Casey Wasserman’s eponymous sports and music management company has closed a deal to acquire the longstanding talent representation and production shop Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
Wasserman formally announced the transaction on Monday alongside Brillstein Co-CEOs Cynthia Pett and Jon Liebman. The acquisition bolsters Wasserman verticals like marketing and content creation (Brillstein produced “The Sopranos”), and also formally puts the grandson of legendary movie mogul Lew Wasserman in the Hollywood talent fold — welcoming star clients like Brad Pitt, Florence Pugh, Adam Sandler, Tiffany Haddish, Elizabeth Olsen and the newly named Lois Lane: Rachel Brosnahan.
Brillstein leaders Pett, Liebman, Marc Gurvitz and Sandy Wernick will continue to lead their company and join Wasserman’s executive leadership team. Same for partners including George Freeman, Missy Malkin, David McIlvain, Alex Murray, Andrea Pett and Tim Sarkes, as well as 30-plus managers in New York and Los Angeles. Previously known as Brillstein Grey, the company was founded in 1986 by the late Bernie Brillistein and Brad Grey.
“We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Cynthia, Jon, Sandy, Marc and the entire Brillstein family and roster to our fold. They join our company as we continue to expand the breadth and depth of our capabilities to serve clients globally in unique and innovative ways,” said Wasserman. “While we welcome this storied management and production company to Wasserman, I am also appreciative of our heritage and shared values. Personally, I hope this would make Bernie proud.”
Brillstein also recently launched Brillstein Creative Partners, led by Allie Goss, as a standalone TV development and production subsidiary and selling projects to distributors like Netflix, Disney and Amazon.
“We now represent what we think is the best-in-class management company, with world class talent across the entire spectrum of the entertainment business. We believe that talent sits at the center of these ecosystems,” Wasserman told Variety. The Hollywood scion, who is also chair of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, will now squarely compete in an increasingly crowded film and TV talent representation landscape — a ruthlessly competitive and evolving business, currently straining under work stoppages from ongoing strikes by the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA.
“Our competition is ourselves,” Wasserman added, “We spend no time concerned with other people who work in the spaces we work in. We are very focused on what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. The only area I worry about our competition with other industry companies is — there’s a entertainment industry soccer league. which we take very seriously. We won last season.”
Sullivan & Cromwell represented Wasserman, and Moelis and Willkie Farr represented Brillstein in the deal. Wasserman has been hulking up over the past two years, most recently adding Caric Sports Management to its portfolio in April.