CAA puts creators center stage as it expands digital media push

Creators are no longer a side bet at Creative Artists Agency. The Hollywood powerhouse is recasting its digital media operation around creator, digital and social-first monetization, a clear signal that YouTube stars and other internet-native talent now sit at the center of where attention, advertising dollars and cultural influence are heading.

CAA says its digital media department now spans talent representation, corporate advisory and emerging media across gaming, lifestyle, fashion and beauty. The agency has also been adding creator-focused leaders and agents at a steady clip in 2025 and 2026, including Josh Lindgren, Jacob Selzer, Rebecca Rusheen, Kendall Ostrow, Greg Goodfried and digital-media veteran Brent Weinstein, underscoring how quickly the business has moved from the edges of Hollywood into a growth line of its own.

The shift is not limited to representation. On December 17, 2024, CAA and YouTube announced a partnership on responsible AI tools meant to give talent more awareness and control over how their likenesses are used on the platform. The first phase focused on select celebrities and athletes before expanding to top creators and other CAA talent partners, a sign that the agency is trying to protect and monetize clients in a creator economy shaped as much by platform power as by new AI risks.

CAA is also moving into ownership. On June 10, 2026, the agency and TPG’s Integrated Media Company announced Compound Creative Holdings, a $250 million holding company designed to acquire, operate and grow businesses in the creator economy. CAA has said that market is already worth more than $250 billion and could surpass $1.25 trillion by 2035, numbers that help explain why one of Hollywood’s oldest institutions is treating digital creators as an asset class, not a novelty.

That evolution marks a broader power shift inside entertainment. Founded in 1975, CAA built its reputation long before the creator economy existed, but its latest moves show how quickly the industry’s center of gravity has changed. The agency is no longer simply signing internet talent. It is building the infrastructure, capital and technology strategy around them, betting that the next era of Hollywood will be written by creators who began on social platforms and now command the attention the old studio system once controlled.