Hawk Tuah Girl Manager Reveals What’s Next for Haliey Welch

A viral TikTok of Haliey Welch, aka “Hawk Tuah Girl,” making a sexy joke at a Nashville party has become a lasting gift — and not just for Welch herself.

As anyone with access to social media over the past few weeks can attest, Welch has been out on the streets with Tim & Dee TV in which she described a supposedly surefire way to turn a man on in the bedroom. The attention led to an unlikely series of events, including media interviews with publications such as Rolling stonean onstage performance at a concert by Zach Bryan and the opening act for Shaquille O’Neal.

Welch’s viral fame also led to her signing with management company The Penthouse, despite Welch’s previous lack of media aspirations and the fact that she didn’t even have a social media presence. The first order of business for The Penthouse founder Jonnie Forster was to stamp out the fake accounts and secure licensing deals for official merchandise featuring her famous catchphrase. Earlier this week, Welch made her first paid live performance at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, with sources telling her The Hollywood Reporter She earned about $20,000 from the performance.TMZ (She reported the payout was closer to $30,000; her reps declined to provide details about her appearance fee.)

During his first interview since signing “Hawk Tuah Girl,” Forster tells THR about traveling to her remote hometown of Belfast, Tennessee, to tell her his story. Forster also talks about why he turned down Hollywood offers, including multiple horror films and even American idolthe interest Welch has received from a major agency, how much money his team has raised from merchandise sales, and what career opportunities he’s created for her — including a potential reality TV series, podcast, book, and even a tour of Europe.

What was it like dealing with all the reactions to Haliey’s arrival at your company?

It was a rollercoaster, a tsunami, an earthquake, and Christmas all rolled into one. The team has been working day and night since we officially represented her, and the first order of business was to protect her and help educate her. But the most important thing for us was to understand who she was, who she is, where she wants to go. We flew into the small town of Belfast, Tennessee, which is an hour and 20 minutes south of Nashville, and saw her house, her dog, her horse, her friends, and met her grandma Janie. It was refreshing to see someone who has hijacked everyone’s feeds around the world, just be this sweet, humble little girl from a small town who has been given the lottery ticket by God.

Why do you think the video was so popular?

It was funny and people want to laugh at it now. The juxtaposition between something so sexual but coming from a sweet, innocent country girl and the unapologetic way she delivered it — it captured everyone and they had to watch it again. I was the same way. I couldn’t understand it. That’s why I had to go and see it. But when you meet her and listen to what she says online, she’s so fun and so humble that you cheer for her. You cheer for someone like this who comes from a poor background, who’s done well with her life and taken care of her grandmother and worked really hard in a factory. It’s so beautiful to see the internet pick the right person to make famous.

What career-wise aligns with what your company does?

My company has been in the entertainment business for over 25 years and representing musicians is a big part of that. But our background is also in new business development, strategic marketing and branding, and we’ve represented Fortune 500 companies and brands like the Marley family. We’ve been involved in documentaries and we also published a children’s book last year with Simon & Schuster.

Why did Haliey stand out to you among all the other viral stars?

Why I think she’s different from everyone who came before her is that she didn’t seek this out. She was off social media for six months because of her mental health. She would never have been on social media again if it hadn’t been for that night on Broadway. She had to get back on and say, “Hey, these people are impersonating me.”

How much money has her official merchandise made?

It’s approaching $300,000. When we signed her, I immediately called a trademark attorney and said, “Go after everyone who filed trademarks on this and stop them.” And we had to start building her social media presence: “We can’t stop this volcano, so what do you want to do?” She’s very interested in using this new platform to improve a lot of different things, not just to try to make money. She lives with her grandma, and she doesn’t leave her grandma. She’s making sure she doesn’t do anything that would embarrass her hometown.

Was it difficult to find a balance between going viral for an inappropriate comment, but also looking out for her family?

It’s just not her moral fiber to do something that she wouldn’t have done before. We’ve been offered millions of dollars in deals that would be for adult themed performances, sponsorships, obviously OnlyFans, and that’s not who she is. She was just named on Rolling stone’s website, and they basically call her Dolly Parton of Gen Z. That’s the North Star. Dolly Parton is from a small town in Tennessee, she’s funny as hell, and she’s not afraid to say funny things about her boobs. But you still have the core values ​​of someone from a small town. It’s Rolling stone calling her America’s sweetheart and the hero we all need right now. People love her from all over the world.

Would she consider taking up acting?

She’s not an actress. We’ve turned down a couple of film offers, including several horror films. One was from a small major film company and the others are indies. One producer wanted to reshoot the ending of his film to have her in it. I just got another offer five minutes ago. I talked to these producers and said, “Hire an actress.” She’s not a professional actress. She’s funny. Her day job is doing comedic stuff and possibly doing something like that in the future. We’re thinking about doing a podcast with her, which will be in her comedic tone, but also very relatable and very authentic to who she is as a small-town girl.

What is the possible plan or pitch for a podcast?

We’ve been approached by three different people. A comedy podcast — people just want to talk to her and get to know her. I literally got off the phone ten minutes ago with one of the three-letter agencies in LA. They’re really interested in doing a deal with us and we’re going to be setting up a meeting soon. We’ve met with a bunch of agents in Nashville. We’re doing a press run in New York and a press run in LA. We’ve got some great people signing us up for interviews.

Is her hope to sign a contract with a Hollywood agency?

She doesn’t even know what that means. No disrespect to that. We have so much deal flow coming in and we have a team monitoring everything. Phase one is done this week, which is let’s protect her and get her social media in order. In four days she went over a million followers on Instagram and a million followers on TikTok.

I know there has been talk of a reality show possibly being in the works. What is the latest on that?

There’s a reality show in development. There are a couple of different ideas. We’re going to sit down with a couple of showrunners who have already been on the phone with us and flesh that out. There’s the documentary format that would be, “Here’s someone from a small town who’s now relatable and thrown into the deep end. What’s their day like?” That’s the obvious question, and we’re exploring that. The other thing she’s really interested in is traveling, because she’s never been on a plane before. I say, “Can you imagine going to Japan or France or those exotic places and feeling like a fish out of water with you and your friends?”

How would you respond to someone who might cynically think that one of the reasons for such a signing is to gain attention for your company?

We’ll pass on any deal to any brand that’s not looking for a long-term relationship with her, and those brands have to align with her core values. The agents we were talking to a few minutes ago were like, “This is a story of hope and people love reading about that. Would she be interested in doing a book?” In the future, when we’ve developed all these other touchpoints, I think we’ll be interested in that. There’s clearly a huge interest in doing and signing. We’ve got 75 offers now, just in the States. We’ve just had 20 cities in Europe offered to go there and we’ve got a team presenting Australia now.

That would be the same as a lecture tour?

She was going to go out there and tell her story and what’s happened since that magical night, and then what she plans to do with the rest of her life, and then take questions and answers from the audience. Everyone’s just curious to know how Haliey Welch from Belfast, Tennessee, deals with dealing with Shaquille O’Neal and Zach Bryan and getting calls from the biggest artists in the world who want to collaborate.

Zach Bryan’s performance on stage attracted a lot of attention.

Today we received the offer from American idol because they saw her sing on the Zach Bryan stage. The email said, “We saw her sing on the Zach Bryan show and she had such an amazing voice. We would love to see how we can get her on the show.” I emailed back, “She can’t sing at all. Did you even see the show? Because she couldn’t carry a melody in a bag.” If there’s anything that makes a fun promotional tie-in, we’re big supporters of American idol. But she doesn’t sing and she doesn’t want to take jobs away from people who are talented in that area. She knows her stuff. People love hearing a girl with that accent be funny and talk about real things, and that’s what we’re going to focus on.

Are you afraid that her chances of success will quickly disappear?

If she wasn’t who she was, we’d be more concerned about 15 Minutes. But the fact that she’s calling her company 16 Minutes LLC, I think she’s got her wits about her. We’ve already gotten offers for November and December, so that’s a good indicator. My inbox hasn’t stopped since we started representing her, and that’s a good sign because a lot of times these things disappear within a few days. As long as people hear her speak and meet her, they fall in love and she can figure out what path she wants to take because there’s endless possibilities for her.

Is there any final message you want to give to the haters who question her path?

Her 15 minutes are up. She’s already at 16.