Tiauna Jackson launches streamer, Jacksmacked, sets her sight on Nollywood

After several years of hearing no, she decided to take matters into her own hands by launching the Jackson Agency, making her the first black woman with 100 percent ownership of an agency, eventually, the first black woman elected to the Association of Talent Agents Board for the most elite agencies in Hollywood and co-founder of the Black Agents Network, a trade association for Black Talent Agency owners.

Now, she is onto the next part of her impressive career: launching an international streaming platform, branching into Nollywood and other markets, while pursuing another degree, this time in law.

Speaking exclusively with Pulse, the legendary talent agent takes us through her incredible career, her new streamer, and her interest in Nigerian and South African filmmakers.

I had overheard some actresses I had cast in a project who were of colour, one was Native American, and they were discussing how they couldn’t find an agent. At that time I was in my early 30s, and we had switched to digital cameras. When I started in this industry, we were on film and I just felt like it’s been over a decade we have not progressed. So, I went through the steps necessary to become a talent agent and built this thing from the ground up in the face of adversity.

Along the way, I started working with underserved, underrepresented actors especially those of color. It’s important to note that I started my agency long before we started to have these diversity initiatives. I was the only agent that would take more than two black people, Hispanic people or Asian people. I often joke and say that Hollywood treated people of colour like Noah’s Ark. Eventually, we started working with directors and producers, getting distribution deals for them. We found that these distribution deals were lopsided, the money wasn’t coming in etc.

I’m the type of person who likes to do things hands-on, I believe that the only way you can impact change is to make it happen yourself. So, I went ahead and started researching developing our streaming platform while signing distribution deals with other platforms, so that way we could take films and not only put them on our platform Jacksmacked but put them on mainstream platforms and other black-owned platforms as well.

As an agent, I also work with writers and we found it exceptionally difficult to get their projects bought. I could get meetings with every major network and studio, but that was not the problem. The problem was that they weren’t interested in our projects, but then I would see similar projects come out later. So, I decided that we needed to go ahead and get into that same business. This is a startup, it’s a labour of love that’s going to take time for it to grow and build, but I’m very excited to see where it goes.

The idea behind it is to allow lovers of cinema to connect with filmmakers globally. What’s unique about our site is that we’re not going to have geo-restrictions, so now Italians can watch African films, and Africans can watch Brazilian films. What we want to do is to be able to connect indie filmmakers internationally and allow people to have a platform that lets filmmakers and viewers get into other markets.

Right now, we have over 100 movies up on our site which is amazing for a brand new streaming platform. We’re uploading titles daily. We’re going to start having the series roll out probably in August. I wanted it to launch on June 19th because of its historical and cultural significance to African Americans. June 19th, known as Juneteenth, is actually the official day that slaves were freed in the United States so I thought it was timely actually to launch this site where our tagline is ‘the Revolution is streaming’.

We have designed a content partner submission form, so that way a filmmaker can go ahead and submit their materials so that we can review them. Everything is laid out on the form. We need a screener link where we can see the actual film and the trailer to review it and see if it is something that we want to put on our platform.

I can pretty much work with anything from animation, and reality, to scripted series, but obviously, we draw the line at adult entertainment and so that’s why we need to screen these films and make sure that there aren’t things in there that you know just don’t align with our morals.

I’m super excited, Nino is so awesome and he’s phenomenal. A friend of his introduced us and we started working together here in the United States I believe within the last three months or so. I am looking for clients of Nino’s calibre. I have had a few people reach out that are international actors, but they don’t have their visas. If you don’t have those things in place, then I can’t help you in the United States. What I’m hoping to figure out is how we can help locally in Nigeria and South Africa, but I haven’t figured out how we can make that a reality yet.

I think the international recognition that Nollywood is getting is amazing and it’s long overdue. My concerns, from looking on the outside in, are the appropriate protections for those filmmakers’ intellectual property and also the money when you’re dealing with multi-billion dollar companies that are coming in. I’m speaking with your filmmakers and finding out that they are only making what turns into about maybe $5,000, that’s concerning. I think ultimately creators really do need to take the time to become more knowledgeable of the business aspect of this and how this works and what is what we call industry standard.

The way this industry is designed you have to be established. It’s very hard to get newcomers going. Have we got newcomers going? Absolutely. We’ve gotten clients on major TV shows, I put a client on a sketch comedy show that now is nominated for six Emmys but it took several years and a lot of hard work. As much as I want to continue to work with newcomers, we found that a lot of them do not have the work ethic that is required. So, if you are serious about this, you have to have discipline and a work ethic. If you work hard and do the things that you’re supposed to do, you will find what I like to call forward momentum. There is value in being a triple threat meaning being an actor, singer and dancer. But now it’s probably the quadruple threat because influencer filmmaker is now becoming the norm as well. We find that the people who are successful in breaking in have those traits. I don’t want to discourage anyone, I’m just being honest about what I’ve seen and what works.

We need people who understand how things work, they show up on time, they show up prepared, we just don’t want to lose opportunities. We’ve tightened up our submissions requirements and we just cannot take on people who don’t have the bare minimum together. It really is about taking that time to study and master the craft before you seek representation. Agents are not here to teach you how it works. I understand the difficulties that we have as people of colour. There aren’t that many resources available to us and so we do kind of need a general direction and for that, I direct you to the Jackson Agency YouTube channel. There are a few videos there where I’ve talked about how to get started in this industry, but ultimately you have to be the one who is curious. You have to be the one to do your research not just come expecting instant gratification. It’s your career, your responsibility.

I enjoy learning new things and I’ve always prided myself in learning a little bit about everything so that I understand it. Right now, I am focused on the law, which is never-ending. I think that law is going to keep me very busy and I am curious to see what I will have a natural aptitude for maybe that will guide me down the right path. I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me. Being a boss bitch is what’s next.