Independent reps Bobby Rowe and Sabrina Mehar are making it official. No, they’ve not run off to an all-night wedding chapel in Vegas (for reasons we’ll explain later). Rather, they’ve formalized their longstanding and close professional and personal relationship into a free-spirited new repping company cheekily named Thick and Thin.
Based in New York and Miami, Rowe and Mehar open with a diverse roster of companies on the cutting edge of production and post-production techniques and disciplines, as well as progressive approaches to working in today’s highly complex marketplace for brand-oriented creative services. Their roster includes:
● Chapeau Studios, a VFX and design studio that works in innovative and emerging technologies for some of the world’s biggest brands in tech and beyond;
● Cutters Studios, the internationally known editorial and production company headquartered in Chicago;
● E1 Studios, pioneers in the field of pre-visualization that now handles any stage of the production pipeline from start to finish;
● MAS, Music and Strategy, the New York and L.A.-based music and sound studio;
● Quriosity Productions, the minority-owned Chicago and L.A.-based studio that offers production, post and photography;
● Unicorns & Unicorns, the minority-owned production company based in L.A.;
● Windy Films, a Boston and New York-based production company that offers a range of creative talents who focus on purpose-driven storytelling for brands seeking to make a cultural impact.
Rowe comes to Thick and Thin from his own eponymous company, Bobby Rowe, while Mehar comes over from her post as Head of Sales at E1 Studios, which is now on the THICK and THIN roster. The two share a long history of both working and hanging together, and the launch of their new company represents a natural progression for both.
“We looked at each other and realized there are a lot of great companies out there that need help,” says Rowe. “For both Sabrina and I, connecting talent with agencies and brands – and vice versa – is a shared passion for which we’re both innately well-suited.”
“While this is our first time co-owning a company, we’ve been teaming up in various ways for so long that we just felt this made sense,” adds Mehar. ”We both have a great passion for this industry, and lots of love for the people who work in it.”
REELated:
Rowe is a native New Yorker who found his way into repping from his first perch at Crushing Music in the mid-aughts, where he started as an intern. That’s where he met Mehar, a London native who’d just arrived in New York on a Mountbatten internship to seek her fame and fortune.
Rowe went on to become a producer, albeit with a sales focus, at Karmagroove, another music shop, and has worked as a freelance composer. It was Mehar who connected him with his next gig, at MAS, and from there he landed at the pre-viz specialist shop 321 Launch, where he reconnected with Mehar again. He opened his own repping firm after leaving Launch in 2019.
Mehar’s career took a similar path, with a few side jaunts thrown in to make things interesting. After Crushing Music, she joined the editorial house The Well, and ended up working closely with the independent rep Jolie Miller. She took a year’s break to live and work in Dubai, then landed a sales and marketing gig at a swank Wall Street private club, where she specialized in partnering with global luxury brands seeking to connect with its clientele. She returned to the ad biz after this, landing at 321 Launch while also opening her own repping firm called Cachet, before going in-house at E1 Studios.
“If we have a founding principle, it’s that we’re optimistic and hopeful about the future, especially when the right team is in place,” notes Rowe. “We’re representing the kind of talent that’s having a major impact on the industry today, and doing so through their creativity, ability and innovation.” Adds Mehar, “we’re using all of our skills, insight and experiences to ensure that the most deserving talent has the best chance of success.”
“And while we both identify primarily as iconic divas,” Rowe says with a smirk, “technically THICK and THIN has been founded by a woman of color and an openly gay man. That means we’ve felt the impact of diversity – or the lack thereof – on our teams, in our workplaces and in the content we consume.”
“A focus on diversity is a big thing for us, as is helping promote diverse talents,” says Mehar. “Like Bobby says, there’s a personal stake in this for us. So we’re inspired by the work of companies on our roster like Quriosity Productions, and Unicorns & Unicorns.”
“Indeed, every collective we represent shares a commitment to diverse talent up and down the pipeline,” Rowe notes, “often using their own resources to help close systemic opportunity gaps. THICK and THIN actively seeks brands and agencies that believe in this undertaking, taking responsibility for the content they put their name on.”
The company also plans on going beyond the showreel in terms of how it connects with clients and peers, tapping Mehar’s skills as a certified life coach, Reiki Practitioner and Kundalini yoga instructor. Accordingly, Thick and Thin will be inviting its clients to take part in a series of health and wellness gatherings in the coming year. And you probably thought it was going to be all discos and negronis, didn’t you?
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