Apex Talent Associates

Samantha Smith & Kristin Lindsay

The agents who accompany celebrities during Comic Cons or Conventions are not always pleasant or human, including their contacts with fans.

But sometimes at these events, you meet great people. This is how we met an adorable woman : Kristin Lindsay. Kristin is actually Jared Padalecki's agent and accompanied him during Comic Con Brussels this end of Oktober 2024.

And for the fans, it's a winning combo. You have two of the nicest people in front of you. Jared Padalecki is literally one of the sweetest, kindest, humble person you can meet. And this is the same for Kristin, she welcomes each fan with a smile, giving them time to meet this warm and kind-hearted actor in order to give them this long-awaited unforgettable moment.

So we wanted to know more about her and her work.

Kristin is the owner and manager of the Apex Talent Associates agency. But Kristin is not alone in this adventure since she is accompanied by actress Samantha Smith who is internationally know for her role as Mary Winchester in Supernatural. Together they have created this agency and they do an amazing collaboration, their main quality to describe the agency is Kindness, Courtesy and Efficiency.

This is how they will show us their way of seeing things and this will only be for our greatest pleasure!

TPCV: How did you start this Apex Talent Associates adventure?

Kristin: My professional background is in event production, specifically in the video games industry. I had been working behind the scenes at one of the largest video game conventions in the US for nearly 15 years before leaving that field. I was approached to do some contract work with celebrities, and ultimately that ended up evolving into Apex Talent!

TPCV: How did you both of you met?

Kristin: Samantha and I have a mutual friend that knew about my event production background, and also knew that Sam had some great ideas about talent representation and a dream of maybe doing appearance management some day. They introduced the two of us, and suggested we could combine forces with our complementary skills and work together. Sam and I hit it off immediately, and Apex was born.

TPCV: Why did you wanted to create your own talent agency?

Kristin: There were a lot of reasons. Sam as done dozens of conventions thanks to her role as Mary Winchester, from Supernatural. That's meant a lot of travel and all of the various little pieces that go into appearances, and she's experienced the highs and lows of that business. We agreed that there's room in the space for a high level of service for clients, basically a concierge-level of attention, from a smaller boutique agency. We're fully a women-owned-and-run business and we strive for a very high level of detail. That's the goal for Apex.

TPCV: What are the most important qualities for you that you want to convey through this agency?

Kristin: We want to make the experience so easy and stress-free for our clients AND the event producers as we possibly can. Between me and Sam, we have a wealth of experience in what goes into a convention, from both the talent and the organizers perspective. We want to use that experience, our huge, mutual love of pop culture events and our endless respect for the staff and volunteers to work together aqnd help deliver fun and amazing events to the fans. We really feel like it's a team effort between us, the promoters and the talent. We all want the fans to make fantastic memories at a show!

TPCV: How collab between your agency and a celebrity work?

Kristin: In most cases, talent seeks us out based on referrals or word of mouth. We meet with them to learn about their goals and interests as far as appearances. If we think we can help male those goals a reality , we'll start working with them. We reach out to events that might be a good fit - or somtimes they come to us! It varies. A big piece of advice I give to fans who want to see certain celebrities is that you have to tell the conventions! Email them and tell them on social media that you want them to invite those celebrities. That's the biggest things the fans can do to help, so that the shows there is interest and people want to see those actors.

TPCV: What do you like most about this adventure?

Kristin: This is hard to decide, I like everything about my job, I'm a big extrovert. I've always really loved traveling, meeting and talking to new people, and I'm a huge nerd and fan of ... fandom! I adore seeing how excited people get about whatever THEIR thing is, the fandoms that bring people joy and happiness and support when things get tough. Whether it's video games or a TV show or a specific actor, I love being a witness to that excitement and gratitude when they get to meet the talents involved. It's like getting to watch people's dreams come true every day. It's such a precious gift, I feel very blessed to be a small part of it. I am very energized and upbeat after a show. The fans give me so much strength.

TPCV: Do you have a moment that particulary touched you during these celebrity fan meetings?

Kristin: Well, like I said, I find every experience to be so joyous and meaningful. Every fan who gets that special photo or autograph, or just that moment with someone they really look up to, it's an honour to see. Whether they are happy or speechless or nervous, or if they have something really important and meaningful they want to share, it's always such a big moment. Many times, people have saved up a lot of money to come to these shows and have these meetings, I think it's really important to respect that. If it wasn't for the fans and the staff at these shows, I literally would not have a job! I'm so grateful for those moments and thank every fan who makes the trip to see their faves. They do it out of love for their fandom, I appreciate and admire that.

TPCV: What would you like to achieve with your agency?

Kristin: I would summarize by saying what I said before, that we want the fans to make fantastic memories at a show. It's such a great industry that exists entirely to celebrate fandoms. We're going to keep working hard to connect celebrities with events where their fans can find them, and keep working with all the promoters and volunteers putting together hugely challenging shows out of the sheer love of fandom.

TPCV: Would you like to expand your agency to Europe or UK?

Kristin: As far as the agency expanding, it's definitely a possibility! Because we travel all over the world, we have reps in different countries that can help us out with local events. When we meet great people, we want to stay in touch with them!

TPCV: And finally, can you tell us what are the next events you will be participate?

Kristin: We've got a busy early 2025 schedule coming together! In the US, you'll see Apex reps and clients at a bunch of the FanExpo shows, and at Albuquerque Comic Con. In the UK, we'll be at Starfury's Cross Road 10 event and various shows with Monopoly Events. In Europe, we'll be at Purgatory 9 in Dusseldorf and many more appearances that haven't been announced yet.

You'll have to stay tuned!