Craig Wagner serves as Executive Vice President, Business Affairs and General Counsel for the Paradigm Talent Agency. Paradigm represents over 2,000 clients in motion pictures, television, theater, books, film sales and branding.

Craig joined Paradigm in 2005 and has overseen the motion picture and television business affairs department since that time. During his tenure at Paradigm, Craig has negotiated countless agreements for motion pictures and episodic series on behalf of screenwriters, directors, producers, actors and authors, and has been involved as a negotiator in numerous projects including The Masked Singer on FBC, Stranger Things on Netflix, NCIS on CBS, Black-ish on ABC and many other film and television projects.

As the General Counsel of Paradigm, Craig is also responsible for corporate legal matters, employment and labor law. He formulated Paradigm’s employment policies including the company’s policy against all forms of workplace harassment. Craig represented Paradigm in its year-long negotiation with the WGA and the finalizing of a new franchise agreement between the agency and the Guild that was signed in 2020. He is a key member of Paradigm’s management team and has helped guide the agency’s expansion over the last decade.

Prior to Paradigm, Craig was Senior Vice President, Business Affairs, for Paramount Pictures. At Paramount, Craig served in numerous capacities and was most recently Head of Business Affairs for Paramount’s Network Television Division. He was responsible for all above-the-line talent agreements relating to the production episodic television, made-for-television motion pictures and mini-series for primetime, and oversaw the negotiation of writer, actor, director and other agreements for numerous television series and made-for-television movies on behalf of the studio. Before joining Paramount, Craig was associated with the law firm of Stroock in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions.

Craig was appointed Lecturer in Law for the UCLA School of Law in 2023 where he teaches a course on the representation of talent in the entertainment industry. He was recently an Adjunct Professor of Law at Loyola Law School from 2021 to 2023.

Craig is Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee for the UCLA Entertainment Symposium, an annual entertainment law conference that is underwritten by the Ziffren Institute for Media, Entertainment, Technology & Sports Law. He sits on the Advisory Board of the School of Cinema and Television Arts at California State University, Fullerton, and is a member of the Los Angeles Copyright Society. He has been recognized on numerous occasions in Variety’s Legal Impact Report as well as its Hollywood Dealmakers edition.

A native of Los Angeles, Craig earned his undergraduate degree from UCLA in English and obtained his law degree from New York University School of Law where he was Note & Comment Editor of the NYU Law Review. He makes his home in Agoura Hills, California with his wife, their two sons and their two yellow Labradors.