British children's talent agent Mark Jermin, whose agency has placed young actors in the Harry Potter and Hunger Games franchises, may have breached UK agency law by effectively requiring aspiring clients to pay for acting classes as a condition of representation, according to a Deadline investigation. Legal experts say emails encouraging young performers to enrol in paid courses run by a sister company raise questions about compliance with rules that bar entertainment agencies from charging upfront fees, since agencies are only permitted to earn money through commission on clients' acting income.

Deadline reported that Mark Jermin Management (MJM) pushed multiple young people towards paid classes at the affiliated Mark Jermin Stage School (MJSS) as a route to securing representation. A spokesperson for Jermin denied representation was ever contingent on buying training, while his lawyer said he could not address specific cases because Deadline withheld the original emails to protect sources. The story follows an earlier Deadline investigation in May into mishandled self-tape auditions, which Jermin admitted involved mistakes, and further incidents have since emerged, including a disabled actor allegedly misled into recording an unsolicited self-tape in January. Jermin, who discovered stars including Kit Connor and Evie Templeton, has hired an external consultant to review his companies' processes but denies any deliberate or systemic wrongdoing.