Barbara could I ask you to give a little perspective on your background?

I am a born and bred Burbank girl, which is the true entertainment capital of the world. I grew up playing on the backlots of Universal, Warner Brothers, and Disney Studios. What better playground for a young girl. My entire family was involved in the entertainment industry in one capacity or another. I studied theater from the age of twelve to twenty-one, when I moved to New York and enrolled at HB Studio.

One day I went for a job interview at a prominent modeling agency and suddenly found myself working in the men's division. A woman by the name of Kay Mitchell hired me as an assistant booker at Legends. A few years down the road they would change their name to IMG Models. I gave up acting and worked for IMG working in their men's, new faces and scouting divisions for about ten years, traveling and working in other markets intermittently in Europe and the states, before finally returning back home to LA. I've been an agent for over twenty years now, representing models, actors, and photographers, as well as hair and make-up artists and stylists.

How would you define BBA as an agency?

The greatest aspect of BBA is that we are known for having one of the strongest dance, commercial, and theatrical divisions in town, so we are able to spot talent and develop them for TV and film quite effortlessly. We're the biggest little agency in the country.

BBA has been an established agency for thirty years, yet we still pride ourselves in quality, not quantity. As the fashion booker it is so great to have these connections right under the same roof. I learned a great deal from my family's connections in the industry. My uncle was the vice-president of Universal Television, developing new talent. One of his main resources for talent was Nina Blanchard, who was a true pioneer in the modeling industry. They worked very closely together developing big named actors. They were working out development deals with the studios for models turned actors thirty years ago. I find it funny that the modeling agencies today think they've come up with a new endeavor by transforming models into celebrity status.

Who are the typical clients you work with?

Because of our diverse talent pool, we work with not only the top fashion clients, like The Gap, Wrangler, LL Bean, and Nike, but also the biggest casting directors for commercial and television. Our actors have booked thousands of national commercials, TV series, and soap operas. Theatrically, we have booked kids on many feature films and on most television shows such as "Providence", "Boston Public", "CSI", "General Hospital" and "All My Children", just to name a few.

Commercially, you can see many of our kids on such ads as "K-Mart", "McDonald's", "Coca Cola", "Sears", and "JC Penney". We also represent some of the biggest choreographers in the business. Tina Landon who has been recently nominated for an MTV award for the music video "Lady Marmalade" and Shawnette Heard and Marty Kudelka for the "All For You" Janet Jackson video. Tina has also choreographed music industry giants like Ricky Martin for his world tour, Janet Jackson's Velvet Rope tour, as well as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera for many of their acclaimed music videos.

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