Behind The Scenes

From his early days as a storytelling accelerator and founding member of Kinetic Theater, when many now-produced talent was just forming at Colgate University, to years of work in Hollywood with artists, polymaths and tech and culture disrupters, Ira Liss has attracted, entrusted and elevated uncommon people. We've worked with Jeremy Strong, Jeff Goldblum, Ted Danson, David Duchovny, Tea Leoni, Terry Crews and Tamara Taylor, among others. In 2010, Manifest partnered with actor, Adrian Grenier (ENTOURAGE) and award winning technologists, game theorists and social impact entrepreneurs to launch a social game for good called AOK (Acts & Observations of Kindness). From then on, Social Impact became a primary "Why" of most Manifest Talent projects and client committments. We began forging meaningful connections between celebrity/activists and technologists and policy advocates to effect amplified change. During the pandemic, Manifest Talent forged a deal with Terry Crews to capture the entirety of Carnegie Hall's infrastructure as a digitally preserved asset that now exists as a state of the art photogrammetry asset that captures its glory in incredible detail. As the internet expanded and channels for expression met the distribution demainds of an emerging Creative Class, traditional talent reps became overwhelmed by clients' expectations. Manifest Talent formed in 2007 to support up and coming, mostly independent storytellers. Now that content can be made entirely without screenwriters, directors, editors or actors, we need to embrace deeply concieved, boldly experimental and uniquely human stories. It's integral to our existence and the kind of dedicated work that Manifest Talent seeks to attract.