Distinkt, a talent firm built for a large population of unrepresented creators and clients around the world, has launched out of Los Angeles and London.
The agency will use AI workflows and human agents to connect actors, directors, producers, editors. photographers and digital creatives with opportunities in key markets. Distinkt is up and running with nearly 2,000 clients in 43 countries.
The California-licensed company is founded by Robert Herman, Chris Gibbin and veteran communications executive Chris Day, who will serve as the agency’s chief spokesperson. Combined, they bring decades of experience across representation, film and commercial production and advertising. While not disclosed at launch, the new venture has been booking clients on varied projects including ad spots and scripted series and films since May.
We believe professional representation should be accessible
“We believe professional representation should be accessible to anyone with talent,” said CEO Herman. “We built Distinkt so that a significant part of the coordination and administration of agency work is managed by technology. That frees our agents to focus on judgment, evaluation and negotiation, and it means we can offer effective representation to far more of the world’s working creative talent.”
Distinkt arrives at a moment when Hollywood’s legacy agencies are urgently trying to unlock the earnings of the creator economy, and talent face an unprecedented work slump as production continues to flee Los Angeles. The agency estimates there are more than two million actors unrepresented worldwide and more than 50 million creators who are earning some income. The global creator economy market size, currently $310 billion in 2026, is estimated to reach $1.3 trillion by 2033, according to a 2026 Grand View Research study. Distinkt will not ask clients to be represented exclusively, freeing up the user base to sign with other firms.
Every Distinkt client receives four “AI teammates” on a proprietary platform to analyze work opportunities, as well as a panel of AI “specialists” in areas like legal compliance and contract analysis (trained and versed in guild standards in areas like the U.S., U.K., EU, EMEA, LATAM and Asia-Pacific markets). Human agents make all final decisions and broker deals.
Distinkt is free of charge for talent clients,
Distinkt is free of charge for talent clients, who can leverage the platform to browse opportunities and receive media and career analysis as agents hustle for work. Internal thinking at Distinkt is that the three-letter agencies like CAA and WME represent star talent at the height of their earning power. They’re going after untapped pools like the some 70% of SAG-AFTRA members they estimate do not have agents.
“The traditional representation model has served the industry incredibly well and continues to serve many artists at the highest levels of their careers,” said Gibbin. “But the economics of that model inevitably mean that a huge amount of talent around the world remains unrepresented or underrepresented. Distinkt is designed to reach more of those people and give them a genuine advocate and a pathway into the creative economy.”
Distinkt is currently privately held, but will likely seek investment in the coming months as clients surge.
“We’re using technology to give agents superpowers, not to replace them,” said Herman. “Finding an opportunity is only the beginning. A great agent team has to understand what that opportunity is worth, know where there is room to push and fight for the best possible deal. We’ve built technology to help our agency do all of those things better.”
