“Shameless” alumna Emmy Rossum has signed a first-look deal with UCP, Variety has learned.
Under the agreement, Rossum will develop premium scripted content, under her Composition 8 production banner. Rossum joins UCP’s roster of first-look deals that includes Kathleen Robertson and Charlize Theron’s Denver & Delilah.
Rossum recently left “Shameless” after 9 seasons playing Fiona Gallagher on the Showtime series. She also directed a couple episodes of the show in 2016 and 2017, as well as an episode of TNT’s “Animal Kingdom” and Amazon’s new “Modern Love” series.
She joins husband Sam Esmail at UCP, after the “Mr. Robot” creator renewed his deal in February, 2019. The pair are currently developing “Angelyne,” a limited series which Rossum is slated to star in.
News of Rossum’s deal comes amid a flurry of deals for content makers across both traditional studios and streamers. Studios like UCP are facing increased competition to hang on to top talent, as platforms like Netflix and Amazon continue to offer highly lucrative deals to coax big name producers and creators into jumping ship. For instance Ryan Murphy exited 20th Century Fox TV for a deal reportedly worth nine figures at Netflix, and more recently “Westworld” creators Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan departed Warner Bros. TV for a deal an overall deal at Amazon which is reportedly just as meteoric.
The news was first reported by THR.