Photo by Jamie Berg
Ohlsson Model and Talent (231 E. Buffalo St.) was founded three years ago by Brandis Ohlsson after she had worked for one of New York’s top casting companies. Her full-service modeling, voiceover and on-camera talent agency has recently collaborated with Too Much Rock for One Hand and the Milwaukee Barons and provided models for the Shepherd Express’ Woman Up! expo for the past two years. Off the Cuff sat down with Ohlsson to learn more about this growing Milwaukee company.
Can you give me a little background about your company?
I started Ohlsson the summer of 2012 from my living room. It was a long time coming; it just took me a minute to get brave enough to do it. When I originally started, I had planned on concentrating just on kids print. I had coffee with Arlene Wilson (the woman who really started Milwaukee as a market when she opened her agency in the ’70s—she’s since retired) and she told me the market would eventually demand more. Those were wise words, because it really has. My background is in print, so that really became the building block at Ohlsson, but clients were telling us they needed really great on-camera and voiceover talent. I want to make sure we’re offering our clients the best of the best talent and I want my talent to be super successful and get the most out of the agency, so we recently hired Joseph Skow, film graduate-turned-talent agent. We currently have talent that was scouted and found right here in Wisconsin placed in New York City, Los Angeles, Milan, China, Chicago, Mexico and London.
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What made you choose Milwaukee?
My now-husband (who I met in New York) was living in Milwaukee and I had also lived here before moving out East. We agreed to settle here. It all really worked out beautifully because Milwaukee has turned out to be a really fantastic market for this. There are a lot of companies headquartered and shooting their material locally (thus needing local talent) and our proximity to Chicago allows us to offer our talent way more opportunities than we could if we were in a smaller city. Milwaukee and Wisconsin in general has proven to be amazing for scouting undiscovered talent—either people aren’t looking here or they’re not looking hard enough.
What makes OMT stand out?
Everyone who works for Ohlsson is super passionate about what we do. We think globally and long term. We have fun, but we know this is business; we educate our talent and give them the resources they need to be successful not only here, but in other markets as well. When you sign with Ohlsson you become part of this huge, extended family. I see our models supporting each other on social media, singing the agency’s praises, just being super present. And it means a lot to me. Ohlsson has really become more than I think I could have imagined it to already and I feel like we’re just getting started. I take what I do really seriously and can be a bit of a hard ass, but at the end of the day, I am so thankful for all of this. I’m literally living my dream and I couldn’t have done any of it without my husband, Otto, our amazing team, Joseph, Brittany and Danielle, and of course, our wonderful talent.
For more information about OMT, call 414-383-0186 or visit ohlssonagency.com.
