How creator talent agencies are evolving into multi-platform operators

Take Shorthand Studios, an agency based in Los Angeles, which has worked with health content creator Nick Norwitz on his branding and testing strategies across YouTube and Substack for a year. He told Digiday that within the last year, the views on his YouTube channel have grown 442% and his subscribers have grown by over 650,000, while his Substack (written content, without video) has grown by almost 800%.

“There’s so many comments, so much coordination, and you really need different expertise,” Norwitz said. “Mine is simply: I can do science, and I’m a decent teacher. I will never be the media expert on the team… I’ll never be the editing expert on the team.. It is not my role, nor do I want it to be. So I need to find good people to help support me in that capacity.” He did not reveal the financial agreement of the partnership.

He’s not alone. In February, Night Media Inc., the talent management firm behind Twitch streamer Kai Cenat, raised $70 million to fund acquisitions including in music and gaming. That injection of capital underscores how creator agencies are increasingly moving from deal brokers to full-fledged media operators. Creators need to diversify to be less platform-dependent and more holistic in their approach, and their agencies need to be able to help foster that.

The creator agency of the future

For agencies like Reign Maker Talent and Underscore Talent, nurturing creators’ careers has moved well beyond chasing brand deals — they’re building businesses and forging partnerships in Hollywood, gaming, and toys as they seek to achieve something the creator economy has struggled with: sustainability.

“For pretty much every talent, there is, unfortunately, a life cycle. It doesn’t really matter if you’re a creator or if you’re an actor, there’s always a life cycle,” said Damian Skoczylas, president and co-founder of Reign Maker Talent, one of several companies under the Reign Maker Group (RMG) umbrella. “One always needs to be thinking about what’s next, and how do you get longevity?”

According to Dan Weinstein, co-founder and co-CEO at Underscore Talent, the creator management space is becoming more stratified in the U.S., with some agencies focusing on volume (more creators, more branded deals) while others manage a smaller group of creators more intensively — with the focus less on increasing brand deals and more on building sustainable businesses. He believes the latter remains relatively untapped.

Underscore Talent has Shorthand Studios, its digital production arm that helps creators build affiliate programs, analyze their data, strategize social, and aids in the production and distribution of their content. While RMG comprises several specialized businesses, including influencer marketing company The Now, Reign Maker Talent branch, and the Creator Rep Institute, a three-month training program for potential creator managers.

“We’re building a next-generation talent management company that favors the most important piece of the pie: the talent manager, and being that support system for them to grow their business here,” said Skoczylas.

Jonathan Chanti, CEO and co-founder of RMG, said his focus has always been on getting those smaller creators in the door and growing with them. “I knew if I built at the bottom, I’d capture the talent that would raise me to the top,” he said. 

That logic is why they’re working on those creator manager incubator programs, bringing them in and teaching them the ropes in the hopes they may start their own business on RMG’s rails. 

“With us, you can go somewhere where you have all the foundational accounting, legal, tech, deal, flow, collaboration and community with other amazing managers — that is a huge value proposition and starting to really click in a big way,” Chanti said.

Then there’s RMG’s ties to Hollywood (the company formed a strategic partnership with Paradigm Talent Agency last October), which Chanti labels the more “traditional” agency approach. “Anytime a talent wants to move into acting or theatrical or literary or comedy, we have the right partners there,” he said.

Skoczylas believes that Hollywood is slowly starting to realize there’s power in working with more creators — not just those who have reached celebrity status like MrBeast and Alix Earle, who have series on Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, respectively. “Hopefully, we’re going to see a lot more bets coming from Hollywood, finding really creative people… the next big hot director or filmmaker,” he added.

Naturally, agencies aren’t just evolving for creators’ sake — they’re chasing a growing business opportunity, building multi-platform operations and infrastructure that can scale profitably. In 2025, M&A deal volume in the creator economy grew 17.4 percent year over year to 81 deals, and that is expected to remain strong in 2026, with talent management firms and other creator-focused businesses continuing to attract acquisitions and funding. Last May, Publicis acquired Captiv8 in May for $175 million, and Latin American influencer marketing company BR Media Group in February for reportedly $100 million. That same month (February 2025), PSG purchased a majority stake in video membership platform Uscreen for $150 million.

Building sustainability for creators

The process of building long and lucrative careers for creators can look very different — and it’s often dependent upon the creators themselves. 

“Not everyone is coachable, not everyone is ready for something big like starting their own business,” Skoczylas said. And sometimes, the genre they’re in isn’t a natural fit for expanding outwards and off of social media platforms.

But when a creator’s content slots easily into an existing retail market (like lifestyle, fitness, or kids’ products) and they’re willing to expand their purview, stories like Genevieve’s Playhouse are written. 

Genevieve’s Playhouse is a children’s YouTube channel with nearly 50 million subscribers. It was started by Robert Mann 10 years ago, who posted videos of himself and his daughter, Genevieve, playing with toys and creating inventive stories about them.

“They were a popular channel, but they were just a YouTube channel, and they were using, let’s say, borrowed IP,” Weinstein explained. “They would play with Barbie dolls or Hot Wheels cars, creating really positive educational content and an environment for preschoolers, but they were using other people’s stuff.”

Mann told Digiday he didn’t know how to expand beyond creating content for Genevieve’s Playhouse until Underscore approached him three years ago.

“We get approached pretty often, but what [they were] saying resonated with me,” Mann said. “Other companies made promises, but didn’t fulfill them. Underscore has been very proactive.”

The agency helped Mann get Genevieve’s Playhouse on other streaming platforms like Amazon, Apple, and Kidoodle. “Those platforms are diversifying our revenue stream, which is nice because YouTube is kind of capricious,” Mann said, who did not provide financial specifics.

The team suggested Mann turn his daughter’s drawings into toys. Bonkers Toys (which has launched products in collaboration with content creators like Ryan’s World and Moriah Elizabeth), is launching a line of Genevieve’s Playhouse toys in Walmart and Target later this month.

Genevieve’s Playhouse also recently started publishing an animated series on YouTube leveraging those original characters. Mann said so much has come together over the last few months that he’s considering hiring a team to help with the business.

“We’re still in the heavy lifting party…but things are starting to materialize,” Mann said.