Production and post house Optimus has secured Deirdre Rymer and her associates at B Lush Creative to handle sales representation in the West Coast and Texas markets. Working closely with Optimus EP/managing director Therese Hunsberger and Optimus director of sales Tim Jacobs, the team at B Lush will help expand Optimus’ presence on the West Coast and in Texas by targeting an extensive roster of brand and agency contacts in the region. With a background in production, business management and sales and marketing for the creative industry, Rymer founded representation firm B Lush in 2008….
ICM Partners announced the hires of Hilary Baum McQuaide, an agent who joins the agency’s Motion Picture Production Department, Taryn Ariel, a talent agent focusing on comedy, and Rebecca Ewing, an agent joining the Motion Picture Literary Department. The three agents will be based in ICM Partners’ Los Angeles office. In addition, the agency promoted Katie Kolben to agent. Kolben is based in the New York office in the International Television and Media Department. McQuaide was formerly a partner at The Skouras Agency. She joined that agency in 1995, launching the commercial department, and she was promoted to partner in 2003. Among the clients joining McQuaide at ICM Partners are film, television and commercial cinematographers including Gyula Pados (Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials), Salvatore Totino ASC, AIC (The Da Vinci Code, Everest), Matthew J. Santo (Girls) and John Lynch (Powers), and production designers Anne Ross (The Bling Ring, The Squid and the Whale) and Tom Foden (Self/Less). ICM Partners’ motion picture production department represents producers, cinematographers, editors, 2nd unit directors, production designers, costume designers and visual effects supervisors. The department’s clients were nominated for 10 Academy Awards this year. Ariel, a comedy agent who was based in APA’s New York office, will transition to L.A. as a talent agent with a focus on comedy development. Ewing joins ICM Partners’ motion picture literary unit from Intellectual Artists Management, where she managed both writers and directors. Previously, she was an agent at UTA for six years. Kolben joined ICM Partners in 2011 from N.S. Bienstock in an expansion of the agency’s International Television and Media Department. The group has increased its footprint in New York, Los Angeles and London in the last three years as the international market has experienced a surge in growth in television formats. The department represented 18 Emmy Award nominees last year….
Cinematographer Marcelo Durst, who’s active in commercials and music videos, has signed with Dattner Dispoto and Associates (DDA). Editor Nancy Novak, who recently cut Southern Rites (HBO), has also come aboard the DDA talent roster. DDA has already booked Novak on the feature documentary Take My Nose…Please (director Joan Kron via production company Parvenu Ventures)….
