Literary Representation in Toronto for Screenwriters and Creators

YCAA represents screenwriters, playwrights, actor-writers, and creators developing original work for film, television, theatre, and series development. Our literary division is built for storytellers with a clear voice, strong material, and work that is ready to be discussed seriously with producers, production companies, and development partners.

We are deliberate about who we take on. The same philosophy that shapes our talent roster shapes our literary one: we represent the people we genuinely believe in, and we work harder for them than most agencies work for anyone.

What Literary Representation Means at YCAA

YCAA’s literary representation is focused on screenwriters, playwrights, and creators working in film, television, theatre, and related screen-based development. We do not offer traditional book publishing representation. If you are looking for a literary agent to sell a novel to a publisher, we are not that agency, and we would rather tell you now.

Who We Represent

The writers who fit YCAA tend to be screenwriters, playwrights, actor-writers, writer-producers, and hyphenates. Many have original IP they are building. All of them have something on the page worth reading: a completed script, a pilot, a short, a play, or development material strong enough to start a real conversation.

We are especially interested in creators who are not waiting for permission. Some of the strongest opportunities now come from artists who write their own work, develop their own projects, and build careers on both sides of the camera.

What We Look For

We are practical about this. Before we take a writer on, we want to see a clear point of view, a logline that lands, characters worth following, and a sample that delivers on the premise. We read the first ten pages closely, because the first ten pages tell us most of what we need to know. We look for market awareness, a readiness to take notes and develop, and above all a voice that is genuinely the writer’s own.

This is the part where lazy submissions tend to fall away, and that is fine. We would rather read ten serious pages from a writer who knows what they have than a full script sent on spec.

How YCAA Helps Writers

Talent alone does not build a career, and neither does a great script in the wrong hands. The work we do is intentional: positioning material so it reaches the right people, opening development conversations, making producer introductions when the project is ready for them, and finding packaging opportunities, including the actor-writer crossover that a combined talent and literary agency is uniquely positioned to create.

We are honest about what the Canadian market can support, and strategic about timing. Our angle is not that we represent hundreds of writers. It is that we represent few enough to actually pay attention, to shape the opportunity, and to think about a creator’s career over the long term rather than a single sale.

We don’t measure success by how many people we represent. We measure it by what they become.

Meet Alex Fortaleza

YCAA’s literary division is led by Alex Fortaleza, who works alongside Jason Norris to identify, develop, and position writers and creators whose material is ready for the next stage. Alex has worked across production, music licensing, writer management, and creative development with professionals in Canada, the United States, and Europe. That breadth, and those relationships, are what he brings to the writers he represents: an understanding of how projects actually move, what gets in the way, and how to close the gap between a strong idea and a real opportunity.

You can read more about Alex and the rest of the team on our about page.

Why Talent and Literary Under One Roof

YCAA’s move into literary representation is a natural extension of the agency’s work with actors. The careers we care about are increasingly built by artists working on both sides of the camera, and the most interesting projects often come from the writers and performers who decide to make their own

Representing both talent and literary means we can see those connections others miss: the actor who should be writing, the script that needs the right performer attached, the package that becomes real because the relationships already exist under one roof. In the Canadian market, that combination is rare, and it is deliberate.

Full guidelines are on our submissions page.