Former clients of KMR Talent who are waiting to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay have been advised not to seek arbitration against owner and president Mark Measures, who revealed in March that his commercial talent agency was with grappling with a devastating “payment breakdown.”
Months After KMR Talent’s “Payment Breakdown,” Clients Are Still Waiting For Their Money
In a letter obtained by Deadline, the leader of a group called the KMR Claimants Arbitration Committee told past KMR clients that a Level 1 asset search into Measures’ company suggests he might not have the cash for a successful arbitration. To wit: The report by Integras reveals there are currently eight judgment and lien records, filed between 2017 and 2023, against KMR that total $520,720. Of this amount, KMR only paid back $3,298.
Measures is listed as a co-debtor with the company in several of these records, the report added.
“It’s the opinion of our attorney and SAG-AFTRA’s litigation team that we do not move forward with this arbitration,” according to the letter written by Brian Cade that was circulated Monday. “I’ll take a leap here and assume this news makes you as angry as it makes me. … I will say that, on behalf of the other members of the KMR Claimants Arbitration Committee, we have been proud to lead this effort and work alongside you, regardless of next steps forward. Thank you for your insight, questions and dedication and I’m sorry I’m not reaching out with better news.”
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SAG-AFTRA have been working with former KMR clients since late April, when the union told Deadline that “we have provided resources, assistance, and guidance to members as they contemplate possible next steps. The union has been assisting its members on many fronts and we will continue to do so.”
Deadline has reached out to Measures and SAG-AFTRA about this latest development. The last time Deadline heard from Measures was in April, when he sent this statement: “KMR remains open with the focus on getting our clients paid in full. We are making progress, but still have a way to go. We are working diligently to live up to our obligation. We have tried to respond to all clients who have contacted us and remain in touch with many as we work through our payment issues.”
KMR Talent Clients Speak Out About Money Owed: “I’m Not Holding My Breath”
Deadline spoke with several former clients who were told by SAG-AFTRA that Measures owes at least $3 million in back pay.
Past KMR clients still can seek remedies in the criminal courts, Cade suggested in the letter. “Assuming we take the advice of counsel and halt this arbitration—we go after Mark criminally, full force,” it reads. “We make him suffer and drag him through the criminal justice system, then hopefully to prison.”
Deadline first revealed the problems at KMR Talent in Marc h . At the time, Measures blamed banking issues, the crashing of a database involved with payment and the loss of the agency’s Head of Talent Payment as factors behind his inability to pay clients. Measures stressed that the agency is actively “working [its] way out” of the situation, in dialogue with talent payment companies, as well as talent reps and unions.
Soon after Deadline reported on KMR’s woes, the agency left the Association of Talent Agents , the trade organization of talent agencies that negotiates agency franchise agreements with the major entertainment guilds and does legislative lobbying on behalf of its members.
Also known by the name Kazarian/Measures/Ruskin & Associates, KMR Talent began as The Wormser Agency, which in 1957 became the first voice-over and commercial agency in Los Angeles. It represented a slew of actors working on TV series and had a commercial department in New York.
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