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Young TV lit agent Melissa Orton is leaving APA to join ICM Partners. Rumors about Orton’s move surfaced late last year but she couldn’t leave before the end of her current contract, which is up at the end of April. Orton joined APA from Metropolitan in 2006 and was promoted to lit agent in 2008.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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Melissa is a wonderful agent and a really dynamic young star on the rise. She will crush it at ICM. They are lucky to have her and APA is unlucky to lose her.
You can’t ‘crush it’ from a company/platform like ICM Partners. Would be nice for them to hire some MP Lit agents… that seems to be where they keep losing folks.
That is correct. The poster talking about “crushing it” must be one of Orton’s clients on BUNHEADS. You work hard at ICM, earn your keep and avoid the daggers. Do well and you can join a studio or production company or network.
No mention of who her clients were or whether any are coming with her. We’ve had quite a few APA agents defecting for bigger agencies in the last 48 hours.
David Waugh is going to be soooo sad.
She’s very smart, ambitious and well informed. She’s also untrustworthy, meaning she’ll do well at ICM. They’ve had an agenda to add more female agents and Orton almost fits that bill.
You sure They Don’t Call You Mr. Bitter With an Ax to Grind?
Jesus, dude, you really don’t know Melissa. She’s smart and funny and gets along with just about everyone. She’s also a very classy, good agent. ICM’s lucky to get someone like her.
ICM is lucky to have her.
Great agent. ICM is lucky to have her. Melissa’s a rockstar.
She’s the best..she will be an absolute star there, couldn’t be more deserved..
How come when it’s a young WOMAN on the move, age is suddenly relevant to the news story? She’s not like 18…
Pretty sure she meant “young” as in – hasn’t been doing it for that long.
Melissa is an incredible agent and a wonderful person to do business with. APA was a great starting ground for her but it’s hard to succeed in that department when out of touch people like Lee Dintsman and Lindsay Howard are always jockeying for control on the TV side. They needed new TV lit agent blood and it wasn’t coming in, so it was probably time for her to take off for more opportunity elsewhere. Hopefully APA will learn the lesson that you can’t keep people there with fear. Except for those who have no other options, agent retention at any agency is only really possible when your agents actually want to stay there. Holding onto people who want to leave because you have a contract that says you can is not good business. Doing that shit only breeds resentment and spite not only in the employee who is out the door anyways, but also amongst those who remain at their desks. So raise a glass to another botched agent exit courtesy of the epic genius of Jim Gosnell. The icing on the cake is that a bunch of agency clients left with her who they probably could have held on to had they simply done the smart move to cut off the limb to stop the infection from spreading. Instead, the wound festered, and the agency lost clients it could have kept had it moved quickly to part ways with her and make a clean break. Another missed opportunity for the little agency that can’t.
Ochacher, welcome to the party!
Boxerbaum , who did you have help you write this?
That was Boxerbaum all the way. He signed the “nice” comment DB and then unloaded here on all his favorite people.
Think it was Jim Kellem, Caryn Sealy, Beth Bohn, Art Rutter or Stu Miller.
Box, which one of your writers penned this for you?
Love Orton! Great for ICM.
Melissa’s clients were more mid-range staffers and newbies, but she’ll be getting to play with the ICM stable and will do well with their star players now. Definitely agree with the opinion about Dintsman who is absolutely “out of touch” and lame. His name has been heavily pilloried on these boards in relation to all these recent APA exits. The agency can correct this if talented agents are allowed to ascend and shine. They’ve brought in some good people of recent.
Who are ICM’s star players? Wasn’t aware they had any left.
Orton is fantastic! ICM is lucky- she’s going to
do incredibly well for them. You mention her name around town and all you hear is how great she is. Awesome!
Loved working with Melissa while at APA. Good to see she’s moved on to greener pastures as well.
She is probably going to bring most of those clients to ICM. Time for her.
To glow. Good for her and who she brings.
Mel is awesome! I have clients with her and she has always worked her ass off for them. ICM is getting a star on the rise.
So now they only have four female talent and lit agents at APA?
Yay! She’s as talented an agent as that Jeff Witjas is relevant.
Orton is a rock star!
Orton will kill it at ICM. Great move on her part. Congrats.
Too bad for Melissa. She will follow David Boxerbaum into oblivion. Of course, he trained her, which she loved telling anyone who would listen, so ‘untrustworthy’ is naturally her best attribute. Anyone remember why Box departed Endeavor? Not exactly the role model you want to follow. The folks at APA are nurturing and supportive, and building a great agency, so it stands to reason that neither fit in there.
Box into oblivion? Do you even work in the business? #clueless
So who does Melissa represent other than a gaggle of baby writers who mean nothing in tbe business?
I hear Chris Stupidman is paying her 200k+ just so he can have a female TV lit agent. Stupid. That’s the definition of ‘out of touch’. Of course, showing Ed Limato the door was another genius move. Now WME has all his star clients and ICM has…nothing. Oops, they now have Melissa Orton who represents…no one. Dinstman and APA have done an amazing job building a real alternative to the ‘major’ agencies. I feel sorry for Orton. She’s young and impressionable, and will be gone when her contract is up.
Matt Ochacher, 2 for 2! Am I right?
We get it. You’re an agent at APA. Your rock solid roster of Disney XD writers aren’t bringing home the bacon like they did before the strike. But don’t tear down Mel for moving on (read: up.)
Have a little class as your agency ruptures. Mel has a fantastic rep around town. Her hands were tied at APA. Now with ICM, she can put together a package that doesn’t involve dinosaurs and dust.
So yeah, relax Braniac.
$200k?!!! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…heheh…ah…hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…
Oh my. I think I peed a little.
Apa agents have spoken. wowee.
Orton has great clients. Young ones to mid range. All with a very bright future at icm and with Orton. Wait and watch how they develop with her as she rises at icm and in the industry.
Long live Big Daddy Saul!
I want some big daddy Saul.
Well if each of you gets a piece of Saul, there won’t be any left…since the pickings were so tiny to begin with…
Hey now!!!!
He’s tall enough to get on this ride.
Great agent. Good Karma. Hot as hell too!
TMI