Casting Department

Casting Directors

Before a single frame is shot, the casting director has already shaped the soul of a film or series. Their choices determine whose face carries a story, whose voice inhabits a character, and whose performance becomes iconic. Yet for most of cinema’s history, casting directors have had no competitive Oscar category — a long-running injustice the industry is still working to correct. This page covers every major casting role, every award that honours the discipline, and profiles of the casting directors who have defined the modern era.

CSA Artios Awards Emmy Outstanding Casting BAFTA Film Awards Casting Society of America
1982
CSA Founded
1986
First Artios Awards
0
Competitive Oscar Categories for Casting
40+
Artios Award Categories
2023
AMPAS Casting Branch Established
Department Roles

The Casting Department

Casting operates across pre-production and, for TV series, continuously throughout a show’s run — finding, evaluating, and securing the right actors for every role from lead to day player.

Casting Director
CD • Head of Casting
The creative lead of the casting process. The CD works directly with the director and producers to understand the vision for each character, then identifies, seeks out, and presents candidates. They run audition sessions, negotiate with agents and managers, make offers, and advise on chemistry between actors. A great casting director has encyclopaedic knowledge of the talent pool and the instinct to see potential that others miss — Carmen Cuba finding Millie Bobby Brown for Stranger Things, Nina Gold assembling the cast of Game of Thrones across dozens of countries. The CD’s decisions are arguably as consequential as the director’s.
Associate Casting Director
Associate CD
Works closely with the casting director, often handling specific roles, categories, or geographic areas. On large TV productions an associate may manage supporting and recurring roles while the CD focuses on leads. The associate is typically also the career path — most CDs have worked as associates first. They run their own reader sessions, manage communication with agents, and maintain the office’s database of talent.
Casting Associate
Casting Office Coordinator
Manages the day-to-day logistics of the casting office: scheduling auditions, distributing sides (script pages) to actors, managing the tape or session files, maintaining actor files, and coordinating with producers' offices. For many working actors, the casting associate is their primary point of contact within the department — and a vital relationship to maintain.
Background Casting Director
Extras Casting • Atmosphere Director
Responsible for casting all background performers — the hundreds or thousands of non-speaking actors who populate a film’s world. On productions like Game of Thrones, Gladiator II, or any period or crowd-heavy production, background casting is a massive logistical and creative undertaking. Background CDs maintain large registries of performers and coordinate closely with the AD department on daily counts and special requirements.
Local Casting Director
Regional CD • Location Casting
When a production shoots on location — particularly internationally — a local CD is engaged to source talent in the region. They work under the principal CD to find actors, day players, and background who cannot be practically or economically brought from the production’s home base. Essential for authentic regional casting and for discovering local talent that enriches a production.
Intimacy Co-ordinator
Intimacy Director
A specialised role that has grown significantly in importance since the #MeToo movement. The intimacy co-ordinator works with actors and directors to choreograph, facilitate consent, and safely execute scenes involving nudity, simulated sex, or physical intimacy. They liaise between the casting department and set during prep, ensuring performers understand exactly what is required before they agree to take a role.
Award Shows

How Casting Gets Recognised

For most of cinema’s history, casting directors were the industry’s most decorated uncelebrated artists. The CSA Artios Awards and the Emmy’s casting categories have spent decades correcting that oversight.

CSA Artios Awards
Casting Society of America • since 1986
The definitive recognition in the casting discipline. The Artios Awards (named after the Greek word for “perfectly fitted”) cover an extraordinary range of categories — film, TV drama, TV comedy, limited series, theatre, commercials, animation, and voiceover. CSA members vote for their peers, making the Artios the gold standard of craft recognition in casting.
  • Outstanding Drama Pilot — Big Budget
  • Outstanding Drama Series — Big Budget
  • Outstanding Comedy Pilot — Big Budget
  • Outstanding Comedy Series — Big Budget
  • Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series
  • Outstanding Feature Film — Drama
  • Outstanding Feature Film — Comedy or Musical
  • Outstanding Animated Feature Film
Annual • January/February • Los Angeles
Emmy Awards — Outstanding Casting
Television Academy • Casting category since 1996
The Television Academy’s casting categories are among the most competitive craft Emmys. Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series has been dominated by the prestige streaming era — The Crown, Succession, Euphoria, Ozark, and The Last of Us among recent winners. Given during the Creative Arts Emmy ceremonies, not the main broadcast night.
  • Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series
  • Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series
  • Outstanding Casting for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
  • Outstanding Casting for a Reality Program
Annual • September (Creative Arts) • Los Angeles
The Academy & Casting
Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences • Casting Branch est. 2023
Despite decades of advocacy, the Academy has no competitive Oscar category for casting. In 2023 the Academy finally established a dedicated Casting Branch — adding casting directors as full voting members for the first time. The creation of a competitive category remains an active campaign, with industry figures including David Rubin (AMPAS president, himself a casting director) leading the push.
  • No competitive category — campaign ongoing since the 1990s
  • Casting Branch created 2023 — CDs now vote on all categories
  • The Governors Award has occasionally recognised casting directors
The debate: Oscar snub since 1929
BAFTA & Casting
British Academy of Film & Television Arts
Like the Academy, BAFTA has no competitive film casting category — though BAFTA Television has awarded Outstanding Casting in its craft awards. British casting directors like Nina Gold, Lucy Bevan, and Fiona Weir are among the most celebrated in the world, often bringing an international perspective to American productions shooting in the UK.
  • BAFTA Television Craft — Casting
  • No BAFTA Film casting category
Annual • UK

The Oscar Campaign: Casting directors have sought a competitive Oscar category since at least the 1990s. The argument is straightforward: without the right actors, no film exists as the director imagined it. The counter-argument — that casting is a collaborative process too diffuse to credit to individuals — has so far prevailed at the Academy. The establishment of the Casting Branch in 2023 is the most significant step forward in the campaign’s history.

Notable Casting Directors

The Most Celebrated Casting Directors of Their Generation

The craftspeople who assembled the casts of cinema and television’s greatest works — from the ensemble of Game of Thrones to the intimate discoveries of independent drama.

Nina Gold CSA
British • London-based
One of the most decorated casting directors in the world. Gold assembled the cast of Game of Thrones — a task of extraordinary complexity involving actors from across Europe, many of whom had never worked in English-language television. Her ability to find distinctive, character-rich faces from outside the mainstream talent pool has made her the first call for directors seeking authenticity. Multiple BAFTA Television Craft wins.
Game of Thrones The Crown Star Wars: The Force Awakens Rogue One 1917 The Favourite
★ Multiple BAFTA TV Craft wins • CSA Artios wins • BAFTA Games
Carmen Cuba CSA
American • Los Angeles-based
Cuba found Millie Bobby Brown for Stranger Things — one of the most consequential casting decisions in streaming television history. Her work on The Handmaid’s Tale, Magic Mike, and Suburbicon demonstrates range across prestige drama and commercial genre work. Cuba is known for her commitment to discovering new talent rather than defaulting to established names.
Stranger Things The Handmaid’s Tale Magic Mike Traffic Contagion
★ Multiple Emmy nominations • CSA Artios wins
Francine Maisler CSA
American
Maisler’s work spans Quentin Tarantino’s later films and the prestige TV era’s most acclaimed drama. Her ability to match idiosyncratic directors with equally idiosyncratic performers — assembling the cast of Breaking Bad, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and The Revenant — has made her one of Hollywood’s most in-demand casting directors.
Breaking Bad The Revenant Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Inglourious Basterds Drive
★ CSA Artios wins • Emmy nominations
David Rubin CSA
American • AMPAS President 2019–2022
One of the rare casting directors to become a major institutional figure — Rubin served as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, a position that put him at the centre of the Academy’s diversity and reform conversations. His casting work includes films for Joel and Ethan Coen, Sofia Coppola, and Michel Gondry, with a reputation for finding unexpected actors and elevating overlooked talent.
Big Fish Her Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind The Hours Hail, Caesar!
★ CSA Artios wins • AMPAS President 2019–2022
Sarah Finn CSA
American • MCU Casting Director
The architect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s cast — an achievement without precedent in film history. Finn has been responsible for every major casting decision in the MCU since Iron Man (2008), building an ensemble of dozens of characters across more than 30 films and countless television series. The coherence and quality of MCU casting across this scale is a testament to Finn’s vision and consistency.
Iron Man (all MCU from 2008) The Avengers Black Panther Guardians of the Galaxy Avengers: Endgame
★ CSA Artios wins • Scale of MCU is an achievement unto itself
Ellen Chenoweth CSA
American
The Coen Brothers’ primary collaborator in casting across their most celebrated period. Chenoweth has a gift for finding the particular shade of strangeness that inhabits a Coen Brothers film — the crooks, visionaries, and everyday people caught in impossible circumstances. Her work on No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, and True Grit is some of the finest ensemble casting in recent American cinema.
No Country for Old Men Burn After Reading A Serious Man True Grit Inside Llewyn Davis
★ CSA Artios wins • Coen Brothers’ primary collaborator
Avy Kaufman CSA
American • New York-based
A New York-based casting director whose work has shaped some of American independent cinema’s most celebrated films. Kaufman’s collaborations with Ang Lee on Brokeback Mountain and with Steven Spielberg on Lincoln produced two of the finest ensemble casts of their respective decades. She has a particular gift for identifying actors at pivotal career moments — Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain being the defining example.
Brokeback Mountain Lincoln The Lovely Bones Michael Clayton Manchester by the Sea
★ Multiple CSA Artios wins • Emmy nominations
Alexa Fogel CSA
American • New York/Los Angeles
The casting director behind The Wire — a series whose authentic, largely non-professional cast in supporting roles is one of the most studied casting achievements in television history. David Simon’s requirement for real Baltimore voices and faces demanded a casting director of extraordinary reach, and Fogel delivered. Her work on Succession continues a career defined by finding actors who disappear into their worlds.
The Wire Succession Orange Is the New Black Oz
★ Emmy wins for Succession • CSA Artios wins