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Jake embodies absolutely everything you’d dream of in a media agent. He’s deftly navigated rights sales of my existing work - setting the stage for a beautiful relationship with those teams - and has been a thoughtful, energizing, and inspiring force when it comes to new and evolving projects. He has the uncanny ability to ask the key questions that clarify concepts and vision, always making me feel brilliantly represented. I can’t imagine doing media work without him.

Jillian Horton, M.D.Author of We Are All Perfectly Fine

As President of WCA, I oversee a team of literary agents representing more than 400 writers and illustrators. Hilary McMahon and I acquired the agency in 2025 with a commitment to building on its longstanding expertise in international sales and providing clients with tailored advice on intellectual property rights.

As head of WCA’s Media Rights department, I work with clients on film, television, and other adaptation opportunities, with a particular focus on negotiating and structuring option/purchase agreements.

Outside of WCA, I maintain a law practice, Babad Law, that provides litigation and dispute resolution services for clients primarily in the media and entertainment industries. I also sit on the Board of Directors of Access Copyright, and I am Co-Chair of the Professional Association of Canadian Literary Agents.

I hold an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Cinema Studies and English from the University of Toronto and a Juris Doctor from Osgoode Hall Law School, where I received the Fogler, Rubinoff LLP Prize in Property Law.

Film/Television/Theatre/More

Looking for the next great book to adapt? I’d love to hear from you. Give me a shout, even if you don’t have a specific title in mind, and I’ll tell you about our incredible authors.

What about books?

While my primary focus is on media rights and financial administration at WCA, I am building a small list of clients for literary representation in the following areas:

  • Non-fiction: behaviour and neuroscience; economics; family and parenting; labour and the culture of work; law and social justice; popular culture.
  • Fiction: crime and mystery with a strong sense of place; upmarket literary fiction (especially stories involving family dynamics); sci-fi and fantasy.

Some Recent(ish) Faves

  • Non-Fiction:
    • Eula Biss, HAVING AND BEING HAD
    • Oliver Burkeman, FOUR THOUSAND WEEKS
    • Sloane Crosley, GRIEF IS FOR PEOPLE
    • KC Davis, HOW TO KEEP HOUSE WHILE DROWNING
    • Lori Gottlieb, MAYBE YOU SHOULD TALK TO SOMEONE
    • John Hodgman, VACATIONLAND
    • Chuck Klosterman, THE NINETIES
    • Sam Wasson, THE BIG GOODBYE
    • Anna Wiener, UNCANNY VALLEY
    • Isabel Wilkerson, CASTE
  • Fiction
    • Travis Baldree, LEGENDS & LATTES
    • Jonathan Franzen, CROSSROADS
    • Patricia Lockwood, NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT THIS
    • Sayaka Murata, Ginny Tapley Takemori (Translator), CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN
    • Adam Ross, PLAYWORLD
    • James Sallis, CYPRESS GROVE
Jake Babad

Selected Clients