CAA Layoffs Underway; TV Lit Among Departments Impacted – Deadline

Layoffs are underway at Creative Artists Agency, Deadline has learned, with multiple departments making cuts.

As Deadline reported Thursday, the staff reductions, said to affect about 60 people, were expected to begin next week but were moved up to today after the news got out.

Rumors have been flying all morning about people and department that have been impacted. So far, we have confirmed that there have been layoffs in TV lit as well as IT, which saw senior-level executives depart.

Melissa Orton, who has been an agent for 15 years, at APA, ICM and now CAA, is the most senior agent in the TV lit department that we know of as being part of the layoffs. Three junior members of the team, who all got promoted to agent in 2021, also are leaving.

We will update the story as more information becomes available.

According to sources, the trims are the result of a long process of examining optimal staff levels for each department that started months ago, before the WGA went on strike May 2. Still, the decisions were likely informed by the ongoing writer and actor work stoppages, which have had a serious impact on talent agencies and management companies.