Jenna Adler, CAA’s first homegrown music agent, started in 1990 as an assistant to Kevin Gasser and learned the ins and outs of the business from Rob Light before heading out on her own. A rock ’n’ roll fan, she was big on the acts that populated KROQ’s playlists, and her first signing, Warner Records’ punk-metal band Deftones, fit both her taste and her sense of commercial potential.

Many of the acts she signed and/or worked with in her early days are still on her roster, a source of pride for a woman who didn’t fit the image of the typical rock agent three decades ago. “I just went after artists that I liked to listen to when I came home,” she points out in her disarmingly straightforward manner. “I still work with Deftones, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Garbage.”

In recent years, Adler helped guide another longtime client—Green Day—on the band’s worldwide Hella Mega Tour with Fall Out Boy and Weezer, orchestrated Jennifer Lopez’s record-breaking Las Vegas residency and It’s My Party 2019 tour, and has been on the teams behind Doja Cat, Charli XCX, and Chloe x Halle, among many others. She also played a pivotal role in bringing Beyoncé and her Parkwood Entertainment to CAA.

A first-generation Korean American, Adler grew up in L.A.’s Koreatown before the family moved to Northridge in the San Fernando Valley, where she fell in love with punk and new wave.

“I really liked rock and indie rock—the whole alternative business when a KROQ band was a type,” she recalls. “From working on Kevin Gasser’s desk, I was able to meet a number of these managers and take advantage of my time with him. When he left, I was able to start working with a number of artists that he was working on.

“I’ve had some really great luck, and everyone needs luck in this business.”

But Adler has a lot more than luck going for her.

Take us through your transition from assistant to agent.
It’s funny, because all you want as an assistant is to be promoted. But being on Rob’s desk, I was on every big tour; I was talking to every high-end executive and manager under the sun. Then, when you get promoted, it’s “Oh, now I have to create my own business.” That was a real eye-opener for me. The great thing about CAA is really the culture and that, as much as you need to grow your own business, you get a lot of mentorship internally. And without the mentors that I had—and still have—I feel like I wouldn’t be where I am today.

How different was it, though, establishing yourself in a world that was largely white and male-dominated?
My parents immigrated here, I knew nobody in the business and English was my second language at home. I really had to persevere and stay determined and hungry, which I still am.

If you are a female in the music business, the word groupie always feeds into people’s heads. That’s actually really hurtful, because nobody wants to take you seriously. So as a young agent, you think that you need to have an edge and you need to be somewhat harder than you want to be in terms of the way you act in business. It took me a minute to say, “No, that’s not who I am.” I can fight with the best of them and argue with the best of them, but I don’t need to come off like that.

I continued to evolve, and yeah, it was really hard. Slowly, you just become more secure in your skillset. I would just set goals and really ask for help in terms of making introductions to different artists teams.

I think I was the first female agent promoted inside the walls of our music department. Not a lot of women probably wanted to get into this field—it was just so male-dominated—and over the years, we’ve seen it level out. But we have so much more work to do.

You often credit Rob Light with putting you in a position to succeed.
Rob is great mentor of mine— his demeanor, his professionalism and his enthusiasm for a lot of different types of music. He really helped me personally and professionally to grow and gave me the opportunity to shine. He didn’t need to do that, but I think that’s just the way our company’s built. Just because you’re white doesn’t mean that you can’t represent diversity.

Thirty years later, how are you involved in bringing about change in the music business?
I’ve gotten to a point in my career where I can really fight to help pay it forward, whether it’s through mentorship, open dialogue or having faith.

Whether you’re male or female, Black, Asian or Hispanic, all I want to do at this point is impart some of what I’ve gone through and, and say, “It’s never going away 100%, but we want it to go away and that’s our goal.” I’m really proud of being able to have that dialogue from where I sit in this company; we’ve made strides.

How does the culture at CAA affect the artists you bring in and, for the matter, the types of employees?
We all feel more comfortable when we work with like-minded people—if you’re a Latin artist, you want somebody who can actually understand the culture and the language and the business around it. It doesn’t mean that you can’t have a diverse group of people representing you, but you want people who really gravitate toward [the artist’s style]. It’s really important for art-oriented companies to build out that way.

I see more and more artists and potential employees asking very specific questions. “What does being female look like in your company?” “How is the racial mix going to help me in my comfort level?” Those questions, which were once thought to be taboo, are now just open dialogue, which is great.

Read the complete interview here.