When life flips the script
The gig: Chief Executive of RDF USA, a unit of the British TV production company RDF Media, which makes more than a dozen programs for U.S. networks including “Wife Swap” for ABC, “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” and “Secret Millionaire” for Fox, upcoming shows “Hitched or Ditched” for CW and “Addicted to Beauty” for Oxygen.
Breaking into Hollywood: “I’ve always been fascinated by the media, by the power of the media. I wanted to be a journalist. At the end of 1989, when I was still in college, I applied for an internship within this news operation at Fox. I thought, ‘Wow what a challenge to go to some place that I had never been and see if I could cut it and do news.’ It was a business news entertainment program called “Fox Entertainment News.” Of course, it was not at all like I thought it would be.”
Three “Cheers” for Kelsey Grammer: Coelen’s internship was nearing its end in 1990 when kismet struck: “I did this stake-out at the courthouse when Kelsey Grammer got in trouble for drug charges.” At the time, Grammer played pompous Frasier Crane on TV sitcom “Cheers.”
“I got this interview as he was walking into the courthouse because I was either more aggressive or faster than everyone else. No one else had it. [The show producers] wanted you to ask all of these aggressive questions, and I felt so bad. Here’s this guy and he had a toothbrush in his pocket because he’s getting ready to go serve time. I walked into the courtroom, I sat down behind him and said, ‘Mr. Grammer, I feel so bad for asking you those questions.’ I just felt terrible, but they offered me a job in the news division after that.”
Finding talent: The Fox show eventually was canceled and Coelen needed a job. A gossip columnist he knew steered him to talent agencies. He joined APA in 1992 and began representing TV news people.
“My first client was the morning anchor in Myrtle Beach, and he was such a pain. I was making no money on him, and he was making no money and he was demanding that I send his tapes all over the country. I was working out of a closet, no assistant, not even a typewriter. I didn’t even know how to make a deal. I didn’t know anything.”
A small world: But Coelen soon figured it out and signed some notable clients including MTV veejay Martha Quinn, film critic Rex Reed and Maty Monfort of the ABC daytime show “Mike and Maty.” “It was a lucky break to represent Maty Monfort,” he said. Through her, Coelen connected with other clients, including Ryan Seacrest.
“I helped him get his first jobs when he was about 18 and had just moved from Atlanta,” Coelen said. “I actually got him the job on the kids “Gladiators” show [in 1994].” That’s how Seacrest met Brian Gadinsky, who produced the “Gladiators” program, and went on to be a producer on the first season of “American Idol,” Coelen said. “It’s such a small world.”
Tossing out the script: In 1996, Coelen switched to United Talent Agency, reporting for work the day after the guy who had hired him was fired. The UTA brass wanted Coelen to ditch his TV show host clients and instead represent actors. “I did that for five years and I discovered that I didn’t like representing actors at all. It was not fun,” Coelen said.
After the TV shows “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and “Survivor” became huge hits, Coelen created the unscripted TV business for UTA. “We grew the division over five years. We had nine agents and over 100 clients.”
Moving up to CEO: In 2006, Coelen joined RDF, one of his clients at UTA. He was given the task of expanding the firm’s North American business and was its first corporate employee in the U.S. Since then, RDF has sold more than 30 shows to the networks and cable channels.
“I was drawn by the opportunity to be a vested part of this business, to be on the same team as the people that I was representing,” Coelen said. “This is a really nice, smart and entrepreneurial group of people, and hopefully we will succeed creatively and financially.”
Personal: Coelen, 40, talks a lot about his multicultural heritage, which includes a Native American background on his mother’s side. “When I was a teenager we had a sweat lodge in our yard,” he said. His father, the economist Stephen Coelen, has a Dutch-Irish heritage and his adopted siblings are of Vietnamese and Korean descent.
Coelen lives in Pacific Palisades with his wife, Ashley Black, and their three boys -- Grant, William and Finnian -- all of whom are younger than 2.
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