Hot Shots 2026: Joshua Baumring-Gledhill

Emerging TikTok creators, rising stars of comedy and global performers – Joshua Baumring-Gledhill has worked with them all, and he’s only been in the talent game for four years.

Joining United Agents soon after completing his Master’s in early modern history at Cambridge in 2022. Initially a general actors’ assistant, Josh earned a swift promotion to an assistant to senior agent Duncan Hayes and rose to associate agent last year, where he landed the job of supporting Ricky Gervais on his most recent Netflix stand-up specials, Armageddon and Mortality.

Josh’s eye for talent-spotting was recognised in late 2023, when he recommended the signing of comedy duo The Delighful Sausage: Amy Gledhill (no relation) and Chris Cantrill. The pair have enjoyed a rapid ascent since, with Gledhill landing spots on Last One Laughing: UK and Taskmaster and Cantrill racking up credits on Alma’s Not Normal and Hug Me I’m Scared.

Meanwhile, Josh has helped grow United’s digital output, signing social media performers including Toby From Bath, Henry Calvert and sketch trio The Squid and advising agents wanting to establish a greater digital footprint for their clients.

He also enhanced the agency’s profile on the live circuit last year, teaming up with Alex Zane to run Squawk Comedy, a bi-weekly stand-up night in the Parakeet Pub in Kentish Town.

Josh has a passion for increasing access to the arts. As artistic director of theature company Countermines, he runs As Yet Unscene, an Arts Council-funded script development programme providing hundreds of writers with free feedback on their early-stage ideas.

He has also led workshops and Q&As with school groups and young filmmakers at Cambridge’s Watersprite Film Festival and with drama school At It Shouting, training group Just Add Milk and actor networking platform Audition Pal.

Impressed by Josh’s “phenomenal work ethic”, Hayes soon spotted him as “agent material”, confident that he could trust him with major clients.

“Josh has the mind-blowing ability to retain the smallest detail of a complex deal on the spot,” Hayes says. “It’s like having a walking ‘Claude’.”