Sam Wick
Head of UTA Ventures
United Talent Agency (UTA)
Sam Wick is a digital and entertainment executive at leading global talent and entertainment company United Talent Agency (UTA). He currently leads UTA Ventures, which builds and invests in great businesses at the intersection of media, entertainment, and technology. The department works with various divisions across the agency to leverage UTA’s expertise, relationships, and endemic knowledge of the entertainment business landscape to provide companies and clients with a strategic advantage.
Under Wick’s leadership, UTA Ventures has built, advised, and invested in a portfolio of over 40 businesses with a collective valuation of billions and has built, advised, and invested in a portfolio of businesses that includes Cloud9, Pocket.watch, Masterclass, Jumprope, Frolic, IMGN, NTWRK, Patreon, and more. In addition to UTA Ventures’s work with influencers and content creation companies, Wick and his group have recently closed several high-profile consumer products deals for traditional talent, including Taraji P Henson’s extensive line of haircare products, TPH by Taraji; Tia Mowry’s multicultural wellness company, Anser; and Seth Rogen’s joint-venture partnership with the largest of the Canadian incumbents, Canopy Growth Corporation, Houseplant, among others.
Additionally, Wick helped lead UTA’s investment into the professional esports organization Cloud9, which has the highest valuation of any other esports org. He also helped spearhead UTA’s acquisition of digital esports agency Press X and management company Everyday Influencers. Press X and Everyday Influencers brought their all-star roster of the world’s leading esports personalities, which immediately established UTA as the market leader in the esports landscape. UTA’s esports division currently represents over 90 of today’s top esports professionals, content creators, and streamers including NICKMERCS, Pokimane, Scump, Nightblue3, Disguised Toast, and Valkyrae, among many others.
Prior to joining UTA, Wick sat on the management team of Maker Studios, a next-generation influencer network. The company was acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2014 for $850M.
Under Wick’s leadership, UTA Ventures has built, advised, and invested in a portfolio of over 40 businesses with a collective valuation of billions and has built, advised, and invested in a portfolio of businesses that includes Cloud9, Pocket.watch, Masterclass, Jumprope, Frolic, IMGN, NTWRK, Patreon, and more. In addition to UTA Ventures’s work with influencers and content creation companies, Wick and his group have recently closed several high-profile consumer products deals for traditional talent, including Taraji P Henson’s extensive line of haircare products, TPH by Taraji; Tia Mowry’s multicultural wellness company, Anser; and Seth Rogen’s joint-venture partnership with the largest of the Canadian incumbents, Canopy Growth Corporation, Houseplant, among others.
Additionally, Wick helped lead UTA’s investment into the professional esports organization Cloud9, which has the highest valuation of any other esports org. He also helped spearhead UTA’s acquisition of digital esports agency Press X and management company Everyday Influencers. Press X and Everyday Influencers brought their all-star roster of the world’s leading esports personalities, which immediately established UTA as the market leader in the esports landscape. UTA’s esports division currently represents over 90 of today’s top esports professionals, content creators, and streamers including NICKMERCS, Pokimane, Scump, Nightblue3, Disguised Toast, and Valkyrae, among many others.
Prior to joining UTA, Wick sat on the management team of Maker Studios, a next-generation influencer network. The company was acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2014 for $850M.