Michael Green (agent)

Green began his career as a personal appearance agent in the early 1990s at Irvin Arthur Associates representing stand up comedians. He then moved to talent management at Gallin-Morey Associates, where he eventually became a Senior Manager.^[1][2]

In 1997, he co-founded The Firm, a music and talent management agency, with fellow Gallin-Morey employee Jeff Kwatinetz.^[3][4] Kwatinetz and Green sued their former employer Sandy Gallin alleging sexual harassment.^[2] Gallin responded with a countersuit for $1 million alleging his former employees had breached their contractual obligations with his firm and produced the sexual harassment allegations by way of distraction from their violations.^[5][4]

The company grew rapidly, eventually managing Backstreet Boys, Korn,^[6] Limp Bizkit, Pamela Anderson and others. Expanding beyond the representation business, The Firm also acquired and sold the shoe brand Pony, and controlled an equity position in Build-A-Bear Workshops.^[7] In 2002, Green sold his interests in the company to spend time with his family.^[1]

In 2005, he founded a new management company, The Collective.^[8] The Collective continued to represent Green’s longtime clients like Martin Lawrence, and also signed Linkin Park, Counting Crows, Enrique Iglesias, Slash, Alanis Morissette, and Emile Hirsch, among others.^[9] As CEO, Green expanded The Collective outside simple talent management, acquiring the horror movie site Bloody-Disgusting.com and popular YouTube accounts and personalities like Fred and Annoying Orange under Collective Digital Studio.^[10]