Gary Cosay, a longtime talent agent who was among the co-founders of United Talent Agency, has died. Cosay died Oct. 5 at his home in Carmel, Calif. He was known for representing top TV writers and he was a quiet force in the rise of the modern-day showrunner in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Cosay had not been active with the agency for some years, but he remained a beloved mentor to a number of current agency partners. All of us at UTA will miss him dearly.” Cosay represented key writer-producers behind influential 1980s and ’90s TV series hits including Fox’s “Married … with Children” and ABC’s “The Wonder Years,” “Growing Pains” and “The Drew Carey Show,” among many others. Cosay’s experience helped guide many clients and many younger agents to develop hits that would reap millions of dollars for all involved in syndication and through lucrative packaging deals for talent agencies.
He was responsible for rescuing many dogs over the years, including greyhounds bred for racing that were saved from abusive conditions. Cosay started his career in the late 1960s as an assistant at William Morris Agency in New York. After rising through the ranks, he left to move to the West Coast to join then-powerhouse agency Creative Management Associates in 1973.
He exited CMA after two years to form his own agency, Cosay, Werner & Associates. From there, Cosay merged his business with fellow literary powerhouse agents Jim Berkus and Robert Stein to form Berkus-Cosay-Stein in 1982. By October 1983, Cosay’s firm merged with Robert Littman Co. to form Leading Artists.
In early 1991, Leading Artists merged with the Bauer-Benedek agency to create UTA. Cosay’s stature in the television literary world helped establish the young agency as a haven for promising and established scribes. At Cosay’s direction, there will be no public memorial service.
Family and friends request that donations be made in Cosay’s memory can be made to the SPCA of Monterey County. (Pictured: Showrunner Bruce Helford, comedian George Lopez and Gary Cosay)
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