ALUMNI Q&A
Chelsea Reed Radler attended Vanderbilt University, graduating in 2008 with a degree in sociology. She moved to Los Angeles soon after graduation to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a talent agent. Radler worked her way up at CAA and became an agent in 2012. She joined WME in 2017 in the TV Scripted Department and was promoted to Partner in 2020. In 2023, Radler was named to Variety’s Power Women in Hollywood list. CHELSEA REED RADLER ‘04 Partner/Agent, WME
What are some of your favorite memories of your time at ULS? Oh my gosh, I think all of it! Don’t get me wrong, I loved college and Vanderbilt was so much fun, but if I could take a time traveling vacation for a week, to any period, it would be those high school years at ULS. The friends I made are still my absolute best friends. In fact, a few years ago my husband and I decided to buy a home in Grosse Pointe so that we could spend even more time with everyone and have all our kids enjoy Michigan summers together. People in LA always ask if I chose Michigan as a vacation home to be near family, and I say, ‘sort of!’ They really are the kinds of friends that feel like family. Although, I will admit that when I’m in town my social battery drives them crazy! What do you think makes the ULS community unique? It’s the teachers. They are passionate and they really care. The idea that people wanted me to be my best and succeed is something I am so grateful for. It gave me a great sense of self and belief in my abilities, which I will say comes in handy in the entertainment industry where so often, success is based on an intangible belief in yourself and others.
Who are some of the faculty, staff and school leaders you looked up to while at ULS? Well, I did love history and David Backhurst’s American History in particular. I also loved Andy Knote and David Thompson’s English classes. David Boynton was so patient and let me spend my free periods trying to get better at chemistry. Same with David Dwaihy, he helped me enjoy math homework – if you can believe it! How did you get from ULS to Vanderbilt to WME? After ULS, I went to Vanderbilt. I wanted to be an agent for as long as I can remember, I had my sights set on an internship at CAA (CAA and WME are the two biggest agencies.) I ended up getting an internship in CAA’s Los Angeles office between my junior and senior year of college. All my Vanderbilt friends were interning in New York, and I knew no one in LA but the internship very quickly confirmed what I had suspected; that I did indeed want to be an agent. Five years into my agent career I ended up switching agencies and coming over to WME. I got promoted to partner in 2020 and am happy to say I really love where I work and what I do. What is your day-to-day like in your current role at WME? I’m a partner in our TV Scripted Department so, the most basic description of my job is that I represent TV creators, writers, directors, and producers and sell TV shows. I also have a lot of crossover
with our Talent Department because a number of the clients I work with are creators and showrunners also happen to star in their shows. I represent people like Dan Levy (Schitt’s Creek), Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters, Catastrophe), Catherine Reitman (Workin’ Moms), and Ilana Glazer (Broad City) all of whom created and ran their TV shows and happened to star in them. My job is largely about facilitating relationships, so the day-to-day work involves a lot of phone calls, a lot of emails, and a lot of meals with studio and network executives as well as producers and clients. Also, a lot of reading! How did ULS help prepare you for your life and career? I don’t think I would have been prepared for Vanderbilt had I not gone to ULS. I know there were some students who felt overwhelmed by the workload when they got to college, but things stayed the same with maybe a little bit of a leveling up, understandably. I think my love of reading was fostered at ULS and then throughout my time at Vanderbilt. During one of my internships, they gave me five feature scripts to read. I thought they wanted me to read all of them that night, but they had apparently thought it would last me the rest of the summer, so they were very surprised when I had read and written up notes on all of them the next day. They encouraged me to work with writers, and that eventually led me into a career working with writers and evaluating material.
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