Patrick Dempsey Signs With Gersh in Major Talent Agency Coup

By Daniel Okafor

Patrick Dempsey has signed with Gersh for representation, a notable pickup for the fourth-largest talent and literary agency in the world.

The Emmy and Golden Globe Award-nominated actor arrives with a full slate. He currently stars in and executive produces the Fox series "Memory of a Killer," which streams on Hulu. Season 2 is in production in Toronto, with filming expected to wrap at the end of the year.

It's a busy actor landing at an ambitious shop. That's the story here.

Why Dempsey counts as a 'big get'

Gersh doesn't sign names this size every week. Dempsey remains best known for playing Dr. Derek Shepherd — "McDreamy" — on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," a role that earned him two Golden Globe nominations and a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the ensemble cast.

The run is substantial by any measure: 262 episodes across 12 seasons. He left midway through Season 11 in 2014, then returned for a run of episodes six years later, in Season 17. Few actors get two exits from the same character. Dempsey managed one of each.

What has he done since McDreamy?

Plenty, and across genres:

• Film: Michael Mann's biopic "Ferrari," opposite Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz; Eli Roth's "Thanksgiving"; "Enchanted" (2007) opposite Amy Adams, with the role reprised in the 2022 sequel, "Disenchanted"
• Television: Captain Aaron Spencer in "Dexter: Original Sin"; the international drama series "Devils"; the limited series "The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair"
• Earlier career: "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Loverboy," the projects that first made him prominent, plus "Sweet Home Alabama," "Made of Honor," "Bridget Jones's Baby," "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," "Valentine's Day," "Freedom Writers" and "Scream 3"

Dempsey is also a race car driver himself, which made his casting in "Ferrari" less of a stretch than it might appear — a rare case of an actor's hobby qualifying as research.

In 2023, People magazine named him Sexiest Man Alive. The honor needs no parenthesis.

What happens next?

Dempsey continues to be represented by attorney Mitch Smelkinson, so the legal side stays put while the agency side resets. With "Memory of a Killer" Season 2 wrapping by year's end, Gersh inherits a client with a hit series on air, a recent franchise sequel behind him and name recognition that predates streaming itself. The agency will now decide which of those assets to spend first.