A Literary Management and Production Company
ALLARD
CANTOR
PARTNER / LITERARY MANAGER
New York City born, New Jersey bred, and University of Wisconsin educated, Allard Cantor started life as an envelope salesman in Manhattan before choosing to follow his passion for film and moving to Los Angeles.
He attended the American Film Institute, where he received his MFA from their prestigious producing program. There, he discovered an aptitude for helping writers develop their material—a skill which, combined with his years of sales experience, led to an organic shift into management. In 2012, Allard met his partner Jarrod Murray, and EPICENTER was born.
JARROD
MURRAY
PARTNER / LITERARY MANAGER
Jarrod Murray grew up in small-town Alabama, and attended the University of Southern Mississippi. After saving up money working in construction, he paid his dues interning in New York before finally making the cross-country trek to LA for grad school at the American Film Institute's producing program. From there, he worked his way up to creative executive for agent-turned-producer Marty Adelstein, where he worked on Prison Break, Black Christmas (2006), and discovered Seth Lochhead’s Hanna script during his tenure.
In 2008, he left to run development at PCH Films (Groundhog Day and Walk the Line), where he worked with future Black Panther writer and Emmy winner Joe Robert Cole. In 2011, Jarrod decided to strike out on his own as a producer, setting up the David Morrell novel Brotherhood of the Rose at Gold Circle Films and selling Dennis Tafoya's book The Wolves of Fairmount Park to RCR Pictures. One-on-one collaboration with writers still called to him though, and he soon segued into literary management.
ANASTASIYA
KUKHTAREVA
LITERARY MANAGER
Growing up in Alabama after having moved here as an immigrant from Kiev, Ukraine at the age of seven, Anastasiya found she often turned to movies and TV to understand how to be an “American.” Prior to becoming a literary manager, Anastasiya started in the indie film group at UTA, then worked at Shondaland, Tobey Maguire’s company Material, and ran development for producer Lynda Obst. Having grown up an avid reader, getting to work on projects that were adaptations of bestselling books such as THE FIFTH WAVE (with Material) and THE HOT ZONE (with Lynda Obst) has been a dream.
Anastasiya joined Epicenter in 2018 as a manager. She had first met Jarrod Murray and Allard Cantor when she was an exec at Material championing a young screenwriter named Steven Canals who won a screenwriting showcase at UCLA with his script POSE. Anastasiya introduced Epicenter to Steven and they offered her a job when the show got picked up to series. The transition from development to management has been exciting as the best part of her job is developing and strategizing with young creators and working on making their dreams come true.
HAYLEY
CHARAS
COORDINATOR
Hayley Charas grew up in Connecticut studying musical theatre. She graduated from USC with a BA in Theatre and a Minor in Communication & The Entertainment Industry. After graduation, she worked for an unscripted producer where she was an Associate Producer on EXTRA POINTS for Sports Illustrated TV. After that, she worked for Marla Studios, a company that adapts video games to TV and Film.
Hayley started as Epicenter’s assistant in 2019 and has since been promoted to coordinator. She gravitates towards female driven stories as well as exploring mental illness on screen. When not at work, you can find her teaching yoga, playing tennis, or trying new restaurants.
GABE
HOFFMAN
ASSISTANT
Gabe Hoffman grew up performing theatre in the San Francisco Bay Area. He left California for the Midwest and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Washington University in St. Louis, with a degree in Linguistics and Psychology. After graduating, he moved to Chicago, where he worked in financial research before embracing the creative hustle and working part-time as an editor, travel agent, and tour guide. Now that he’s moved back to the Golden State, he is the assistant to Allard Cantor and Jarrod Murray at Epicenter.
Outside of work hours, Gabe is a seasoned writer, actor, and improvisor, with a specific interest in comedic television. Since college, he’s been building his portfolio of pilots, screenplays, and stage plays while appearing in short films, podcasts, and new media projects. He’s also a passionate foodie, a self-taught (and still learning) pianist, and an amateur photographer.
JOSE
JIMENEZ
ASSISTANT
Jose Jimenez is a born-and-raised Dominican who recently graduated from UCLA’s MFA Producers Program. In 2015, he obtained a BS in Business and Entertainment from American University. Following his undergraduate studies, Jose pursued a career in the energy sector where he spent two years working at Dominican Republic’s largest electric power company. In 2018, Jose’s innate passion for storytelling and film production led him to exit the energy industry and work as a Production Assistant on several independent Spanish-language films.
Jose gravitates towards subversive genre films that are at once an ode to Classical Hollywood cinema and an embrace of inventive filmmaking and narratives. Within this framework, Jose seeks to tell stories that promote Latinx crew and talent participation in Hollywood.