The Agents: Michael Camacho

Partner and head of alternative TV, United Talent Agency

By Josef Adalian

During his 15-year tenure at Creative Artists Agency, Michael Camacho built one of the most powerful reality departments in town by guiding the careers of unscripted powers such as Mike Fleiss, Cris Abrego, Allison Grodner and Tom Forman. He represented Mark Burnett for a time and worked with Oprah Winfrey on the deal to launch her own cable network via Discovery.

Then in February, the unscripted world was rocked when Mr. Camacho unexpectedly was let go by CAA. The reason: He had been talking to Ms. Winfrey about a potential opportunity to run her Harpo Productions.

UTA wasted no time snatching up Mr. Camacho and installing him as a partner and head of unscripted. Virtually all of his clients have followed him.

Among Mr. Camacho’s strengths are the depth of his client list, the breadth of his relationships with executives all over town and his focus on building long-term careers. And while he’s known for being super smart, he’s also unfailingly direct and relentless—qualities that mean he’ll never be known as Mr. Congeniality.

“I’m singularly focused on my clients,” he said. “I have a deep sense of responsibility to those clients who’ve put their faith and trust in my ability to guide their careers and grow their business.”

Mr. Camacho said his biggest skill is the ability “to take someone’s talent and build a multiplatform business around it.”

Biggest challenge facing reality TV: “Talent. There’s so much production now that there’s a question of whether quality can be sustained.”