CASTING DIRECTOR
My senior year in high school, I was asked what I wanted to do with my life, and I said "work in film." (I should have been more specific.)
During the summer of 1991, I worked as a regular featured extra on I'LL FLY AWAY, eventually working as a stand-in on the show. One day I was called to work by accident, but my actor wasn't working, so they sent me to the extras casting office to help make phone calls. And the rest was history.
I began working with Cynthia Stillwell in the extras casting office, and soon assisted on other projects she cast all around the state of Georgia, including THE OLDEST LIVING CONFEDERATE WIDOW TELLS ALL and NOW AND THEN.
After graduating from Georgia State University, I went to work for Turner Original Productions, the original non-fiction series and specials department for Turner Broadcasting. I spent two years working with submissions and development, including building cast lists for the celebrity hosts for our projects.
I left Turner to go back into casting with Cynthia Stillwell to work on the HBO mini-series MISS EVERS' BOYS and the Robert Altman feature, THE GINGERBREAD MAN.
The Georgia film market hit a very dry spell for a year and half. I started a theatre company and eventually went to assist another casting director in Atlanta for a year,, before moving to Los Angeles in 2000.
A few months after landing in Los Angeles, I was approached by Central Casting to work on Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN (having worked with him on THE GIFT in Savannah). That experience led me to be hired on other projects by producers and assistant directors I worked with in Georgia, including SCARY MOVIE 2, ALIAS, and CROSSING JORDAN. After six years at Central Casting (and almost a 75 television shows and feature films), I left casting to pursue screenwriting.
I had a "block" against principal casting for many years, because I didn't feel that I was experienced enough to "tell an actor what to do," (which I would come to realize is the exact opposite of what is casting and directing). However, with years of training as an actor under my belt, I knew how to communicate with actors. I had the eye for casting thanks to Cynthia, but I was reluctant to jump into principal casting, out of fear "I" would be one of the nightmare casting stories all actors share.
The Georgia film industry began to boom in 2013. I moved back to Georgia and worked with Cynthia on SELMA and then went independent, working as one of the location casting director on MAGIC MIKE XXL and casting background all up and down the east coast. I was hired as the location casting director on PERMANENT and IMPERIUM in Virigina.
In 2016, I moved to Savannah, GA to help grow the film market, working as the location casting director and extras casting director on over 20 feature films and television series.
I will always be grateful for the experience casting provided for me. Without my many years in extras casting, I never would have been able to shadow directors on hundreds of hours of television shows and the experience of working in principal casting has made me a better director, because in any given casting session, I'm helping shape or pull a performance out of ten actors an hour in the room.
Most recently I locally cast the feature films THE VAMPIRES OF THE VELVET LOUNGE and BRIDE HARD in Savannah, THE OTHER ZOEY in Charlotte, North Carolina, FIVE STAR MURDER in Augusta, Georgia and the features DEAD MONEY, DOUBLE DOWN SOUTH, ONE FAST MOVE and THE STENOGRAPHER in Atlanta. I just finished working on ATLANTIS in Richmond for Universal.
Acting, directing and writing fulfill me way more than casting - but I believe that my purpose over the years (and today) is to help hold the door open to talent who have been fighting for a way in. There's no greater high than casting an actor in their first film, discovering amazing actors in theatre, or inspiring talent to follow their dreams. Casting has always been something I'm really good at, and there are producers I would follow anywhere to cast, but I'm ready for a pivot.