Actor Jennifer Dzialoszynski on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022.Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail
Jennifer Dzialoszynski’s agent had resigned, and e-mails to her talent agency went unanswered. She knew something was wrong.
Last month she learned that the agency, Compass Artist Management Inc., had received full payment for the stunt work she had done for a TV show – four cheques totalling $52,256.22 – but had not transferred the money to her.
Ms. Dzialoszynski, a 36-year-old theatre and stunt actor who has worked on the horror-thriller Orphan and the science-fiction series Dark Matter, signed with Compass in May after meeting with the agency’s co-founders, Danny Friedman and his sister, industry veteran Robyn Friedman.
The Friedmans launched Compass in May, 2020, establishing a strong clientele early on with notable actors such as Shay Mitchell (You and Pretty Little Liars) and Hallea Jones (Locke and Key), both of whom have since left the agency.
On Oct. 19, Compass notified its clients that it had come to the “unfortunate conclusion” that it was no longer viable and that operations would cease effective immediately. The agency said it had hired an independent insolvency consultant and warned clients that “collection efforts against the company will not increase your realizations and may result in costs that are unrecoverable.”
As of Monday, Oct. 24, Compass was still incorporated and still had a registered business name. Mr. Friedman has filed for bankruptcy twice before – once in 2008, with $4,473,897 in liabilities, and again in 2018, with $33,558 in debt.
The building housing Compass Artist Management in Toronto, Oct. 21, 2022.Chris Donovan/The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail has spoken with 22 current and former clients of Compass who say the agency has not paid them for acting work they did between January and September this year. Based on the interviews, they are collectively owed more than $230,000.
Shortly after the Globe and Mail published its investigation, Toronto police said they were opening a formal criminal investigation. As of Wednesday morning, Toronto police said they had received more than 50 complaints from different actors.
On Wednesday, Danny Friedman said in an e-mail that he was feeling “sick” about the situation and that he was “losing everything here as well.” He said his company had been trying to expand, but a slow start to the year led to the company’s downfall.
He said the pressures of the pandemic meant his company “had more expenses than income and we most unfortunately fell behind. It’s important to keep in mind this has all transpired over a few recent months.”
Robyn Friedman told The Globe in an e-mailed statement that she is pursuing legal action against Compass, but did not respond to subsequent requests for more information. Danny Friedman said his sister was not involved in the running of the company and did not have an ownership stake.
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), the union that represents more than 28,000 professional performers across Canada, said it has received complaints against Compass from 55 actors “and counting” and is providing legal advice.
The building housing Compass Artist Management in Toronto, Oct. 21, 2022.Chris Donovan/The Globe and Mail
Talent agencies are the glue of the entertainment industry. They serve as intermediaries between actors and production studios, often help negotiate contracts and receive payments from unions and studios, which they then transfer to their clients – minus commission.
On Sept. 26, two days before Ms. Dzialoszynski’s final cheque – for $11,071.69 – had been cleared to Compass, Ms. Friedman announced her resignation in an e-mail to her clients sent from her personal account.
Later that day, Mr. Friedman sent out a mass e-mail acknowledging his sister’s “sudden, and abrupt” resignation and admitting that the agency was “definitely running behind on some payments.” He blamed the pandemic for the money troubles – and issued a thinly veiled warning against taking any action against the agency.
“Please work with us to resolve any outstanding issues as the alternative will potentially have a far worse outcome which none of us want to see,” he wrote.
Mr. Friedman’s e-mails caught Shaun Hepburn by surprise. Compass owes the 37-year-old actor and his 10-year-old son, Housten, more than $24,000. After learning last week that the company had hired an insolvency consultant, Mr. Hepburn said he called police to see if Mr. Friedman could legally file for insolvency without paying his clients.
“He is not going to get away with this,” he told The Globe.
Mr. Hepburn (Awake) and Housten (Paw Patrol) have been with Compass since 2020, and this year was shaping up to be their best yet. “We’ve never had opportunities like this. My son has never been so busy on so many shows,” he said.
That all changed in May, when he noticed that several cheques had not been deposited into his bank account.
In June, he reached out to the agency’s accountant, Mizuki Hirayama, asking if Compass had received the payments from the production studios. Ms. Hirayama sent him a spreadsheet detailing 16 payments to Compass dating back to February and totalling $18,395. Days later, Mr. Hepburn learned that Ms. Hirayama had left the agency. When contacted by The Globe, Ms. Hirayama declined to comment, citing a non-disclosure agreement.
Actor Golden Madison of "Unfriending,' is owed $15,875 from Compass.Chris Donovan/The Globe and Mail
Many of the actors who spoke with The Globe said the experience has left them wondering what they could have done differently.
“It makes you feel a little stupid for trusting blindly or thinking you have somebody who has your back,” said Golden Madison (Unfriending), who is owed $15,875. “I feel a little bit strange and obviously nervous to even work with anybody else in this industry, to be quite honest.”
Noreen Murphy, an agent who headed Compass’s voice performance division, said she quit in June after multiple disagreements with Mr. Friedman over the way he ran his business.
She said problems arose in April when several of her clients notified her that they hadn’t been paid. When she asked Mr. Friedman about the missing payments, she said she was rudely shut down. “I was pretty much told it wasn’t my business and it was his company,” she said. Soon after, she left the agency.
“When you become an agent, you do it because you love actors and you know they need protection because our business can be pretty raw for a creative,” she said.
More than half the actors who spoke with The Globe said they had either terminated their contracts or were in the process of seeking new representation. At the end of September, ACTRA said 250 of its members were still signed with Compass, but the number of non-union actors with the agency remains unclear.
ACTRA has no legal standing or jurisdiction in disputes arising from such contracts and does not regulate talent agencies.
Ms. Madison is trying to accept the debt she is owed by Compass may never be paid.Chris Donovan/The Globe and Mail
The industry standard dictates that payments for acting work go directly to a performer’s agent.
It’s all “designed to protect the agencies. And so there is an imbalance here, and that’s not what that relationship should be,” said Laara Sadiq (The Hardy Boys), who is owed $3,577.54 from Compass.
Productions must pay any actor working on an ACTRA set – union member or not – within 14 days of a project wrapping up, according to the Independent Production Agreement, which governs film, television and digital media in Canada. This is typically done through talent agents, most of whom are members of the Entertainment Industry Coalition (EIC) and must pay their clients within five business days. Payments for commercials must be sent to ACTRA within 15 business days, after which a performer decides whether the funds are sent to them directly or to their agent.
The EIC is a voluntary association of agents, casting directors, unions, guilds and other industry professionals. Its Entertainment Industry Code of Ethical Conduct sets out principles for best practices, and those who abide by the code are put on a list of ethical agencies. But the EIC code is not legally binding or regulated by any governing body, said Daniel Tsai, an instructor at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Ted Rogers School of Business who specializes in entertainment law. “It’s kind of like the Wild West.”
On Aug. 31, coalition chair Theresa Tova and other EIC members approached Compass about payment complaints they had received. They offered Mr. Friedman a chance to rectify the issue, but when he rejected the EIC’s offer, Compass was kicked off the list.
“I’ve never seen something this horrible for artists whose livelihood is challenging anyway,” Ms. Tova said.
Jennifer Dzialoszynski as Vivie Warren in Mrs. Warren's Profession, directed by Eda Holmes, at the Shaw Festival in 2016.David Cooper/Handout
The best course of action for an actor owed less than $35,000 would be to go to Small Claims Court, Mr. Tsai said. Actors could also pursue a class-action lawsuit in Superior Court, he said, but legal fees may outstrip the amount of money owed.
“There’s a lot of exploitation in this business, and they prey on people who are vulnerable,” he said. “These talent agencies should be there to be supportive bulwarks for them, but in fact this is where these actors are vulnerable, because they can be taken advantage of by the inherent play on their insecurity.”
There’s also a power imbalance between agencies and unions, he said, as it wouldn’t be in ACTRA’s best interests to enact mechanisms, such as blackballing, that would legally pit them against talent agencies. The two work in tandem to build each other’s reputation. The agencies connect actors with production studios, which results in more working members and more dues and fees. “You don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you,” Mr. Tsai said.
Things are different for non-union actors, who may be feeling the brunt of the Compass fallout, said James Crammond, an agent with Noble Caplan Abrams, whose clients include Hollywood stars such as Simu Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and Stephan James (If Beale Street Could Talk). ACTRA can dictate better working conditions for union members and push to make sure independent productions put up safeguards such as emergency bonds to make sure they get paid, he said. But when it comes to non-union actors, he said, agents “really are the only recourse that they have.”
Non-union actors have to negotiate on their own behalf with production studios, often without direction. A task such as rerouting a paycheque would require an actor to contact the production studio, multiple accounting departments and several banking and payment bodies, Mr. Crammond said.
“Actors are really regarded as completely and totally replaceable by everybody in the business,” he added. “They do audition after audition after audition and don’t get paid for that. And sure, maybe they work and make $5,000 in a day, but they only do it three or four times a year.”
Toronto’s entertainment community is rallying behind Compass actors. ACTRA is providing the actors with free legal advice, and an actor named Ali Momen has created a GoFundMe campaign, the proceeds of which will go towards legal fees for Compass actors who haven’t been paid, and help them pay their rent and bills.
With a report from Stephanie Chambers.