EXCLUSIVE: He’s the TikTok-loving talent agent who has repped young actors like A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms breakout Dexter Sol Ansell, but behind the viral videos showcasing his star-making credentials, Mark Jermin has admitted mishandling some self-tape auditions and misstating his power to cast kids in major productions.
The 30-year industry veteran specializes in training and representing child actors, thrusting the likes of Heartstopper star Kit Connor and Wednesday’s Evie Templeton into the limelight. But not all of his former clients and students are happy with the service they received, while Jermin’s TikTok posts and stage school marketing have led some casting directors to question whether he misled his followers.
Deadline has spoken to several people familiar with Mark Jermin Management (MJM) and the Mark Jermin Stage School (MJSS), both of which are owned and operated by Jermin. They paint a picture of an agent with a keen eye for talent, but voiced concerns about some of his methods. We can reveal:
- MJM sent an actress self-tape auditions for roles in two TV shows, including Bridgerton, but she was later told that she was not called to audition for the series, and her tapes were not received by the casting teams.
- MJM shared a Coronation Street audition with four actors, but a casting executive on the ITV soap said the self-tape was only intended for one of Jermin’s clients and that agents should not distribute confidential casting materials. Jermin has repeatedly denied sharing self-tapes and scripts without permission.
- Jermin was confronted by a member of the Hunger Games casting team after he wrongly suggested on TikTok that he was casting roles on the Lionsgate franchise.
- MJSS sold acting courses that promised “casting opportunities” for students without including best practice UK Casting Directors’ Guild disclaimers about workshops not being an environment to secure employment. After being contacted for comment, Jermin added disclaimers to his website and social media posts.
- MJM included a clause in actor contracts that gave the company the power to charge commission on chaperone fees, a practice that is not supported by the UK industry body for child acting agencies. The clauses have since been removed.
In a statement shared with Deadline, Jermin said his team had built “many trusted relationships” with casting professionals over 25 years, and that his clients “regularly” secure roles in top film and TV projects. He said the self-tape issues raised by Deadline, relating to a stage school course in 2024, were due to an administrative error that has since been corrected. He apologized to actors who may have been affected. Jermin strenuously denied deliberately misleading his clients and students.
“Fame Factory”
Mark Jermin founded his Wales-based talent agency and stage school more than two decades ago, earning a reputation for being a “fame factory.” His clients often graduate to bigger agencies once they find stardom, with Dexter Sol Ansell, the co-lead in Game of Thrones spin-off A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, recently being signed by WME and Independent Talent.
Dexter Sol Ansell in ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’
While most agents operate in the background, Jermin is unusual in his embrace of TikTok, using the platform to promote his businesses, talk up his influence in casting decisions, offer advice on acting and auditioning, and tease his clients’ upcoming gigs, like his viral video on three actors being cast in HBO’s Harry Potter series. Jermin has nearly 70,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram, burnishing his reputation as a go-to figure for young actors, many of whom are longing to succeed in a venerated profession. The message is reinforced in videos featuring clients, such as Hunger Games actress Iona Bell, praising his services (see below).
The experience of one of his clients, however, has raised questions about his handling of self-tape auditions. Jane, a pseudonym we are using to protect the identity of the actress, joined MJSS classes regularly and was eventually signed by MJM in August 2023 as she sought to further her career and fulfil her dreams. But she told Deadline that the reality of her experience fell short of her expectations from the image projected on Jermin’s social media channels.
Self-Tape Mistakes
Aspiring actors were encouraged to attend classes to access self-tapes or to brush up on their skills for auditions, according to former clients. Jane was sent auditions for a handful of roles in August 2024 when attending an MJSS “weekender” course, but she now has serious reservations about their legitimacy.
She was asked to record an audition for the role of a sex worker named Merry in Bridgerton, but a source close to the Netflix drama said it had no record of having requested or received her self-tape. The audition could not have been legitimate because Merry appeared in Season 3 of Bridgerton, which premiered months before Jane’s weekend class. The actress recalled telling MJSS tutors that the role felt familiar, but said she was reassured that the audition was credible.
Jermin’s position is that the Bridgerton script Jane received was actually for a mock period-drama self-tape exercise, but the emails sent by MJM administrative staff gave the “mistaken impression” they were legitimate auditions. Jermin recognized this was disappointing for Jane and apologized. The agency updated processes last year around distributing self-tapes to students, with auditions now handled by agents, rather than administrative staff.
Nicola Coughlan in ‘Bridgerton’ Season 3
Jane was also sent an audition for a small role in the BBC series What It Feels Like For A Girl, but later learned from a member of the casting team that she was not asked to audition and that her self-tape was never received. Jermin explained that MJM was asked by What It Feels Like For A Girl’s casting director to suggest suitable clients, that self-tapes were submitted, but none were successful. A casting executive on the BAFTA-nominated series did not respond to requests for comment.
“I thought I was on fire. I was like, damn, I’ve got all these massive auditions this weekend. This is incredible,” Jane said. “It was devastating when I discovered I had not been called to audition. I was inconsolable.” A highly-regarded UK casting director described Jane’s experience as “really shocking.”
‘Coronation Street’ Concerns
One of the tapes Jane received in August 2024 was for a minor character called Robyn in Coronation Street. Through his lawyer, Jermin said MJM shared the audition with four actors, but that none of their tapes were submitted to the Corrie casting team because the character was written out of the script. Jane later discovered that Coronation Street’s self-tape request was only intended for one MJM client. A representative for Jane made inquiries about the audition with the Corrie casting team and, in an email seen by Deadline, they were told: “We are very clear to agents when we invite actors to tape for us that the scene/s are strictly confidential and not to be shown to any third parties other than the person taping.”
The email raises questions about Jermin’s position that he has never shared auditions and confidential casting materials without a casting director’s permission. Deadline sent Jermin key details about the Coronation Street email on May 13, but a lawyer for the agent argued that he did not have enough information or time to respond. The attorney threatened to apply for a court order to disclose an unredacted version of the email. Coronation Street‘s casting director declined to comment.
‘Coronation Street’
ITV
Deadline has been in detailed correspondence with Jermin’s lawyer for more than two months, first presenting him in March with the allegations that he had mishandled casting materials. Jermin’s original response was that, if a self-tape was sent to more than one client or student, it was always with the agreement of a casting director. He added that he never shared confidential scripts or auditions without authority. Through his lawyer, Jermin initially responded that “all” completed auditions were passed to casting directors. He later admitted, however, that mistakes could have been made in failing to submit auditions, though he said this was never company policy or practice.
In his statement, Jermin said: “As a company, we have previously expressed our concerns about the increasing use of self‑tapes within the industry, and we acknowledge that in this instance it appears we fell short of the high standards we set for ourselves.
“As we have explained to Deadline on several occasions recently, this new information has only just come to light, and we were not aware of any incidents of this nature at the time. Having investigated as thoroughly as we can, we understand these incidents to have resulted from an administrative error, compounded by a failure to properly communicate the work we were undertaking on our clients’ behalf. To any actors who may have been affected by this, I apologise, and I want to reassure them that we have taken all necessary steps to ensure this cannot happen again.”
Deadline revealed how some agents (not Jermin or either of his companies) in the talent business were mishandling self-tapes in a series of stories that shocked the UK industry in 2024. At the time, Jermin spoke about the issue on his Pushy Pushy podcast, criticizing the “despicable” tactics of Bodhi Talent agency, which asked clients to film auditions and then didn’t pass them on to casting directors. “Do you know what? People put so much bloomin’ time, effort, money into their self tapes,” Jermin said. “It’s a really sad story because I think it tarnishes the whole industry because we all work so hard, and you want the best for your actors.”
Misstating Casting Power
As well as questions over Jermin’s approach to self-tape auditions, he has been accused of overstating his influence in the casting process. Deadline can reveal that he was confronted by the UK casting team on The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping after suggesting he had casting power on the Lionsgate movie.
On TikTok last May (video below), Jermin announced that his client Iona Bell was joining the Hunger Games franchise, before adding “we’re still casting several different roles” on the film. In a second video, he said Hunger Games script and audition materials were being shared in stage school classes. Separately, MJM’s branding featured on a third-party event hosted by Jermin, in which he was described as a “casting director” and Hunger Games was listed among his credits. The reference was later removed.
In a response sent through his lawyer, Jermin explained that he “apologized profusely” to the Hunger Games casting director and admitted he had been unintentionally careless with his language. Through his lawyer, he said the phrase “we are casting” was only used on one occasion. When Deadline pointed out that Jermin used the phrase three times in two separate TikTok videos about Hunger Games — as well as in videos about other projects, including a Disney series, and in a written online casting call — the agent’s lawyer said “no reasonable person” would conclude that Jermin was claiming to be a casting director.
Others disagree. “It’s misleading,” said an experienced casting director. Another casting source added that parents and young people are “naive” about the industry and not necessarily familiar with the differences between an agent and a casting director. “He should stay in his lane,” this person said of Jermin’s social media updates.
In his statement, Jermin said: “I strongly reject any suggestion that either myself or my team have ever acted in a way that seeks to deceive or exploit the many talented actors who come to us for training or representation.”
Stage School “Casting Opportunities”
MJSS’s promotion of “casting opportunities” in its marketing materials has also raised questions. The stage school has promised young students the chance to “audition for casting directors,” while some parents recalled MJSS making explicit links between classes and auditions. This included one example of Jermin emailing contacts in 2021 to offer an “exclusive” casting opportunity for a video game character, which required a “perfect USA accent” that could be honed in a £15 ($20) workshop.
The marketing appeared to fall short of best practice laid down in guidelines from the UK’s Casting Directors’ Guild (CDG), which state that workshop producers must include a disclaimer about classes not being a way for actors to secure employment.
Mark Jermin Stage School course in Ibiza promoting “casting opportunities”
Jermin’s position was that the guidelines do not apply to MJSS because he is not a member of the CDG, and that “no reasonable person” would consider that the stage school was offering anything other than education. A CDG representative did not comment on MJSS directly, but said any promotion of “casting opportunities” without disclaimers was “concerning and disappointing” and that its guidelines encourage responsible practice across the industry, not just among members. Jermin’s view is that the stage school has made no claim about being a way to secure employment.
Soon after Deadline approached Jermin for comment, the company’s website and terms and conditions were updated to include a disclaimer, stating that the presence of casting directors at lessons does not “constitute an audition or guarantee any professional opportunities or representation.” It adds: “All class materials are for educational use only and must not be shared. No NDA-protected or confidential production scripts are used in our group training.” Marketing materials, such as Instagram posts, have also been updated to make clear that MJSS classes are not an “audition setting.”
Through a lawyer, MJSS said it made the changes after bringing forward an annual review of its terms and conditions following Deadline’s inquiries. It would be “entirely incorrect” to suggest that this was an admission of any wrongdoing, the company added.
Chaperone Fees
MJM, Jermin’s agency, is not a member of the Agents of Young Performers Association (AYPA), meaning it is not obliged to adhere to a set of standards that the AYPA considers to be best in class. One example of where it is alleged that MJM fell below AYPA standards was a contract clause charging commission on chaperone fees. A 2023 MJM contract clause reviewed by Deadline gave the company power to charge 20% commission on chaperone fees — money that could have been paid to parents who take time off work to accompany their children on set. It breaks the AYPA code of conduct, which states: “Fees due to a chaperone are not subject to commission.”
‘Heartstopper’ star Kit Connor was a Mark Jermin client
Samuel Dore/Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
Through his attorney, Jermin said MJM’s financial records dating back to 2020 showed no such commission had been charged to clients. The agent added that the clause’s inclusion was an “administrative error” in contracts that pre-dated the AYPA’s establishment in 2022. The clause has since been stripped from MJM paperwork, but Jermin declined to disclose if this update was made following Deadline’s inquiries.
Jermin told Deadline he would take the concerns of former clients and students on board. “We have always encouraged anyone who may have experienced disappointment with our services to let us know, and we have always strived to improve in order to provide the very best service we can,” he said. “This is a fast‑moving industry built on ambition and opportunity, and I, alongside everyone at Mark Jermin Management, remain committed to working openly, honestly and transparently to support our clients’ successes.”
If you would like to get in contact with the author of this story, please email jkanter@deadline.com.
