EXCLUSIVE: Mark Jermin Management, the prominent UK children’s agency, has stripped a clause from some actor contracts that made it “conditional” for clients to train at its sister stage school, potentially breaching UK law.
Deadline revealed last week that Mark Jermin Management (MJM), which discovered stars including Heartstopper lead Kit Connor and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms breakout Dexter Sol Ansell, could have broken UK agency regulations by effectively charging actors training fees for the opportunity to secure representation.
In emails seen by Deadline, MJM encouraged young people to attend paid-for acting classes, provided by sister company the Mark Jermin Stage School (MJSS), if they wished to be represented by the agency. In one 2023 email, an MJM representative told a parent that the company “only represents” young actors “who regularly train and attend our classes.” UK law prohibits agencies from charging upfront fees for representing their clients.
In a statement last week, a spokesperson for MJM founder Mark Jermin strongly denied that representation has “ever been contingent upon the purchase of training services.” Following publication, Deadline obtained a leaked copy of a 2025 MJM representation contract, which raised serious questions about the accuracy of the agency’s statement.
The fourth paragraph of the leaked contract reads: “If you have been scouted from Mark Jermin classes or events, this is a conditional offer given with the understanding that you will continue training with Mark Jermin so the agency can monitor your progress and development. You agree to disclose any intention to leave training and discuss this with the agency ahead of any action.”
Section of leaked Mark Jermin Management contract
Deadline confronted MJM with the contract clause and asked how it was compatible with last week’s statement. A spokesperson said the clause only appeared in a small number of client contracts and was a “recommendation” that was never enforced. The MJM spokesperson added that the clause would be stripped from agreements as part of an ongoing review by an external consultant.
Deadline presented the clause to three agency law experts, all of whom said it raised questions about MJM’s denials of unlawful conduct.
Adrian Marlowe, a Lawspeed attorney who specializes in agency laws, said it was a “clear breach” of Regulation 5 of the UK Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, which states that agencies must not make work-finding services conditional upon work-seekers using other services.
“Use of phrases such as ‘with the understanding that,’ and ‘so the agency can monitor’ cannot alter the clear condition which comes into effect when the offer is accepted,” he explained.
An MJM spokesperson said: “The wording you have identified is confined to a very small number of contracts in our overall database. The majority of clients of both the stage school and MJM do not have this wording in their contracts and, as part of our ongoing work with business consultants, the wording has been removed from all contracts.
“The reason for the wording was to enable the team at MJM and the stage school to monitor and assess the actors’ progress in order to gauge their ability and suitability for any roles that they might be put forward for.
“In this sense it’s more of a recommendation and the condition was never enforced. No payment was demanded upfront and clients were free to end their association with the stage school while continuing to be represented by MJM without prejudice. A number of clients have opted to discontinue their training and are still represented by MJM.”
The source who shared the contract with Deadline said: “These words in the contract were not seen as a ‘recommendation’ … it was seen as ‘conditional,’ as per the wording in the contract.” They added: “These two words have very different meanings.”
In a statement last week, Jermin’s spokesperson said that MJM denies “unequivocally allegations of deliberate wrongdoing, unlawful conduct or systemic misconduct. In particular, we strongly reject any suggestion that representation by Mark Jermin Management has ever been contingent upon the purchase of training services.”
Jermin is one of the UK’s best-known children’s agents, unearthing talent including Wednesday’s Evie Templeton, Harry Potter series star Eire Farrell, and Iona Bell, who will feature in Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. He has parlayed his expertise into a significant social media presence, which he uses to promote his management work and market acting lessons, promising to make stars out of young people.
