Alex Cooper has left her representation at United Talent Agency and is in talks to sign with rival agencies, TheWrap has learned.
Bloomberg has reported that Cooper plans to sign with CAA. Representatives for CAA declined to comment.
News of Cooper’s exit from UTA comes days after her and her husband Matt Kaplan’s three-year-old media company Unwell reached a $500 million valuation, after an investment from WME co-founder Patrick Whitesell’s firm WTSL. Along with the flagship “Call Her Daddy” and a slate of other podcasts, Unwell has pushed to expand its operations; it now runs a creative agency and produces live events, nationwide tours, microdramas and streaming series, with credits including Hulu’s “Love Overboard,” Disney+’s “Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special” and Netflix’s “Let’s Marry Harry” and “Icebreaker.”
UTA has represented Cooper through the launch and growth of Unwell. A source at the media company says that Unwell leadership decided to reconsider its representation as it prepared for an aggressive expansion in scale, fueled by Whitesell’s investment stake. Along with its current slate of content and consumer products, Unwell is also looking to position itself as a content strategy consultant for advertisers and other media companies.
Representatives for Cooper and UTA did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
The exit from UTA also comes two months after Cooper and Kaplan were accused of fostering a toxic work environment at Unwell in a lengthy report by Vanity Fair that cited 40 sources, including 30 who were identified as either former or current employees. Cooper later pushed back against the allegations in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
“I will say that building a startup, there is so much growth that comes with that, and I am extremely proud of what we have built at Unwell,” Cooper said. “I will just kind of leave it at, ‘Don’t believe everything that you read on the internet.’ I think everyone knows that at this point.”
