Agent, co-head of CAA’s cultural business strategy group

In 2012, Kevin Lin was a biology major at Harvard, mapping out a future in science. However, his path to Hollywood began during his junior year when a friend suggested he check out the American Repertory Theater on campus. “I was really eager to find community,” Lin recalls. “For me at the time, it was specifically queer community.”

Producer Diane Borger took him under her wing, and Lin spent his remaining college years at the theater. After graduation, he figured he’d take one summer before grad school to work in theater. Cosmically, the only paid theater internship he could find was at CAA. Fourteen years later, he’s still there.

Now an agent and co-head of CAA’s cultural business strategy group, Lin has built a reputation for spotting talent early. His first client as an agent, whom Lin had signed at only 24 years old, was playwright Matthew Lopez, then an Off Broadway writer who has since won a Tony and an Olivier, directed “Red, White & Royal Blue” and its upcoming sequel. Shortly after came Jordan E. Cooper, still an undergrad at the New School, who became the youngest Black showrunner in television history with “The Ms. Pat Show.” Then he signed Celine Song, who had never written a screenplay before creating “Past Lives” and “The Materialists.”

“What I’m really drawn to is just ambitious storytellers, regardless of the medium that they’re in,” Lin says. “When I find clients who are also mission-aligned with me personally, I really want to see stories in the world that I can see myself in.”

Most recently, that alignment crystallized when he first watched “Heated Rivalry,” the Crave/HBO Max series starring Hudson Williams, whom he signed in December 2025. By episode six, when Williams’ character comes out to his mother, “it was the first time I had seen an Asian man come out on camera,” Lin says. “That completely broke me open.”

His work extends beyond individual clients through CAA Amplify, the agency’s annual conference, building community for underrepresented voices in media and entertainment. His motto, borrowed from President Obama, which he also has on a personalized desk plaque: “Hard things are hard.” And his advice to his younger self? “Don’t be afraid to show up, even when it might be uncomfortable or you might not feel welcome at first.” — Kennedy French

Influences: Michelle Kwan, Diane Borger, Joe Machota