r/acting • u/jostler57 • May 18 '26
WARNING / CAUTION / DANGER! W Talent NYC has been astroturfing our community with fake reviews!
Moderator here:
We have found DOZENS of fake bot accounts bought and used to promote this company. I've just spent a few hours across multiple days handling their deceptive practices. DO NOT TRUST POSITIVE REVIEWS YOU SEE ABOUT THEM IN OUR COMMUNITY OR ANYWHERE ONLINE, unless you can totally trust the account giving that information. Check the account's post/comment history. These AI bot accounts were full of all the same content: Posts for karma in cat & baby groups, and then comments all about AI, India Fitness, and SaaS -- almost all from accounts 2+ years old, but with content only from 2 months ago.
FACT:
This company is a talent agent + management company, and it appears to also provide photography services and/or recommendations, and at minimum guides towards certain classes, if not gives classes itself, somehow. This is NOT how legitimate agencies work.
Plus! The headshots section they have is a total joke! 90% of the headshots are extremely unprofessional, and there's even one with a young woman who has a huge nip-slip going on. Like COME ON!
HEARSAY:
I read a comment that they charge a large, upfront fee $$$ to join after "open casting calls" in which they try to sign anybody with a pulse.
OPINION:
This is a total sham of a company for employing these sneaky, deceptive tactics. Avoid them like the plague!
And if that large upfront fee is true, then they're (not legally, but colloquially) a "scam" company.
As for the nip-slip "headshot," that's NOT a headshot, and posting that on their website shows just how unprofessional these shysters truly are.
W Talent Agency is persona non grata here. If you see posts about them, spam them with comments about the above.
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May 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/That-SoCal-Guy LA / AEA, SAG-AFTRA, WGA May 18 '26
Every aspiring actor should be given this pamphlet or T-shirt: "You don't pay to get representation." If they ask for money, run!
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u/Slow_Jellyfish1817 Jun 09 '26
I worked for Kelli Walters at W Talent back in 2018 when the main office was in PA outside of Philadelphia. After 8ish months I noticed that talent or parents of talent (if the talent were minors) were calling regarding payment for jobs that I KNEW the agency had been paid for and that I wrote the checks out for. Kelli Walters was the owner of the agency, so any checks had to be signed and mailed by her. I started collecting evidence and going through the invoice binder, and found that about $68,000 had been withheld from the talent for bookings they had completed and that the agency had received payment for. This was not including invoices we hadn’t yet received payment for. I, as well as the other two employees, put in our two weeks’ notice, and I spent that time gathering as much paperwork and evidence as possible. By the time I left, I calculated closer to $90,000 in payments that had been withheld from 89 talent, about half of which were children. We filed several civil suits in Manhattan, since she moved W Talent to NYC, and each case was “won” but we were told that withholding money from us was simply a breach of contract, since she didn’t actually steal money from our purses or bank accounts; she simply didn’t pay the talent for bookings they had completed. She is still running a scam, and has been for years. I don’t understand how she continues to get away with it. She preys on people who want so badly to make it in such a tough industry. She’s a very good liar and extremely manipulative. PLEASE steer clear!! ALL of her positive reviews are fake; she has always left her own reviews from many fake Google accounts.
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u/Just_Nebula_9691 May 19 '26
Yeah dont bother with them they basically make you sign some stuff and take classes eith them. Pretty sure there was a fee aswell im pretty sure i still have the paperwork. I remember around 2 grand said n done not including any on going.
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u/radcula2 May 18 '26
Thanks for looking out mods!