Introducing Early Access: Why We Built the GCC's First AI-Native Creative Talent Marketplace

By Jack Deakin, Co-Founder of Thrilla

I want to tell you about a conversation I had with a model in Dubai about eighteen months ago. She had just wrapped a major campaign for a regional retail brand, a shoot that ran three days, required her to travel, and paid well on paper. I asked her when she got paid. She laughed. Not the funny kind of laugh. She told me she was still waiting, four months later, chasing invoices through a WhatsApp thread with a production coordinator who kept saying "this week, inshallah." She had rent due. She had another booking she nearly turned down because she could not float the gap.

That conversation did not surprise me. What surprised me was how universal it was. When we started talking to creative freelancers across the GCC, the pattern kept repeating. Seventy-five percent of creative freelancers in the GCC have waited six or more months to get paid, more than once. Not once. More than once. That is not a cashflow problem. That is a structural failure in how the creative talent marketplace in the UAE and the wider region actually operates.

And the payment problem is only half of it. On the other side, brands and agencies were wasting weeks trying to find the right people through personal networks, Instagram DMs, and favour chains. There was no verified, searchable, trusted layer connecting creative talent with the clients who needed them. The infrastructure simply did not exist.

So we built it.

What Thrilla Actually Is

Thrilla is a two-sided AI-native marketplace connecting verified creative talent with verified clients across the GCC and Australia at launch. We are talking about actors, models, DJs, photographers, videographers, production crew, stylists, and the full range of people who make the creative economy run. On the other side, we serve agencies, brands, production houses, and event companies who need that talent reliably, quickly, and without the usual chaos.

The word "AI-native" is not marketing decoration. It means the matching layer is built on AI from the ground up. When a production house in Riyadh needs a bilingual female presenter with on-camera commercial experience for a two-day shoot, they do not browse through two hundred profiles. The platform surfaces the right people based on verified credits, availability, location, rate range, and brief requirements. Faster decisions, better fits, less wasted time on both sides.

Why This Region, Why Now

The timing is not accidental. The GCC is in the middle of a creative economy expansion that has no real precedent in the region's history. Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 has unlocked billions in entertainment, tourism, and cultural infrastructure. The UAE continues to position itself as a global creative hub, with Dubai alone hosting more than 500 cultural events and festivals annually. According to a 2023 report by Strategy&, the Arab world's entertainment and media market is projected to reach $50 billion by 2027, driven by live events, streaming, and branded content investment.

Creators and production talent are moving into the region. International brands are increasing their GCC spend. Regional production capabilities are scaling fast. The demand is real and it is growing. What has not kept pace is the infrastructure to support the talent who are doing the actual work.

This is the gap Thrilla was built to close. We are not a job board. We are not an agency. We are not a talent database with a nice UI on top. We are a marketplace with trust, technology, and fair payment built into the foundation.

The Thrilla GCC Talent Platform at Early Access

We are opening the Thrilla GCC talent platform to early access now, and we have kept the entry point intentional. During early access you will be able to create a full profile, access AI-powered matching, and get booked with verified clients from day one. For clients, brands, and agencies, early access is completely free. We want the right talent in the room and we don't ask clients to pay anything.

Verification matters on both sides. Talent profiles are reviewed and verified before going live. Clients go through a business verification process before they can post briefs or make bookings. That mutual verification layer is what makes the trust in the marketplace real rather than assumed.

We are also live across two markets from launch. The UAE and GCC are the core, but we are simultaneously building in Australia, a market with a mature creative freelance economy and the same structural payment and discovery problems we see here.

This Is Personal

Our team have spent years working in and around the creative industry. I have seen talented people leave markets they love because the financial instability became unsustainable. I have seen brands burn budgets on mismatched talent because there was no better way to find the right person in time. We built Thrilla because I believe the people who make creative work possible deserve a platform that actually works for them, not one that extracts from them.

The GCC creative economy is one of the most exciting places to build right now. The talent is here. The budgets are here. The ambition is here. The infrastructure finally needs to catch up.

That is what we are doing.

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Join Thrilla Early Access at thrilla.io. If you are a creative professional in the UAE or GCC, your early access spot gets you into a marketplace built around getting you paid and getting you booked. If you are a brand, agency, or production company, sign up free and start posting briefs. The talent is ready. The platform is almost ready. Let's get to work.