive client rosters."[21] In 2014, after 21 years of working together, Portman moved to France and Keshishian transitioned from managing her film career to becoming an advisor.[13]

Lighthouse Management & Media[edit]

In February 2016, after a longtime partnership at Brillstein, she founded Lighthouse Management & Media. In a 2017 interview, she said that the entertainment industry had changed, and that because most of her clients were multi-hyphenates, talent managers could not be "an expert in one field anymore." To address the changes in the industry, Lighthouse established practices related digital media, branding and licensing, and new distribution and financing entities. Keshishian serves as CEO of the company. As of June 2019, her clients included Aniston, Jason Bateman, Bloom, Josh Gad, Gomez, Dakota Johnson, Linney, Paltrow, Rudd, and Ruffalo, as well as writer/directors Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky, and director Jesse Peretz.[22][2]

Philanthropy and personal life[edit]

Keshishian is involved in several philanthropies, and serves as the entertainment liason for WE (formerly Free the Children). In addition to booking talent for the organization's educational events, she has volunteered on the ground -- among other efforts, she helped to build a school in Kenya.[23] She continues to be active in Armenian cultural organizations and education advocacy initiatives.[22][11][24]

Keshishian and her husband, Kit Troyer, a criminal defense attorney, met at Harvard. They live in Los Angeles, and have two children, Lulu and Jesse. Her parents, Cecile and Kevork, gained notoriety through their movie reviews on Chelsea Lately, on a regular segment titled Keeping Up with the Keshishians. [25]Her brother, Alek, continues to work in the film and media industry.[26]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Sneider, Jeff (September 22, 2011). "Keshishian: Managing hopes and dreams". Variety. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  2. ^ a b Fleming, Jr, Mike (February 2, 2016). "Aleen Keshishian Leaves Brillstein Entertainment Partners To Form Lighthouse Management". The Wrap. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  3. ^ a b Kathy Caprino. "Top A-List Hollywood Talent Manager Shares Her Key Strategies For Phenomenal Success". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
  4. ^ a b Boynton, Paul (May 1, 1983). "Hats Off to Aleen". Sunday New Hampshire. pp. 23, 24.
  5. ^ ՆՈՐ ՕՐ Շաբաթաթերթ, Նեւսպապերր, 18 October, 2017
  6. ^ Aleen Keshishian Cast in Prime Time TV Series, November 23, 1982, Manchester Union Leader, page B1
  7. ^ Clayton, John F (May 6, 1991), Tea With the 'Material Girl', New Hampshire Union Leader
  8. ^ "Aleen Keshishian '86 thanked in an Oscar acceptance speech". sps.edu. St. Paul's School. March 10, 2011. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  9. ^ Moritz, Susanne Petrin (February 22, 1990). "Student Gallery Opens To Mixed Media and Review". Harvard Crimson.
  10. ^ "AGBU New York Summer Internship Holds Reception". The Armenian Mirror-Spectator. August 21, 1993. pp. 5, 6.
  11. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference AGBU was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Staff (May 12, 2009). "Sam Cohn (Obituary)". The Telegraph. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  13. ^ a b Fleming, Jr., Mike (July 11, 2014). "After 21 Years, Natalie Portman And Aleen Keshishian Change Rep Relationship". Deadline. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  14. ^ Weinraub, Bernard (December 7, 1998). "Woodhaven to Hollywood: Pivotal Point on the Road; Is the Busy Adrien Brody Headed for Stardom?". New York Times. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  15. ^ Goldner, Dana (August 29, 1997). "Agents Go Gotham". Variety. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  16. ^ Hirschberg, Lynn (May 9, 1999). "Michael Ovitz is on the Line". New York Times Magazine. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  17. ^ Mills, Nancy (January 2, 2005). "THE HEAT IS ON... Ten talented young actors take a shot at stardom". New York Daily News. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  18. ^ Shprintz, Janet (July 27, 2006). "The Handlers: Women's Impact Report". Variety. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  19. ^ "The Firm Will Buy Much of AMG As Ovitz Retreats From Hollywood". Wall Street Journal. May 6, 2002. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  20. ^ Brodresser, Claude (July 5, 2005). "Firm loses talent grip". Variety. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  21. ^ Sneider, Jeff (February 2, 2006). "Marvel Stars Paul Rudd, Mark Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow to Exit Management Company Brillstein Entertainment Partners". The Wrap. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  22. ^ a b Mirak-Weissbach, Muriel (February 2, 2017). "Armenian Women in Hollywood Are Movers and Shakers". Armenian Mirror Spectator. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  23. ^ "Free the Children Annual Report" (PDF). cdn.we.org. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  24. ^ "AGBU Focus" (PDF). Focus 2011. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  25. ^ Maglio, Tony (August 26, 2014). "Chelsea Handler Gets Epic 'We Are the World' Sendoff From Hollywood's A-List (Video)". The Wrap. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  26. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nor was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

External links[edit]

Kit Troyer's blog

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