#127: Emma Obank, Talent Agent at Casarotto Ramsay & Associates

Best Girl Grip

This week I'm pleased to welcome to Best Girl Grip talent agent Emma Obank.

Emma joined Casarotto Ramsay & Associates, an industry-leading literary agency representing many of the world’s best-known creatives, in 2014 as an Agent’s Assistant.

At the age of 26, Emma started building her own list of screenwriters, directors and literary properties; today she represents some of the UK’s most exciting and promising new voices.

Alongside her agenting work, Emma launched Casarotto’s unrepresented writer and director surgeries, which act as a platform for unrepresented talent to gain direct access to agents and creatives and freely ask questions about the industry; guests at the surgeries have included Bisha K. Ali, Jack Thorne, Jessica Hobbs and Kayleigh Llewellyn.

Emma is a frequent guest speaker at the NFTS and has been on the panel for writing competitions such as BAFTA Rocliffe and Funny Women. Emma was a mentee on the 2023 Women in Film & TV mentorship scheme.

We talk about how she became aware of, and interested in, talent agenting, how she worked her way up the agenting ladder, how she acts as a buffer for rejection and maintains client relationships, how she decides to take on new clients and her recommendations for approaching agents.

SHOW NOTES

• Follow Emma on Twitter, where she gives lots of great advice and shares useful resources for writers and creatives looking to break into the industry.
• A great thread that Emma put together of film industry accounts to follow on Twitter for updates and opportunities.
• And the thread I reference about ‘how to cold approach an agent’.
• Check out the BBC Writersroom Opportunities page.
• Find out where to watch Emma’s film recommendation ‘Millie Lies Low’, directed by Michelle Savill.
• For more conversations with talent agents, listen to my episodes of Best Girl Grip with Roxana Adle and Kat Buckle.