UTA Adds Geoff Sawyer As Video Games Agent With Ear For Music

Geoff Sawyer, most recently Red Bull’s Director of Global Music Services, has been hired by UTA as an agent in its Video Games division. In the newly created role based in Los Angeles, he will focus on fostering collaborations between UTA’s music clients and the gaming industry.

At Red Bull, Sawyer oversaw a team and produced thousands of original songs for the “Sounds of Red Bull” catalog. He also was creative director of the Red Bull Audio Library, which contains licensed catalogs from artists, record labels and production music libraries. Before that he was at Beyond Marketing Group, where he negotiated and managed partnerships between Toyota and artists including Slayer, Steve Aoki, Joey Bada$$ and others.

“Geoff has an unparalleled reputation for facilitating successful connections between recording artists, brands and media networks,” said Ophir Lupu, a UTA partner and Head of Video Games, on Tuesday. “As gaming continues to cement itself as a critical component of pop culture, we believe that the number of meaningful collaborations for musicians will continue to increase and Geoff’s expertise will be invaluable in finding these new opportunities for our clients. We are thrilled to welcome him to UTA.”

Recently, UTA helped negotiate Marshmello’s performance within Fortnite, marking the game’s first-ever live in-game concert. The agency also recently secured Post Malone as an owner of esports organization Team Envy and set him to headline Pokémon’s 25th anniversary virtual concert celebration last month. The agency reps more than 35 of the world’s top game developers and nearly 100 professional esports athletes, content creators and streamers.

“The line separating gaming and the entertainment industry is disappearing completely.” said Sawyer, who started his career as an artist manager. “And the symbiotic relationship between games and music stands to deepen greatly as technology advances and audiences converge. I am elated to join the legendary team at UTA and to serve our incredible music clients with opportunities previously unconceived.”