Vital Artists Agency Partners Separating; Cal Boyington To Keep Vital, Phil Irven, Nicole Zien & Bill Thompson To Launch Visionary Artists Agency

Peter White
·2 min read

EXCLUSIVE: The partners of Vital Artists Agency, the unscripted-focused talent agency formed during the pandemic, are going their separate ways.

Deadline understands that there are a number of changes involving the company, which was founded in late 2020 by Rebel Entertainment partners senior unscripted agents Cal Boyington, Phil Irven and April Yuan after the retirement of their former boss Richard Lawrence.

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The company has represented the likes of Valerie Chow, exec producer of The Great American Recipe, Moira Noriega, series producer of Netflix’s Ultimate Beastmaster and Vivian Payton, who has worked on series such as Love & Hip Hop: Miami and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion as well as production companies Sunwise Media, Empty Quarter Studios and Dola Media.

Boyington, who previously worked at ICM Partners and Paradigm Talent Agency, will take sole ownership of the Vital name, trademark, and logo.

Irven will leave to form a new company – Visionary Artists Agency – and agents Nicole Zien, who previously worked at CMT, Discovery and Citizen Jones and joined in February 2022, and Bill Thompson, who launched Verve’s unscripted division and joined in September 2022, will join him.

Yuan is understood to be joining another agency. Her clients have included Asabi Lee, exec producer of Max’s Project Greenlight revival, Cherelle Hinds, exec producer of OWN’s The Belle Collective and Teresa Hsu, exec producer of Paramount+’s My Dream Quinceañera.

“The three [partners] did not wish to issue individual comments during this transition but only to say, as a group the split was amicable and that all parties herein remain solely focused on their clients and the bright future ahead,” the company said in a statement to Deadline.

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