Sharing Inspiration: Creative Artists Agency's Thao Nguyen on Defining Talent, Giving Visibility, and Making a Difference
By Julia Gamolina
Thao Nguyen is an art & design thinking agent at CAA and represents many of the world’s leading cultural innovators, including Bjarke Ingels, Refik Anadol, Rem Koolhaas, Kahlil Joseph, among others. She is based in the Los Angeles office where she also curates CAA’s contemporary art collection.
Ms. Nguyen is also the CEO & Co-founder of Constellation Immersive, an experience-based producing studio specializing in live original content at the convergence of storytelling, pop culture, design, and technology. Constellation Immersive is an affiliate of leading talent agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and collaborates with iconic talent and brands to create innovative and inspiring experiences.
In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Ms. Nguyen talks about the evolving definition of talent and creating new story-telling platforms, advising those just starting their careers to experiment and play.
JG: Thao, we’ll start at the very beginning. You are with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) now, but started out studying physiology at UCLA! Take me through this.
TN: I studied physiology and art history at UCLA. Not to generalize, but like most Asian kids, our parents expect us to be doctors, so I came to UCLA on the doctor track. I knew, however, that there was a creative side and another part of my brain that I needed to feed, and that’s why I also minored in art history.
Both of those studies were really good for me, but I don’t think it matters really what you study, a good bachelor’s degree in general should give you the tools to understand the world better and to refine your problem solving skills. I’m grateful though that I got to pursue both of those degrees as it did give me a lot of different perspectives.
Bulgari x Refik Anadol, courtesy of Bulgari.
Bjarke Ingels x Lenovo, courtesy of Lenovo.
How did you get to CAA from there?
When I was at UCLA in my last year, I came across Vanity Fair magazine and it was their annual Hollywood issue. I was reading about CAA, and what agents do, and at the time, there was a war between the new leaders of CAA and Artists Management Group (AMG), which was led by Michael Ovitz, the former co-founder of CAA. Reading that article was super fascinating to me — the psychology of all of it and navigating that landscape. That was my first introduction to CAA.
I was also a movie buff — I grew up watching independent films and have my whole life. I was born in Vietnam, but immigrated to Kansas, there was nothing to do in Kansas so movies gave me a window into other worlds.
I learned English from movies that took place in New York – like One Fine Day, where Michelle Pfeiffer plays an architect. I think my life trajectory was decided when I was learning English from that movie [laughs].
Exactly! That’s how my mother learned English, by watching movies and TV! That’s how we all learned. Also growing up in Kansas — Kansas is very limited in terms of the diversity of culture you have access to. I was raised in Wichita, and the movie theatres there were mostly showing the big tent pole films like Superman, but I was more interested in movies by Wong Kar-Wai and Emir Kusturica [laughs].
That’s how I knew I needed to get out of Kansas, and that’s how I ended up at UCLA, which is obviously in the same city as the entertainment mecca, it brought me closer to movie-making. So when I finished at UCLA, my first job, and only job out of college, was CAA. I’ve been at CAA for my entire career thus far.
“In order to create impact that you want to see, you need to reach a larger audience. You can’t use language that’s not accessible.”
That is fascinating to me; forget about the world that CAA is in, but just in being at one place and evolving with it. That’s amazing.
Yes, and that’s because the company has continually evolved! CAA is a talent agency, and through the years, the definition of talent has evolved as well. When I started there, CAA represented actors, directors, writers, producers, and musicians. Then, the client roster expanded into athletes. Now we have fine artists, digital influencers, video gamers, Web3 creators as part of this “talent” definition.
When I came into CAA , it was a very different company, but as it evolved and I learned the facets of the business, I learned that while I love movies, the deal-making process of how movies are put together, I didn’t love as much.
Sounds like architecture for me; I’m not sure I’m meant to be the one to draw the thing, and direct the building of the thing, but I’m fascinated by the thing, and the people surrounding it.
I have a deep respect for agents. They’re the hardest working people in the industry, but as agents, you don’t get to be a part of the entire creative process. The A to Z in the film-making process…as an agent, you start at A, where you read the script, you identify the talent for it (actor, director, etc), you do the deal, then you close the deal at D, do a visit during production at M and then you show up at Z, at the film premiere. I learned pretty quickly that I actually liked being a part of the entire A-Z process, a more producorial interest if you will.
After a few years at CAA, the folks at CAA asked me, “Do you want to be a talent agent…?” And I responded, “Well, I’m really more interested in the arts and design innovators — I want to work with the Brad Pitts, Julia Roberts’ and the Steven Spielbergs of the art and design world.”
I had put together a business plan, “This is how we make money with talent in these categories and here’s my wishlist of A-listers in this world,” and they were like, “Great. Go do it!” And Rem Koolhaas was at the top of my list. This was over a decade ago now. Rem has an interesting background in this regard, because both his father and grandfather were film-makers.
DiscOasis Aerial View.
DiscOasis, photography by Avery Brunkus.
DiscOasis, photography by Avery Brunkus.
And he was a journalist!
He was a journalist and a screenwriter! And that’s how it all started, and then it eventually expanded into fine artists. It’s a very niche business though [laughs]. There isn’t an infinite amount of talent in these categories that can crossover into pop culture successfully.
Absolutely. Architecture is such an insular world in that regard.
And that’s why we are lucky to work with Bjarke Ingels. He brings to architecture what most architects haven’t been able to do, to really translate into pop-culture. In order to create impact that you want to see, you need to reach a larger audience. You can’t use language that’s not accessible – you’re a writer, you understand that…
I sure do.
Architectural vernacular is not accessible. I mean with Rem, even though he’s very cerebral [laughs], he is an icon and companies we work with do value this thinking, but in order for architecture to be appreciated, it does need more people like Bjarke that can connect to pop-culture.
Yes, some women!
Yes! Zaha Hadid, she was a personality…she was provocative and great.
We profiled Neri Oxman, who was in the Netflix series “Designed” with Bjarke. She’s super interesting - not a traditional architect per se, but she does talk the talk in a way that’s very digestible.
She’s absolutely great too. We need MORE of them.
“Whether it’s through a show on a streamer or TV, or a collaboration with a global brand, I can make more of a difference by marrying architecture with pop-culture than finding my clients their next building project.”
Let’s backtrack for a second — for our readers, could you describe what talent representation means, and what it means specifically for architects? What are the opportunities that you bring to them?
My interest in architecture is really rooted in how ideas generated in this field make our lives better and my role is to figure out how to manifest these ideas into other larger platforms beyond the architecture and art communities and to really give more visibility to this field. Whether it’s through a show on a streamer or TV, or a collaboration with a global brand, I can make more of a difference by marrying architecture with pop-culture than finding my clients their next building project.
What advice do you have for architects looking to further their career?
To architects, I’d say: find new ways to apply your talents and gifts — so many more interesting opportunities will open up.
Questlove, Madonna, and Niles Rodgers at DiscOasis, photography by Ricardo Gomes.
DiscOasis, photography by BFA/Ben Rosser.
Where are you in your career today? What is on your mind most at the moment?
I’m always interested in new forms of story-telling. Architecture is one such form. I’m really excited right now about the proliferation of immersive experiences — it’s a relatively new form of story-telling that has so much potential as people are more hungry than ever to connect with others in real life and in more meaningful memorable ways.
In parallel with my work at CAA, I also co-founded and run a studio that incubates, develops, and produces immersive experiences called Constellation Immersive. We recently produced the DiscOasis in NYC in Central Park this past summer. It’s the first of its kind, an immersive music theatrical experience that takes inspiration from the intertwined cultural and inclusive movements of disco and roller-skating. We transformed Wollman Rink in Central Park into a glittering roller-disco paradise that infused interactive performances all while you’re skating!
So many of my friends had a blast there.
“To architects, I’d say: find new ways to apply your talents and gifts — so many more interesting opportunities will open up.”
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you manage through them?
The biggest challenge has been this experimentation into immersive. We’re paving a new path and inventing as we go. We’re still building an audience for it and the experiences we’re creating in this format are new and they don’t really make sense until you experience it.
What would you say is your core mission?
To share inspiration — I’m pretty relentless about it.
Finally, what advice do you have for those just starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
Give yourself permission to experiment and play. It makes the challenges you encounter less daunting.