Rep Moves For 8/22/14: WKT Public Relations, WME, CAA, ICM Partners

Agencies

CAA: Actor and musician Evan Ross is now repped by Cameron Mitchell. Ross will be portraying Messalla in the upcoming sequels The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and Part 2. He’ll also soon appear in the indie drama Supremacy and has a role in The Wilderness of James, opposite Kodi Smit-McPhee and Virginia Madsen. The son of Diana Ross, Evan has been acting since the mid-2000s with feature credits that include ATL, Pride, Blackwater Transit, 96 Minutes, Jeff Who Lives at Home and Life is Hot in Cracktown. Ross also appeared in a recurring role on 90210, as well as thetelevision movie CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story. In 2011, Ross won the Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance at SXSW for his role in 96 Minutes. In addition to his acting career, Ross is also a musician and recently signed with Capital Records. Next up, Ross will appear in the features Broken Doll and Skate God, both of which are currently in pre-production. ICM Partners: Film and television production company Original Media has signed for representation. The team will include Greg Lipstone, Shade Grant, J.C. Mills and Lori York. Original Media is probably best known for producing reality series, which have included Pool Masters, Ink Master, NY Ink, Miami Ink, Storm Chasers, Swamp People, Comic Book Men, BBQ Pitmasters and The Philanthropist. The company has also been involved in a number of independent films, including The Squid and the Whale, Half Nelson and A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. Original Media’s a subsidiary of Endemol North America. IMG: NASCAR signed a 10-year international broadcast partnership with IMG earlier this month. Working as NASCAR’s international media representative, IMG will be responsible for helping the company establish a long-term and sustainable global commercial broadcast media distribution strategy outside of the US. The goal is to increase NASCAR’s footprint, audience base and revenues outside of North and South America. It will also help NASCAR develop television rights commercially in areas where motorsports are less widely known, including Southeast Asia, China and Eastern Europe. UTA: South Korean actress Claudia Kim aka Kim Soo-Hyun is now repped by Darren Boghosian and Max Michael.  Kim will soon be seen in the upcoming Marvel sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron.  She’s also shooting Netflix’s big budget Marco Polo series, which will debut this fall.  Getting her start in 2005 after she won a modeling contest, Kim soon went on to star in the South Korean medical drama series Brain and the spy comedy series 7^th Grade Civil Servant.  She also had a leading role in the sitcom Standby before making the leap to Hollywood. Up next, Kim is set to appear in the sci-fi feature Equals, which is currently in production and stars Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult. WME Entertainment: Grammy-winning jazz musician Esperanza Spalding is now a client. Spalding just hosted Esperanza+, a large-scale jazz concert during Poland’s Solidarity of Arts festival on August 16^th. After beginning her career as an instructor at the Berklee College of Music, Spalding released her debut album Junjo in 2006, which she followed up with her Grammy-winning Esperanza album in 2008. Her subsequent albums have included Chamber Music Society and Radio Music Society, the latter of which became Spalding’s first top-10 album on the Billboard 200. Altogether, Spalding has won four Grammy Awards, including the Grammy for Best New Artist at the 53^rd Grammy Awards in 2011, becoming the first jazz artist to win the award.

Public Relations

PMK*BNC: Grammy-winning rock band Kings of Leon is now a client. First forming in 1999, the band released their debut album Youth and Young Manhood in 2003, and quickly became a sensation in the UK and Ireland. Most of their initial success was UK-based, where they landed nine Top 40 singles and won two Brit Awards.  By the time the group released their fourth album, Only by the Night, the band had achieved success in the United States as well, and began headlining several music festivals. This momentum led to the group winning three Grammy Awards in 2010, including Record of the Year, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Rock Song.  Their subsequent albums have included Come around Sundown and 2012’s Mechanical Bull. Kings of Leon is currently on tour with that album. WKT Public Relations: Actress Shailene Woodley is now repped by Cara Tripicchio. Woodley’s career continues its ascent after recent starring roles in the summer hit The Fault in Our Stars, as well as the young adult dystopian feature Divergent. Getting her first major role as series lead Amy Juergens in The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Woodley’s biggest career breakthrough came in 2011 when she was cast in The Descendents, a role which earned her the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female and a Golden Globe nomination. Her performance in 2013’s The Spectacular Now earned her a Special Jury Award for Acting at the Sundance Film Festival, in addition to another Independent Spirit Award nomination. Woodley’s other notable roles have included early recurring roles on The District, Crossing Jordan and The O.C., as well as a starring role in the television movie Felicity: An American Girl Adventure. Earlier this year, she starred in the feature White Bird in a Blizzard. Up next, Woodley will appear in the sequel The Divergent Series: Insurgent, which is currently in production.