Verve promotes Olivia Ghersen and Isaiah Williams to agents

Verve has added coordinators Olivia Ghersen and Isaiah Williams as agents on the television fiction and film fiction teams, respectively.

The agency continued its long-standing tradition of surprising employees with promotions, hiring Ghersen and Williams to chair Monday morning’s company-wide meeting, and when it came time for their regular reporting section, the team leaders — Felicia Prinz, Chris Noriega (TV Lit) , Liz Parker, Parker Davis (MP Lit) and Melissa Darman, who created and oversee the Agent Trainee program, reviewed their accomplishments and career highlights.

Ghersen previously worked at 20th Television and Mainstay Entertainment before joining Verve from Discovery Communications. She has worked on both the written and scripted side of television, but has always had an affinity for comedy, beginning when she emailed the producers of Saturday Night Live for informational interviews. At Verve, she focuses on comedy writing and multi-hyphenation, and in her spare time hosts stand-up comedy shows in Los Angeles.

Williams started in Verve’s mailroom and quickly transitioned to desk before being promoted to coordinator in June of last year. Williams founded and sold a private label menswear company, The Williams Tie Company, in 2011 while still in high school, and worked to design and run the nation’s first entrepreneurial accelerator and incubator for high school students at LightHouse Ohio.

“At Verve, we value people with an entrepreneurial spirit, a unique perspective and a commitment to excellence. Olivia and Isaiah embody those qualities, and we are thrilled to promote them to agents on our television and film writing teams. We look forward to their continued success and contributions to our company and customers,” the Verve Partnership said of the promotions.

The promotions follow the agency’s expansion into commercial underwriting with the appointment of agent Max Nagler, the appointment of founder Bill Weinstein as CEO, the appointment of Liz Parker as a partner earlier this year, and the strengthening of the agency’s nonfiction group with partner Andy Stabile and Agent Lanie Ragsdale. The agency has also experienced significant growth in recent years, more than doubling in size while staying true to its client-centric approach to representation and being an industry leader. Verve was the first agency to join the WGA in 2019 and the first major agency to sign the code of conduct, and later that year was the first agency to raise assistant and postroom salaries in response to the #PayUpHollywood movement raised .