Toni Gray’s phone is blowing up these days.
The head of production at Dhar Mann Studios, which makes shows for YouTube and other online platforms, said entertainment industry friends in Los Angeles had once held out before seeking work in the digital realm.
But now, with jobs few and far between at the legacy studios, they are reaching out “all the time” looking for opportunities at the Burbank-based studio, known for posting family-friendly dramas addressing topics like bullying.
Seeing some of her peers now flock to be a part of production companies built for distribution on YouTube and other online platforms is exciting for Gray, who worked in traditional television for more than a decade and joined Dhar Mann Studios in February.
“It’s giving people hope that they can get back to work again,” she said. “And it’s not just monetary hope for their house and their kids. It actually is giving their own being life again to bring their creative element.”
Pave Studios founder Max Cutler.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
In Hollywood’s TV and film industries, droves of workers are competing for jobs at a time when many companies are consolidating and laying off hundreds of people at a time. But one segment of the entertainment industry has emerged as a bright spot — the economy made up of people creating video for YouTube and social media.
That part of the industry, once dominated by amateurs making funny viral videos with smartphones has blossomed into a formidable entertainment force, where video creators are setting up real businesses with large studios in Southern California funded through advertising by major brands.
Dhar Mann Studios plans to add 15 positions to its staff of about 75 full-time employees. In Sherman Oaks, Pave Studios, which produces wellness- and true-crime-related shows, is adding 16 full-time workers to its staff of 67 contractors and employees.
Nationwide, there were more than 490,000 jobs supported by YouTube’s creative ecosystem last year, according to the Google-owned video platform, citing data from Oxford Economics. That’s roughly 60,000 more jobs than in 2023, YouTube said.
“It’s beginning to mature into creators really building businesses,” said Thomas Kim, YouTube’s director of product management for creator monetization. “We see more and more of that, and that also means that the number of employees and help that they need to sustain their business has grown over time.”
Sean Atkins, chief executive of Dhar Mann Studios, called it a big growth opportunity in the market. YouTube is a major player in streaming, representing 12.5% of U.S. TV viewing in May, according to Nielsen, more than streaming services including Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
“Everything is so new and nascent,” said Atkins, a former president at MTV. “I imagine, particularly when you walk around our studio … that this is what it looked like in the ‘20s when MGM and Disney and Warner [Bros.] were [founded]. Just this enthusiastic chaos where everyone’s trying to figure out what this environment is.”
The growth in Southern California influencer businesses is a boon to the local production economy that is otherwise struggling. L.A. County saw a 27% decline to 108,564 employees from 2022 to 2024 in the motion picture and sound recording industries, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Many Hollywood workers have struggled to find roles, as studios cut down on their programming after the 2023 actor and writer strikes and after overspending during the streaming wars. For years, productions have fled the area to take advantage of lucrative financial incentives out of state and abroad. Production in L.A. County also took a hit following devastating wildfires in January.
Meanwhile, the amount of employment in the creator economy is trending up, according to the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. Total workers in the L.A. County creator economy, composed of businesses such as media streaming distribution services and social networks, as well as independent artists, writers and performers, increased 5% to 70,012 from 2022 to 2024, LAEDC said. Companies in the creator economy space also increased 5% to 46,425 businesses during the same time period, according to LAEDC.
The bleak job market has caused more people who have worked in traditional studio and TV networks to apply for jobs at digital media companies that produce content for platforms such as YouTube or work with influencers who are growing their staffs.
The migration reflects changing realities in the business. Consumers’ habits have shifted, where more people are watching YouTube on TV screens these days instead of on smartphones in the U.S., eating into territory held by broadcast and cable television. Video creators have adapted, building production teams and expanding into podcasts, merchandise and sometimes scoring streaming deals.
For example, one of YouTube’s top creators, Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, has a reality competition show on Amazon Prime Video, sells products such as Feastables chocolates and has brand partnerships and sponsorships. His North Carolina holding company, Beast Industries, employs more than 500 people.
Kyle Hjelmeseth, chief executive of talent representation firm G&B Digital Management, said he is receiving more calls from people coming with traditional media backgrounds seeking collaborations with influencers.
“Five years ago, it would have been very different,” he said. “Anytime that somebody from Hollywood or the entertainment complex talked about creators, it was with such a different lens … a little bit like nose in the air.”
His company, which has 25 contractors, part-time and full time employees, added four people last month with plans to hire more.
“All the pressures of what’s happening in Hollywood and the growth of the creator economy [are] crashing into each other in this moment, and that’s why we’re having a conversation about jobs, because there’s such a shift in the energy, and we’re certainly feeling it,” he said.
Morgan Absher, left, and Kaelyn Moore, right, record “Clues” podcast at Pave Studios.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Pave Studios launched last year with fewer than 10 employees and now has grown to 67 contractors and employees. Part of that growth is fueled by the increasing audience for its videos and podcasts available on platforms including YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The company is hiring for roles including executive producers, with a pay range of $95,000 to $145,000, depending on the show, said founder Max Cutler.
“As we grow and as the business becomes more complicated, you need more specialists and more people,” Cutler said. “Video is definitely a leading growth area for us.”
Jen Passovoy joined Pave Studios in January as a producer, after working for 10 years at Paramount on competition series such as “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “Ink Master.”
“Coming from a traditional TV background, I was drawn to how nimble and audience-focused the company is,” Passovoy said in an email. “There’s less red tape and more room to actually create. You get the energy of a startup with the same high-quality content you’d expect from a major studio.”
Passovoy, 34, said the job market for traditional studio and TV network workers is really tough right now.
“I know more people out of work right now than working, which says a lot,” she said. “The traditional TV model just doesn’t exist in the same way anymore. Budgets are shrinking and the jobs that used to be steady aren’t there. There have been so many layoffs across the industry, and it’s forced a lot of incredibly talented people to rethink how and where they create.”
Skills that people develop in traditional studio and TV roles can translate to digital-first roles, including video editors for influencers and digital media companies, industry observers said.
The creator economy also has more specialized roles, such as thumbnail designers — people who create the images used to tease videos on sites including YouTube. Those jobs can pay six figures annually, as they can be instrumental for getting audiences to click on those videos.
Roster, a hiring platform that lists job postings in the creator space, said the number of employers signing up to hire on the site has increased by nearly 80% from January to June 2025. Based on a sampling of 1,430 creator job posts in 2025, Roster said the most popular open position was video editor (representing 42.5%), followed by thumbnail designer (16.1%) and producer (10.6%).
There are downsides. Not all jobs are full-time. Many creators opt to hire freelancers.
“Their production needs need to expand and shrink like an accordion,” said Sherry Wong, CEO of Roster. “That’s why we see a lot of creators, even if they’re really big established creators, they are hiring freelancers, contractors, and being able to keep it as lean as possible.”
With so many people looking for work, there‘s intense competition for those jobs, and the ways to apply can be creative and involved.
Miami-based creator Jenny Hoyos found freelancers through a hiring challenge she hosted on Roster. Applicants were given 10 minutes of raw video footage and instructed to edit it down to a video short, roughly 30 to 60 seconds long.
Hoyos, 20, requested that applicants create a final product that was engaging, cohesive and matched her specific style. She received more than 100 submissions.
While there were strong contenders from California, the winners ended up being from Brazil and India. They became her two go-to freelancers, who she said are essentially working an amount equivalent to full-time editors.
This method of seeking talent was Hoyos’ way of making sure the people she brought on to her team were willing to go the extra mile, she said. Those hoping to break into the digital media world don’t necessarily have to have grown up with YouTube and social media like she did, but they do have to “commit to being addicted to watching” content, she said.
Not everyone who works for YouTube creators gets paid.
Screenwriter Natalie Badillo isn’t earning a salary while she tries to build up an audience on YouTube. Badillo, who sold a self-titled project to HBO Max a few years ago, said she was looking for a way to “not wait 8 billion years for a TV show to get picked up,” and creating a YouTube channel, “Great Job Nat,” was a way to get her material out into the world.
“Why wait for somebody to throw you a party when you can just throw your own party?” she said.
Badillo draws on her connections with folks from the traditional film and TV world to produce the YouTube videos. While the channel is getting up and running, collaborators work for low pay or simply for the fun of it and to gain experience. Still, her ambitions are big. “I want to be the Jon Stewart of the West,” she said.
The pay disparities can be an issue for people from traditional media industries looking for jobs. While some programs featuring influencers and vertical excerpts of TV shows and movies are covered by union agreements, other projects don’t have those protections.
“With temporary hiring, it’s like everything else in Hollywood — you either need to have another job that balances things out or you need to get to a critical mass of enough work on enough different projects,” said Kevin Klowden, executive director at Milken Institute Finance. “The number of sustainable Hollywood jobs has shrunk.”
But as the two worlds collide, traditional media companies are already paying attention to the popularity of creator shows and are trying to find ways to partner with influencers. Amazon earlier this year announced more seasons of MrBeast’s reality competition series “Beast Games,” and digital media companies are adding people with traditional media backgrounds to their staffs.
“It’s still a lot more tiptoeing,” Hjelmeseth said. “Everybody’s kind of like looking at each other from across the room, like, ‘Should we dance?’”
