Entertainment Partners
The industry-standard payroll and production management company for major studios
Overview
Entertainment Partners is one of the largest and most established payroll and production management companies in the entertainment industry. It processes payroll for a significant portion of Hollywood productions, handling everything from union compliance to tax incentive management.
The company's services include production payroll, accounting, residual payments, and workforce management. Its systems are deeply integrated with SAG-AFTRA, DGA, WGA, and other guild requirements, ensuring accurate and compliant compensation.
How It Works
Entertainment Partners works with major studios, networks, and streaming platforms, as well as independent productions. If you work on a professional union production, there is a strong chance your paycheck is processed through their systems.
Services are priced for production companies and studios, not individual actors. Actors interact with Entertainment Partners primarily as the entity that processes their paychecks and issues their tax documents.
Who Uses It
Knowing that Entertainment Partners likely handles your payroll helps you understand where to direct questions about pay stubs, tax forms, and residual payments. Bookmark their talent portal for easy access to your earnings records and W-2s. Entertainment Partners processes payroll for an estimated majority of union productions in the United States, making it very likely that any working union actor will interact with their systems at some point. Their talent portal, EP Talent, allows actors to access pay stubs, tax documents, and residual payment records online, which is invaluable during tax season. Understanding how EP works is a practical necessity for any actor building a career in professional film and television production.
Pricing & Plans
Entertainment Partners' services are priced for production companies and studios, not for individual actors — actors never pay EP directly. The cost to productions is based on the size of the payroll, the complexity of union compliance requirements, and additional services like production accounting and tax incentive management. For actors, the relevant financial consideration is that EP processes their pay and issues their W-2 forms at the end of the year, and there are no fees deducted from actor paychecks beyond standard tax withholdings and union dues. Residual payments are also frequently processed through EP systems, and actors can track these payments through the EP Talent portal. The portal itself is free for talent to access — you simply need to create an account and link it to your employment records. Understanding that EP is a middleman between the production and your paycheck helps clarify who to contact when payment questions arise.
Pros & Cons
What's Great
Entertainment Partners' deep integration with every major entertainment union — including SAG-AFTRA, DGA, WGA, IATSE, and Teamsters — ensures that actors receive accurate, compliant compensation that accounts for all applicable union rates, overtime rules, and benefit contributions. The EP Talent portal provides actors with centralized access to pay stubs, W-2s, and residual payment records from across multiple productions, eliminating the need to chase down paperwork from individual shows. EP's scale and longevity mean that their systems are battle-tested across thousands of productions, giving actors confidence that their payroll is being handled by the most experienced provider in the industry. The company's residual tracking and payment systems are among the most comprehensive available, which is critical for actors who receive ongoing income from reruns, streaming, and foreign distribution. EP's compliance team stays current with constantly changing labor laws, tax codes, and union agreements across all fifty states and international jurisdictions, reducing the risk of payroll errors that could affect actors' tax situations. Their customer service infrastructure, while not always fast, is equipped to handle the specific payroll questions that entertainment professionals encounter.
What Could Be Better
As the dominant player in entertainment payroll, EP operates at a scale that can make individual actor inquiries feel deprioritized — getting a specific question about a missing residual payment or incorrect W-2 answered can sometimes take longer than actors would like. The EP Talent portal, while functional, has an interface that many users find outdated and less intuitive than modern financial platforms, making it frustrating to navigate pay records and tax documents. Residual payment schedules can be opaque, and actors often struggle to understand why certain payments arrive when they do or why amounts differ from expectations, with EP's communication about these calculations being less transparent than it could be. Because EP is a production-side vendor, actors have no direct contractual relationship with the company, which can make it difficult to resolve disputes when the production company is no longer operational or responsive. Tax document delivery, particularly W-2s, can be delayed in January and February, causing stress for actors trying to file their taxes early. Additionally, EP's market dominance means there is limited competitive pressure to improve the talent-facing aspects of their service, which sometimes results in a less actor-friendly experience than a more competitive market might produce.
Our Recommendation
Every union actor working in film and television should familiarize themselves with Entertainment Partners and set up an EP Talent portal account, as it is overwhelmingly likely that your paychecks and tax documents will flow through their systems at some point in your career. This is not a service you choose — it is a reality of working on professional productions — so the question is not whether to use it but how to use it effectively. If you are having persistent issues with EP regarding missing payments, incorrect tax documents, or residual discrepancies, contact your union representative, as SAG-AFTRA and other guilds have direct relationships with EP and can escalate issues on your behalf. For actors who also produce their own content, EP is an option for production payroll, though newer platforms like Wrapbook and Cast & Crew may offer more accessible pricing and modern interfaces for smaller productions. Understanding how EP works is simply part of being a professional working actor in the American entertainment industry.
Pro Tips
Create your EP Talent portal account as soon as you book your first union job — do not wait until tax season when you need your W-2 and the system is overwhelmed with new registrations. Check your portal regularly throughout the year to verify that pay stubs are accurate and that all productions you worked on are correctly reflected in your records, catching errors early rather than discovering them months later. When tax season approaches, download your W-2 from the portal as soon as it becomes available, and compare it against your own records of jobs worked and income received to catch any discrepancies before filing. If you receive residual payments, maintain a spreadsheet tracking each payment against the show, episode, and distribution platform to ensure nothing is missed — EP processes millions of residual payments and occasional errors do occur. When contacting EP with a question, have your Social Security number, the production name, and any relevant pay stub or voucher numbers ready, as this information allows their customer service team to locate your records much more quickly. Save the EP Talent portal URL as a bookmark and keep your login credentials in a password manager, as you will need to access it repeatedly throughout your career.