Wheelhouse steers towards Portal A

Portal A partners
(L-R) Nate Houghteling, Kai Hasson and Zach Blume

Wheelhouse Entertainment, the talent and content company founded last year by former ITV America CEO Brent Montgomery, has secured an investment and partnership deal with US digital content studio Portal A.

Wheelhouse and Portal A will work together to offer services to media platforms, brands and ad agencies, combining the former’s production capabilities and industry relationships with the latter’s expertise in youth-driven content.

Portal A was founded in 2008 by childhood friends Nate Houghteling, Kai Hasson and Zach Blume, working with emerging talent to develop, produce and distribute branded and original content.

Brent Montgomery

It has worked with companies including HBO and Amazon, while its originals include unscripted dance special One Shot and LGBTQ documentary State of Pride for YouTube.

Montgomery described Portal A as a “unicorn” and said its success had been “driven by the trifecta of client service, exquisite creative and unique culture – and they run a profitable business, which is rare in the wild west of digital.”

“Together, we will develop an aggressive plan for growth for these incredible content creators who can work at a high level with brands, as well as with talent that can evolve into brands,” he added.

Wheelhouse has been expanding quickly since being launched by Montgomery in January 2018 and added former A+E Networks veteran Sean Cohan to its staff late last year.