Models etc could be their own agent in theory. Some of them are. Im freelance and get some work through agencies and some work through my own methods.

Imagine you have a large service based business. You have the employees that provide the service and you have employees that are in the sales team. It makes sense to have these as two separate departments because the skill sets are different. Agents are basically sales reps. If there’s a problem the client goes to them. When you’re actually working, they’re looking for the next job for you. Agents also have a large set of contacts that they can call upon to look for work. Theyre the ones that are good at networking and talking clients into hiring you. They’re the ones that show up in google first.

If you’re a client looking for a model or actor, you don’t have time to go through endless google pages for independent models. What you want is to go to an agent and describe what you’re looking for, then they utilize their extensive talent pool to get you what you need fast and efficiently. They’ll also probably find a better model for your needs than you could find yourself. That is why clients will be willing to pay more to use an agency.