“Call Her Daddy” star podcaster and media entrepreneur Alex Cooper has outgrown United Talent Agency.
Cooper shook up the agency and creator worlds when word got out on Sunday that she had left UTA, where she had been for over six years. Bloomberg reported that Cooper plans to sign with CAA, though one insider told TheWrap this was not a certainty. The move 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.
Cooper’s ambitions to turn Unwell into a media powerhouse is the most compelling reason to move to CAA, which has spent the last few years building up its creator practice — including launching a $250 million holding company focused just on creators. But the change comes as she deals with controversies like allegations of cultivating a toxic work environment and more bad PR on the horizon from former employee and fellow star podcaster Alix Earle. Earle is represented by UTA.
From a business perspective, it made sense for a creator of her stature to move to CAA.
“CAA has cemented its role in the last three to five years as the true number one,” said a longtime agency executive. “So if someone is truly at the peak of their career, the question that used to be asked is no longer asked. CAA is the choice.”
A UTA insider disputed that, noting that Oren Rosenbaum who heads Creators at the agency, has built the most dominant roster of talent, including Earle, MrBeast, Mel Robbins and many others. Rosenbaum also architected Cooper’s massive $125 million deal with Sirius XM in 2024.
CAA , UTA and Cooper’s representatives did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Unwell’s rise
Cooper operates the Unwell Network with her husband and film producer Matt Kaplan (“To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”). Over the last three years, the media network signed podcasting talent to join the ranks of “Call Her Daddy,” including Owen Thiele, Harry Jowsey, Hallie Batchelder and Earle, who was notably dropped from the network in early 2025.
Like other podcast networks, Unwell has benefited from the explosion of interest in video podcasts from audiences and, crucially, streamers looking for media partners. Unwell has distribution partnerships with Spotify and SiriusXM, and was front and center at YouTube’s May upfronts presentation Brandcast. It has also expanded into live events, such as nationwide tours and SXSW activations, as well as microdramas.
Beyond podcasts, its film and television productions include the “Hannah Montana: 20th Anniversary Special” for Hulu and Disney+. The streamer also distributed Cooper’s docuseries “Call Her Alex,” and her production company has released two reality series, including “Love Overboard” at Hulu (which came out in March and has yet to be renewed) and “Let’s Marry Harry,” which aired its finale on Netflix last week.
Cooper has announced a slew of scripted projects in the works from Unwell this summer as well, including the highly anticipated television adaptation of hockey smut novel “Icebreaker.” Unwell has also been tapped to produce adaptations of Ali Hazelwood’s “Deep End” and of thriller novel “You Deserve to Know,” reuniting “The Vampire Diaries” co-stars Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley. Cooper herself will make her acting debut in thriller “Verity” as herself alongside Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson.
All of this to say, Cooper’s ambitions for Unwell are large.
Past controversies
But that rise in fame has come with increased scrutiny and controversy. Cooper and Kaplan were accused of fostering a toxic work environment at the company in a lengthy June exposé by Vanity Fair that cited 40 sources.
Cooper also sparked beef with her former employee Earle, calling her out directly on TikTok. The Unwell boss asked the 25-year-old influencer to explain her “passive aggressive” online behavior. She added that Earle was not bound by an NDA and could say whatever she wanted about her former boss.
@fathercooper @Alix Earle ♬ original sound – Alexandra Cooper
Earle signed with Unwell in 2023 for her first-ever podcast “Hot Mess.” The podcasting network allegedly dropped Earle from the network two years later in 2025, following news of a feud between the podcasters.
The social media star will appear in her own reality show on Netflix called “Earle Meets World,” premiering in September on the streamer. She has teased that details of this falling out will be explained in the reality show.
Cooper’s Unwell beverage company, which she started with Nestlé, shuttered earlier this month after less than two years of operations and a distribution deal with Target.
In late June, chatter around her messy business split with Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports — where she started her hit podcast “Call Her Daddy” — resurfaced after Portnoy released his memoir “Cancel Me If You Can.”
In the book, he claimed that Cooper and co-host Sofia Franklyn planned to say they were sexually harassed to get out of their contract with Barstool Sports.
During an interview with CNBC, Cooper was asked directly about the claims. “I’ve been pregnant, Andrew. I’m busy building a child,” she responded to Andrew Ross Sorkin’s question.
“I think whenever I see Dave online, we all enjoy his banter. He’s a very entertaining person. And I have a very great and complicated relationship with Dave. He gave me my start in this industry, and I will never not be grateful to him.”
“Dave’s got his version, I’ve got my version, and we’re all good,” she added.
“You wanna tell us your version?” Sorkin asked.
Cooper replied, “No, I’m in my mother era. I’m no drama right now, Andrew. We’re here to talk business.”
