Tina Kiniry

TK Management

Do you have ‘The Look’? Do you have the face, the poise, the aura, the, the …. What is it? And how do you know? For going on 40 years now, Tina Kiniry has been helping would-be models and actors of all shapes and sizes and types answer those kinds of questions and she’s exceptionally good at it. And for the past few months, after a career working under other brands, she’s doing her fascinating, glamorous thing (which, truth be told, can also be complicated and competitive) as the owner of Tina Kiniry Management, her just-launched company on Farmington Avenue in West Hartford, Conn. “This is the only kind of job I’ve ever really had,” says Tina, who is widely and highly regarded in her industry, not only for her supermodel ‘discoveries’ but also for the ways she’s guided thousands of past and present clients, finding them work and helping them grow and being an advocate and protector. “No matter what the level, it’s emotional for everyone,” she said. “It’s about people's dreams, their hopes, their fears. …. And I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

Ever heard of Adaora Akubilo? How about Emily Didonato or Joshua Johnson? Even if you haven’t, you’ve likely seen them, the women on the cover of Vogue or Cosmopolitan or in the pages of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition and perhaps Joshua in the Power Book III television series. These are among the most successful models that Tina has discovered, developed and represented in her role of what’s known as a ‘mother agent’ – and while she’s incredibly proud of their success and her role in it, such high-profile work is hardly the norm. In fact, as Tina knows better than most, although stories about modeling always seem to highlight the superstars, the stories of the models themselves usually begin pretty innocuously. Consider, for example, her own journey. Tina was 16 when on a whim she went with her sister for an interview at a small modeling search office in New Haven. She got some work, which was nice, but even better got an eventual part time job with the company. Always a smart and hard worker, Tina quickly made connections in the industry and was invited to work with Elite Model Management’s annual “Look of the Year'' campaign. (This was back in the 80s, when Elite, Ford and Wilhelmina’s were the world’s most prominent agencies.) Tina traveled the globe and once, memorably, was assigned to chaperone Gisele Bündchen. Her ambition was and is boundless (by age 21, she was the owner of the company that had hired her) and the networking has never stopped.

Some supermodels are tiny or certainly skinny but all seem larger than life and from a distance they appear to live the life of fantasy. But Tina and insiders like her know the industry as a whole also can be hard and even heartless, and it’s changed a lot over the years, becoming much more diverse and much more decentralized. What never changes: the importance of relationships and reputations – and all these years after her fluke visit for her own audition/interview, Tina is forever a force because of those factors. As the boss of TK Management, she oversees a staff of six and together they manage a roster of several hundred models and actors, ranging in age from 4 to 80. She said the focus right now is not finding new faces (“although you always are open to possibilities”) but instead keeping her current people busy. That means making matches when companies and other institutions come calling, a process that Tina said can be unpredictable and stressful but – when someone lands a great assignment – wonderfully rewarding. “You’re just never sure how it will go,” she said. But she added that a model or actor’s character, not just looks, can make a huge difference. Those who are likable, patient, cooperative and have a great work ethic and other such attributes tend to do best, and that makes Tina happy. “I’m extremely stubborn,” she said. “And if I believe in you I’m never going to give up on you and I’m never going to stop working for you until you get what you’ve been working for.”