AI 'Actress' Tilly Norwood Gets Her Own Tillyverse as Hollywood Unions Renegotiate Contracts

AI Talent Studio Doubles Down on Digital Characters

Xicoia, the AI talent studio that sparked industry outrage last summer with Tilly Norwood, just announced a major expansion 1

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. The London-based company plans to launch the Tillyverse later this year—a digital universe where Tilly Norwood and other AI characters will "live, collaborate and build careers" 3

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. Founded by Dutch actress and tech creator Eline Van der Velden through her production company Particle6, Xicoia positions itself as the world's first AI talent studio dedicated to creating synthetic performers for film and television 2

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The AI-generated actress Tilly Norwood debuted as a fully computer-generated character that Van der Velden described as having the potential to become "the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman" 2

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. To accelerate this vision, Xicoia hired Mark Whelan from Amazon Prime Video as head of strategy and operations 4

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. Whelan spent six years leading social strategy for major shows including Clarkson's Farm and The Grand Tour. At Xicoia, he will oversee the development of new proprietary AI characters and manage bespoke AI talent commissioned by third parties 1

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Hollywood Backlash Intensifies Over Stolen Performances

SAG-AFTRA issued a sharp rebuke when Tilly Norwood first appeared, stating the character is "not an actor" but rather "a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers—without permission or compensation" 1

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. The actors union emphasized that synthetic characters threaten performers' livelihoods by using stolen performances to replace human artistry 3

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. Prominent actors including Emily Blunt, Toni Colette and Natasha Lyonne have spoken out against the soulless bot 2

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Despite Van der Velden's claims that talent agencies remain interested in signing Tilly Norwood, no agency has officially represented the AI character since her debut 1

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. The entertainment industry continues to resist the notion that audiences care more about story than whether performers are human. Van der Velden previously stated that "audiences care about the story—not whether the star has a pulse," adding that "the age of synthetic actors isn't 'coming'—it's here" 2

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Union Contract Renegotiations Put AI Protections Front and Center

The Tillyverse announcement arrives at a critical moment for Hollywood labor relations. SAG-AFTRA began renegotiating its contract early last month, with discussions still ongoing as of Monday according to union president Sean Astin 1

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. The current contract expires June 30 and was signed following the historic 2023 Hollywood strikes, where AI use in film was a key point of contention. AI has emerged as a major topic in current negotiations, with the Writers Guild of America and Directors Guild also preparing to renegotiate contracts in coming months 1

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The AI industry has advanced rapidly since 2023, with viral launches from OpenAI's Sora, Google's Nano Banana Pro, and ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 demonstrating new capabilities in video and image generation 1

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. This technological acceleration heightens concerns about cost-cutting measures in an entertainment industry already flooded with deepfakes and AI-generated content 2

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Building Intellectual Property at Scale

Xicoia describes its expansion as "building IP at scale and redefining how talent is created, developed and experienced in the AI era" 1

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. Van der Velden envisions Tilly Norwood as "a personality, a brand, and a future global superstar with a compelling narrative arc" 4

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. Whelan will help craft every layer of her world, from humor and daily life to career choices and fan interactions across platforms 3

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Particle6 has already collaborated with traditional media, partnering with the History Channel in the Netherlands to produce an AI-created time travel series 3

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. Whelan called his appointment "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," stating that Xicoia is "not following an industry playbook—we are writing it" 4

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. Whether human creativity and compensation will be protected as this digital universe expands remains the central question facing actors unions and the broader entertainment industry.