(From left) Kive (Michael Aloni), Shulem (Dovale Glickman) and Nuchem (Sasson Gabay) in a scene from season 3 of “Shtisel.” Photo: Courtesy of yes Studios.

The founder of a leading talent and artist agency in Israel, which represents names attached to the popular shows “Fauda,” “Our Boys,” “Valley of Tears” and “Shtisel,” spoke to Deadline recently about Israel’s global success model in the television industry.

Kneller Agency founder and Tel Aviv native Arik Kneller attributes the international draw for Israeli content to the artistic freedom given to Israeli talent, as well as the rising demand streaming giants and big networks have for international content.

“If you were to ask me 20 years ago if a show like ‘Shtisel,’ which is in Hebrew and English and is about an Orthodox community, would sell to Netflix and get amazing reviews internationally, I would have said you were crazy,” said Kneller. “That was an important moment.”

He also believes “limitations” that the country’s entertainment industry have faced, such as lack of funding, sometimes push talents to become “very creative.”

“Budgets here are small so people have historically had to be very, very creative and invent things themselves,” he explained. “Also, there is no Writers’ Room here – it’s usually just a single writer and a director on a show and there is a lot of freedom to the creators here in the television market.”

He added, “The success of shows like ‘In Treatment,’ ‘Valley Of Tears’ and ‘Yellow Peppers’ is down to the fact that the writers have allowed themselves to be very specific. I think maybe because Israel for so long was not the market that everybody looked at, creators were able to look at themselves and instead of being driven by selling a project they were able to think about what story they really wanted to tell and the stories that they were passionate about.”

The Kneller Agency is an Israeli talent and artist agency that represents more than 250 clients in television, film, theatre, literature, music and advertising.

Kneller, who lived in New York for some time and studied at Hofstra University and NYU before moving to Israel, started his agency in 1996 following the establishment of Israel’s first commercial channel, Channel 2. The company, which currently has 10 agents, was the first agency in Israel to focus on representing writers and directors specifically.

“There were a few big agencies in Israel that represented singers and actors [at the time] but there was no real agent for only writers and directors,” he told Deadline. “I really felt intuitively that this group of people were the kind of artists that I wanted to represent.”

The agency’s clients include “In Treatment” writer Yael Hedaya; two-time Oscar nominee and co-creator/director of the HBO series “Our Boys” Joseph Cedar; “Fauda” writer and fellow “Our Boys” co-creator Noah Stollman; “Shtisel” writers and co-creators Ori Elon and Yehonatan Indurksy; “Euphoria” and “Valley Of Tears” creator Ron Lesham; and “Yellow Peppers” creator and director Keren Margalit.

Other internationally recognized talent represented by the agency include Gidon Raff, creator of “Prisoners Of War,” which was remade into “Homeland” for Showtime; Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz, co-creator and co-writer of new Netflix show “The Girl From Oslo”; Amit Cohen, creator and lead-writer of “False Flag” (which is currently being remade for Apple TV); and Eran Kolirin, who wrote “The Band’s Visit.”

Kneller told Deadline, “There’s a burst of really interesting voices now in Israel. The most exciting part of my job is when somebody comes and tells me about a new idea for a project that just blows my mind. I get a really strong rush out of that.”

In addition to writers and directors, the agency also represents Tomer Capone, the star of Amazon’s “The Boys,” who was recently cast in a Laurence Fishburne and Casey Affleck film; Etgar Keret, Israeli author and winner of The Sapir Prize; and Nadav Lapid, whose film “Ahed’s Knee,” won the jury prize at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.

The late Israeli playwright Anat Gov was also a client of the Kneller Agency. Before she died last year from cancer, at the age of 57, the critically acclaimed playwright asked Kneller to represent her estate, Deadline reported. The documentary “On This Happy Note,” which was released in December, is based on Kneller and Gov’s meeting at his home when she asked him to be the executor of her will.

Gov’s most famous play, “My Happy Ending,” is also currently being adapted into a film with Andie MacDowell that is co-directed and written by Kneller Agency clients.

Meanwhile, Candle Media, a media company backed by Blackstone, confirmed this week its acquisition of Faraway Road Productions, which was founded by “Fauda” and “Hit & Run” creators Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff.