UTA Partner & Top Talent Agent Brian Swardstrom Leaving Agency For New Ventures; Will Produce With ‘Nomadland’s Peter Spears To Start
EXCLUSIVE: Nine years after joining UTA as a partner and talent agent, Brian Swardstrom is leaving to form new ventures. That will include producing several projects with his husband, Oscar-winning producer Peter Spears, whose credits include Nomadland, Bones and All and Call Me by Your Name.
Swardstrom will stay at UTA until June to help transition his estimable list of clients to others across the agency. This is an amicable exit, and it’s quite a strong list of longtime clients we are talking about that he has accumulated over his 35-year career.
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That list includes Dune star Timothée Chalamet (some sources say they expect Swardstrom and Chalamet’s professional relationship to continue), Frances McDormand, Damian Lewis, Tilda Swinton, Cynthia Erivo, Michael C. Hall, Claire Foy, John Lithgow, Edward Norton, Michael Douglas, Matthew Macfadyen, Léa Seydoux, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Kevin Kline, Francine Maisler, Sally Field, Jamie Bell, Ben Foster, Theo James, Rupert Wyatt, Louis Garrel and more.
Spears has a production label, Cor Cordium, which has a first-look deal at Searchlight Pictures.
“After 35 years in the representation business, I’m excited to expand my horizons into other areas,” Swardstrom told Deadline. “It’s been a great run at UTA, and I’d like to go out on a high. I am going to miss my colleagues but more than anything, I’m going to miss my clients, most of whom I have been working with for years, if not decades. I know they will continue to be a part of my life, though, as I enter this new phase of my career.”
Said UTA president David Kramer: “Over the past nine years, Brian has played an integral role in helping grow our talent division and has been a mentor and friend to many across UTA. His impeccable taste and unparalleled relationships have made him one of the preeminent agents in the business and we look forward to working with him as he starts this next creative chapter of his career.”
Swardstrom joined UTA from WME, where he spend four years and before that was partner at Endeavor where he ran the talent department for 16 years.
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