No bother, and a lot of people asked similar questions.

A talent agent (Chris has a separate literary agent now) is responsible for getting him auditions and consideration for roles in movies/tv/theater. Basically agents have industry connections, and access to professional casting information that actors just can’t get on their own. So, the bigger and better the agent/agency is, the more connections they are likely to have, and so their clients’ names tend to come up when projects are being put together and actors are being considered for specific parts.

Chris has been repped by agents in Coast-to-Coast’s youth division up until this point. He’s 22 now, and he’s outgrowing the types of roles that talent agents who specialize in casting “youth” actors are likely to be dealing with. It was just time for this sort of change in his representation to happen.

Here’s a really good head-to-head comparison of his two agencies: Coast to Coast vs ICM. Basically, ICM is about 5x the size of Coast-to-Coast and also reps screenwriters and producers in addition to actors.

An interesting note, one of Chris’ agents, Lorrie Bartlett, is the head of the talent division at ICM and she seems to have built a reputation on challenging typecasting by pushing actors to pursue roles that stretch their limits [Variety]. I really think that, above anything, will have a really positive effect on Chris’ career and the potential roles he may take.