David Park has been showing up. For years, the UTA senior partner and television agent has made the trek to Asia multiple times annually, building relationships in markets where American agencies traditionally haven’t maintained a strong presence. Now, with Korean content dominating global streaming charts and K-Pop reshaping the music industry, that persistence is paying off — and the runaway success of “KPop Demon Hunters” proves the agency’s multi-medium, local-focused approach is working.
“Our plans for Asia are ambitious,” Park tells Variety ahead of UTA’s annual Busan International Film Festival party. “We’re thinking about Asia not just in terms of what business we can bring to the U.S., but how can we expand our global footprint working with great artists already in Asia to help them with both their local aspirations and global aspirations.”
The animated film’s unprecedented success — breaking records globally while becoming a cultural phenomenon ,particularly in Korea — validates UTA’s bet on supporting culturally grounded Asian storytelling across multiple platforms. “In my 30 years, I’ve never seen a phenomenon like this,” Park says. “The biggest movie and biggest TV show of all time are Korean: ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ and ‘Squid Game.’ Korea doesn’t own them, per se, but it shows the power of authentic storytelling.”
Park’s client roster reads like a who’s who of Asian entertainment: director Na Hong-jin (“The Wailing”), “Squid Game” star Lee Byung-hun, Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda and Korean entertainment powerhouse HYBE. But “KPop Demon Hunters” — directed by his client Maggie Kang — exemplifies exactly what UTA has been building toward: Asian stories with global appeal, created by artists who pour their cultural truth into their work.
Kang, who had worked in animation for 20 years, spent seven years on the project, a deeply personal tribute to Korean culture that resonated globally. “She put her whole life into this,” Park says. “The best pieces of art come from authenticity. She wanted to write this love letter to Korea and to Korean culture, and really poured every bit of authenticity into it.”
The film’s portrayal of Korean culture — from food to bathhouses — created something that Korean audiences embraced as truly theirs and global viewers found captivating. This is the core of UTA’s Asian strategy: finding artists with genuinelocal voices and supporting them with resources to reach global audiences. Kang was so devoted she named her daughter Rumi after the lead character. “Everyone thinks the character was named after her daughter, but her daughter came after the character was already established,” Park notes.
UTA’s involvement included Park helping secure K-Pop group Twice for a song near the film’s end, demonstrating the agency’s cross-medium approach. “I take a little pride in my small role in that, because I can’t take any credit for the work that Maggie did,” he says. “That was all her and her co-director Chris Appelhans.”
The movie’s achievement of placing four singles in the Billboard Top 100 — joining only “Saturday Night Fever” and “Waiting to Exhale” in the feat — shows how UTA’s strategy of working across music, film and entertainment creates synergy. But initially, even the K-Pop industry hesitated. “No one knew how big it was going to be,” Park explains. The Black Label contributed music but used unknown artists rather than major stars. “Now everybody, the biggest bands on the planet, want to be involved in all the sequels.”
This validates UTA’s long game: betting on local stories and building comprehensive representation. The agency’s strategy centers on Korea as its priority, with Japan close behind — two markets that historically haven’t worked with global agents. “For Asians and for a lot of international clients, when you show up and you show up repeatedly, and you build trust, it makes a huge difference,” Park says. “We’ve been showing up for many years, multiple times a year, and the fact that it’s paying off now is wildly rewarding.”
UTA aims to become “a true partner to multi-hyphenates all across the region,” moving beyond traditional film and TV representation to encompass music, brand partnerships and corporate consulting. This comprehensive approach is already evident in Park’s work with HYBE, where he’s consulting on their expansion into India through K-Pop-influenced local acts, and with K-Pop idol Joshua Hong of Seventeen, whom he’s helping transition into acting.
UTA’s Asian expansion extends beyond Korea and Japan. In markets like the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia that are comparatively less mature in terms of their film industries, he’s exploring opportunities through music and cross-medium talent. “Maybe there’s a way to work with hyphenate artists,” he suggests. “If all of a sudden there’s a great K-Pop-type band that comes out of Indonesia backed by a great label, maybe those artists are people we should be looking at, not just for music, but also to segue into the talent fold.”
The agency is also the only major Hollywood player (of the “big three” agencies) throwing a significant party at Busan — a statement of intent that reflects UTA’s commitment. The event has evolved from what Park calls a “snobby VIP film/TV party” into a cross-industry networking event bringing together executives from film, TV, music, fashion and brands.
As the son of South Korean immigrants, Park sees his work as both business and legacy. “If I’m not leveraging my own experience and my relationships with what’s important to me, with my background as a son of immigrant South Korean parents, then who is?” he asks. “It’s both business and personal.”
The economics aren’t always straightforward. Park acknowledges that representing Asian talent isn’t as immediately lucrative as focusing solely on established North American clients. Netflix, he notes, has become “the legacy studio” in markets like Korea and Japan, often paying rates comparable to local broadcasters rather than reflecting global talent value.
“It’s eye-opening to see A-plus talent working under really tough conditions in a way that a lot of mid to lower level directors would be working at in North America, in terms of their fees, budgets etc,” Park observes. “We’re trying to make the playing field more even for them.”
Director Na Hong-jin’s upcoming film “Hope” – starring Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell and “Squid Game’s” Ho-yeong Jung – exemplifies UTA’s comprehensive approach. The agency helped cast the production and will handle international sales, while also working on U.S. adaptations of Na’s previous films, including a Fox Searchlight deal for “The Wailing” as a global TV series.
Looking ahead, Park advocates for more “hybrid” content that blends cultures without necessarily requiring English language, pointing to “Shōgun” and “Tokyo Vice” as successful examples. “The boundaries for what’s great local content versus great global content are starting to blur,” he explains.
As Park prepares for another Busan festival, where director Na heads the jury and the “KPop Demon Hunters” sing-along version screens for enthusiastic Korean audiences, UTA’s Asian strategy is becoming increasingly clear: comprehensive representation across multiple mediums, building trust through consistent presence and championing authentic stories that resonate globally. The film’s success proves the model works.
“These K-pop idols, if they commit to what they say they want to do, they can make it happen,” Park says. “They will themselves to learn new talents. I’ve never seen that level of commitment from other human artists.”
For Park and UTA, the transformation is already underway. The question isn’t whether Asian content will continue its global ascent, but how the industry adapts to support it — and UTA is positioning itself as the essential bridge between Hollywood and Asia’s creative communities.