EXCLUSIVE: SAG-AFTRA is predicted on April 25 to fulfill with former and present purchasers of KMR Expertise who haven’t obtained compensation for work they already accomplished. The union is asking members to point out “proof of loss” within the wake of KMR’s “expertise cost breakdown,” as Deadline first reported in March.
“The response from aggrieved members looking for SAG-AFTRA help and help has been substantive and continues,” in accordance with a SAG letter despatched to KMR purchasers. “At the moment, we’re asking all aggrieved performers to make sure that all of your requested documentation is full in order that any arbitrators and/or declare specialists might be handed a finalized or “perfected” declare for you. At our aggrieved members’ assembly, we’ll tackle choices which can be accessible to you, each as people and/or as a bunch, and we’ll try and reply any questions that you will have about the place we’re at this cut-off date and the expectation of restoration in opposition to this company.”
A kind of former KMR purchasers who filed a declare with SAG is Rachel Leyco, who’s nonetheless ready for a $6,000 verify after showing in a Tubi unique movie known as What Occurs in Miami. She was enthusiastic about doing the film in January because it was her first job after the strike, however when a month handed and she or he hadn’t obtained compensation, she tried contacting KMR’s accounting division.
It took two emails earlier than somebody lastly replied, just for the individual to say “the cost isn’t in but” from the film — regardless that Leyco confirmed with the payroll firm that her verify had, certainly, been despatched to KMR. When February turned to March and she or he nonetheless hadn’t obtained something, Leyco touched base along with her fellow solid members to see in the event that they, no less than, acquired paid. That they had.
Then, Leyco acquired an e-mail from her agent saying “we wished to handle the Deadline articles which have come out about funds and we’re making an attempt to determine it out.”
“They have been saying, ‘simply know at the moment we’re nonetheless persevering with to function. We’re nonetheless representing you the way in which that now we have, and nothing has modified,’” recalled Leyco, who has left KMR. “They acknowledged the intense circumstances and the stress that it’s triggered and that they’re ‘working actually arduous to grasp the place they’re and how you can regulate to get a greater future.’ It wasn’t actually addressing something.”
Actress Noelle Miller thinks she could have it simpler than another KMR purchasers; she’s owed $8,200 for having appeared in a nationwide AT&T industrial. The actress who has been doing commercials for over 20 years began suspecting one thing was fishy with KMR when funds she was anticipating in late 2023 by no means got here till she began rattling cages. She finally obtained the cash, however “these have been simply yellow flags to me,” she tells Deadline.
Miller realized had extra money coming after speaking with the payroll firm that distributed her pay to KMR. She fired off an e-mail to KMR’s accounting division — ensuring to cc KMR Proprietor and President Mark Measures — however hasn’t heard something again.
“Inside I wish to imagine that he’ll have my verify prepared, however really, I don’t see how there’s any manner that they will have everyone’s cash prepared at this level,” mentioned Miller, who has since filed a declare with the state Labor Board. After working with KMR since 2019, she has discovered new illustration. “He must be held accountable for this. It’s not proper. I hope I see the cash, however on the identical time, I’m not holding my breath.”
Deadline reached out to Measures, who launched this assertion: “KMR stays open with the concentrate on getting our purchasers paid in full. We’re making progress, however nonetheless have a method to go. We’re working diligently to stay as much as our obligation. We have now tried to reply to all purchasers who’ve contacted us and stay in contact with many as we work by our cost points.”
In a earlier interview with Deadline, Measures blamed banking points, a pc database crash and the lack of the company’s Head of Expertise Fee for his or her ongoing woes. Measures went on to say the corporate is actively “working [its] manner out” of the state of affairs. Additionally identified by the identify Kazarian/Measures/Ruskin & Associates, KMR Expertise began out as The Wormser Company, which in 1957 turned the primary voice-over and industrial company in Los Angeles.
“It’s not straightforward as an actor,” mentioned an actress and former KMR consumer named Katherine, who declined to present her final identify. She mentioned KMR owes her $5,000 for her first guest-starring position. “Reserving your first visitor star or your first TV position is a really massive deal, and all the pieces about it was such an important expertise. After which this occurs. These are pennies to a big firm, however to not me. That was a down cost for a automobile that I would like.”
Including insult to harm, KMR purchasers who’re ready for his or her payday have been reminded that, per SAG guidelines, “fee remains to be due for any present and future residuals on jobs the place the session/shoot was carried out on or earlier than March 22, 2024,” in accordance with a KMR e-mail obtained by Deadline.
KMR’s expertise division suggests mailing these fee checks to the corporate’s P.O. Field in Studio Metropolis. However additionally they settle for funds through PayPal.