WME launches Creator Labs to help roster build media businesses

WME is making it easier for its creators to run their own media businesses with the launch of a new team designed to take on some of the work involved in building an operation around their content.

Called Creator Labs, the team will help develop content and distribute videos, giving talent access to production and operational support without having to build those teams themselves.

It comes amid a wider push to build the companies and infrastructure around creator-led media. Arcade, the company behind the Sidemen, recently expanded its model to other creators and held an Upfront where it pitched upcoming shows directly to advertisers, while Steven Bartlett and Authentic Brands Group last month launched OBSN to build larger businesses around major creators.

Creator Labs sits within WME’s digital division and is led by Joanne Lee, who joined the agency in 2024 after previously working at Meta and YouTube.

WME has also invested in video strategy and operations company Astra Media, which has worked on projects involving clients including Khloé Kardashian and Kevin Hart. Its creator sales team has also been expanded to secure more sponsorships and advertising around client content.

Eleven people have been hired across Creator Labs and Creator Sales, alongside 50 full-time employees and contractors at Astra Media.

The new services are already being used by WME clients. Footballer Erling Haaland has worked with the team to secure sponsorships around his YouTube channel, while Julian Shapiro-Barnum, creator of Recess Therapy and Celebrity Substitute, used WME to land multiple sponsors for his YouTube late-night show Outside Tonight.

Beyond representation

The expansion also reflects how WME sees the role of a talent agency changing as creators increasingly control their own content and distribution.

“Our clients now own their distribution, so how does the role of an agent change,” said Ben Davis, co-head of WME’s digital group.

Davis said WME has spent the past few years investing in and testing the model, while his co-head Jad Dayeh pointed to YouTube as one of the forces changing what clients need from their agents.

“This was largely a reaction to the state of the entertainment industry and the marketplace where we find ourselves, where YouTube has in many ways deconstructed all the different pieces that you have in what historically was a network or distribution operation and put that in the hands of the creator,” Dayeh told The Hollywood Reporter.