Senior talent agent Melissa Hirschenson has left Innovative Artists Entertainment after more than two decades to launch The Hirschenson Group, a management and entertainment consulting company. The new business will work across traditional and emerging entertainment sectors, reflecting a wider shift towards creator-led work, strategic partnerships and more flexible forms of representation.

Hirschenson’s previous client roster included Pedro Pascal, Kathryn Newton, Jack Dylan Grazer, Jodie Turner-Smith, Emily Ratajkowski and Bella Thorne, among others. She began her career in the mid-1990s working for casting directors Janet Hirshenson and Jane Jenkins before moving into talent representation, and said her new venture would keep “the human being at the center” of a changing industry.