Urban Talent Management Reviews

This place is only out there to get your money. Stay far away.

Worst Unethical Untalented - Anti talent - Talent averse Theives, crooks, scam artists

From outward appearances this company appears to be a long-running scam preying upon people's hopes. Having knowledge of companies that provide representation, I can tell you this: reputable agents only receive their money based on the work they secure for you. They do not ask for money up front. They receive a percentage (generally around 15-20%) of the jobs they get you. They wanted to charge me $250 up front and tried to get me to go their "professional" photographer for another $100 or so. Having been a photographer I can take shots as good, if not better, than their guy. I said that if they were so confident of their ability to secure me work, then they could deduct the $250 from the first job they got for me. They refused. Another red flag. I have heard they charge others much more than they were attempting to extort from me -- probably because I have knowledge of the industry. I'm sure the company must have a go-to roster of a select few that they work with that keep the agency in business. But I would imagine this list is short and your chances of getting on it slim. As I left and saw them lighting up the hopes of a young lady, I wondered if they ever refused anyone. A good agency doesn't take everyone if they can't place them. I think Urban Talent will sign up anyone as long as they bring them money.

I was scouted at the mall by 17 year old girls and was pushed into a contract without knowing so many details. The next week i was told by my school i had to start paying my tuition monthly. I knew i wouldn’t have the money to do both, as i moved to another town for school and suddenly had many bills to pay. I asked to be let out if the contract and Camilla Larsen was very stubborn and refused to let me out. Months have gone by of my paying for some workshop they make you do when you sign with them. I am now graduated from my school and want to further my career and go to college in a different state. I asked Camilla what the policy was on a talent moving away and she asked me many personal questions and told me i need to give her my housing lease with my name on it and my college acceptance letter. That is absolutely none of her business. This company will stop at nothing to get your money even though she claims “they don’t get money from me till i book a job”. If that was the case I don’t think letting people out if contracts would be unacceptable. I am now paying $1700 for a workshop I won’t be able to attend and according to her they aren’t getting the money for that anyways, which makes absolutely no sense. DO NOT waste your time or money on this company!!!!

While there are many ethical issues within Urban Talent, I would like to focus on one big problem in particular. Urban Talent is a modeling agency which uses scam-like tactics to recruit new models. I was scouted as a model the fall of 2016 on Instagram. During my initial meeting with an agent, I was intensely flattered. The agent compared me to one of their top models, told me how marketable I was, and how successful I could be. After copious amounts of compliments, he whipped out two contracts. One was for Urban Talent, and the other was for Style Inc, a company which provides training and photo shoots to models. Legally, Urban can't train their own models within their own company because that's what scam model agencies do. However, Style Inc is run by almost the exact same people as Urban. It's a system loophole so they can make money off their training. The Style Inc share the same phone number, email addresses, and physical address and Urban Talent. As a separate ethical issue, the amount of money I was asked to pay for Style Inc's training is well above industry standards. I paid $1000 for a very poor-quality, unprofessional shoot, and another $1000 for training. Urban is the definition of a wolf in sheep's clothing. I am currently stuck in a contract with a difficult termination policy. I want to be let out of my contract to not be associated with such an unethical company. After stating to Urban that I would like to terminate my contract, I explained the issues I've had with my agent. She gave me no pity, blamed the issues on others, and said I should've said something earlier (as if there was nothing they could do anymore - which wasn't the case).