The building housing Compass Artist Management in Toronto, Oct. 21, 2022.Chris Donovan/The Globe and Mail
The co-founder of one of Toronto’s most recognizable talent agencies, whose clients accused him of withholding hundreds of thousands of dollars of payments for their work, has been charged with two counts of fraud and theft, Toronto police said on Tuesday.
Danny Friedman, who co-founded Compass Artist Management with his sister, Robyn Friedman, was arrested on July 29, the Toronto Police Service said in a statement. He is charged with fraud over $5,000 and theft exceeding $5,000 and is set to appear in court on Nov. 7, the statement said.
Actors say Toronto talent agency Compass owes them more than $230,000 for work
Police allege in the statement that the artists are owed more than $600,000. The Globe and Mail first reported on this story last October after speaking to 22 actors who claimed the agency collected payments from production companies but then did not pass that money along to the actors. While The Globe was investigating this story, Compass announced it was ceasing operations and filed for insolvency.
The scandal sent shockwaves through Toronto’s acting community. A month after The Globe published its investigation, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), the union that represents professional performers across Canada, announced it would help actors who were represented by Compass recover their missing wages. The union set up a web portal to collect affected actors’ information to pass along to actors’ employers and banks.
Mr. Friedman’s lawyer, Matthew Naylor, declined to comment.
Actor Jennifer Dzialoszynsk poses for a photograph at Underpass Park in Toronto Ont., on Oct. 24, 2022.Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail
Jennifer Dzialoszynski, a 37-year-old actor who said she was owed four cheques totalling more than $50,000, said that she has yet to be reimbursed and that to her knowledge, many union actors who opted for assistance through the portal still haven’t been reimbursed either.
Attempts to reach out to RBC, her banking institution, have also been futile. “I’m trying to just communicate with anyone who will talk to me about it and nobody wants to,” she said. “That seems pretty unnecessarily cruel for large banking institutions.”
Ms. Dzialoszynski described the charges against Mr. Friedman as “a step in the right direction,” but she added that the experience has shaken her faith in both her union and the entertainment industry as a whole.
ACTRA Toronto said in an e-mailed statement that it can’t comment on the charges because the case is before the courts.
“In the meantime, it is worth remembering that, while many performers that were clients of Compass Artists did manage to recover monies owed to them, many more are still out thousands of dollars,” the statement said. “Judicial process is both necessary and important as a deterrent, but it will not restore the lost income. ACTRA Toronto will continue to pursue legislation with the government of Ontario to ensure this cannot happen again.”
The Friedmans launched Compass in May, 2020, establishing a strong clientele early on with notable actors such as Shay Mitchell (You and Pretty Little Liars) and Hallea Jones (Locke and Key), both of whom have since left the agency. On Sept. 26, 2022, Robyn Friedman also announced her departure from the company.