SOLD OUT: Filming in NY: Getting Cast in Gotham

10:00–11:30 A.M. – 2nd Floor
How To Get Cast in Feature Films! New York is now home to a record-breaking number of TV shows as well as regularly serving as a location for top films. This panel features some of the casting directors on these projects, who'll offer advice and insider information on getting seen and cast in New York. Moderated by Simi Horwitz, Senior Features Writer, Back Stage.

Speakers:
-- Tiffany Little Canfield, Casting Director, Telsey + Company
-- Kimberly Hope, Casting Director, Boland/Hope Casting
-- Paul Schnee, Casting Director, Barden/Schneee Casting, Inc.
-- Marc Hirschfeld, Casting Director, Marc Hirschfeld Casting

SPEAKER BIOS

Tiffany Little Canfield, Casting Director, Telsey + Company
Tiffany Little Canfield's current projects at Telsey + Co. include casting for the Showtime series "The Big C," starring Laura Linney; "Smash," with co-producer Steven Spielberg (UMS/DreamWorks/NBC); "Modern Love" for Lifetime; and CBS's "A Gifted Man," starring Patrick Wilson.

In addition to the numerous series the office is currently casting, Tiffany casts multiple Broadway shows, feature films, and commercials.

Kimberly Hope, Casting Director, Boland/Hope Casting
Kimberly Hope is a partner in Boland/Hope Casting, where they are currently casting multiple features. She served as the casting director for NBC/USA's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" for four seasons.

In addition to episodic casting, she has TV experience with pilots (NBC, Universal Media Studios, Lionsgate, TNT, Wolf Films), MOWs (RHI Entertainment, Hallmark, Syfy), and miniseries (CBS, Paramount, the Firm).

Kimberly recently completed work on the feature film "Arbitrage," and she has worked extensively in the indie film world, contributing on more than 15 films, many of which found great success on the festival circuit (Sundance, Toronto, Tribeca, etc.). Kimberly continues to provide New York and additional casting services on studio features.

She is a member of the Casting Society of America, the Casting Union/Teamsters Local 817, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Women in Film and Television, Step-Up, and the IFP. Website: www.bolandhopecasting.com.

Paul Schnee, Casting Director, Barden/Schnee Casting
With partner Kerry Barden, Paul Schnee's recent and current feature film credits include casting for DreamWorks' "The Help," based on the best-selling novel and starring Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Allison Janney, and Bryce Dallas Howard, and the 2010 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, "Winter's Bone," which also received the 2010 Gotham Award for best feature, with Kerry and Paul receiving an award for outstanding ensemble cast as well as Academy Award nominations for Jennifer Lawrence for best actress and John Hawkes for best supporting actor and seven 2011 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations, winning for best supporting male (John Hawkes) and best supporting female (Dale Dickey).

Kerry and Paul's other recent and forthcoming films include "Damsels in Distress," written and directed by Whit Stillman—his first film in 12 years—and starring Greta Gerwig, Analeigh Tipton, and Adam Brody; "Machine Gun Preacher," directed by Marc Forster and starring Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan, and Kathy Baker; Relativity Media's "Untitled Snow White," directed by Tarsem Singh, starring Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, Nathan Lane, Armie Hammer, and Mare Winningham; "Higher Ground," the directorial debut of actor Vera Farmiga, starring Farmiga, Bill Irwin, Joshua Leonard, Norbert Leo Butz, and Donna Murphy; "Win Win," directed by Tom McCarthy and starring Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, and Bobby Cannavale; "The Son of No One," directed by Dito Montiel and starring Channing Tatum, Al Pacino, Tracy Morgan, Ray Liotta, and Katie Holmes; "Flypaper," starring Patrick Dempsey, Ashley Judd, and Tim Blake Nelson; "Silent House," directed by Chris Kentis and Laura Lau; "Conan the Barbarian" "Peace, Love, and Misunderstanding," directed by Academy Award nominee Bruce Beresford and starring Jane Fonda, Catherine Keener, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Kyle MacLachlan; "Conviction," with Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell, and Minnie Driver and directed by Tony Goldwyn; "Every Day," with Helen Hunt, Liev Schreiber, and Brian Dennehy; and "The Big Bang," starring Antonio Banderas.

Marc Hirschfeld, Casting Director, Marc Hirschfeld Casting
Emmy Award winner Marc Hirschfeld was appointed executive vice president, casting, NBC Universal Television Entertainment, in June 1999 and served in that capacity through December 2008. During his tenure, he was responsible for overseeing casting for all NBC Entertainment, Syfy, Bravo, and USA Network scripted programs. Additionally, he consulted on unscripted programming, specifically in the area of hosting and celebrities for NBC prime-time reality programming as well as for NBC News and special projects.

As the senior executive in charge of talent at NBC, Marc was responsible for on-air diversity in all of NBC Universal's scripted series and spearheaded all NBC network talent diversity initiatives and programs. Most recently, Marc oversaw the original casting of such NBC series as the Emmy Award–winning "The Office" and "30 Rock," "Heroes," "My Name Is Earl," "Friday Night Lights," and "Southland," among others.

On the cable side, he supervised the casting of the USA Network hits "Psych," "Burn Notice," "In Plain Sight," and "The Starter Wife," and USA's newest hits "Royal Pains" and "White Collar." At Syfy Network, he shepherded the original casting of "Eureka," "Warehouse 13," and the "Battlestar Galactica" prequel "Caprica."

Since his departure from NBC Universal, Marc has returned to his casting roots, casting multiple pilots that have been ordered to series during the upcoming 2011-12 season, including "The Last Days of Man," starring Tim Allen, for ABC; Chelsea Handler's "Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea" for NBC; "I Just Want My Pants Back," directed by Doug Liman, for MTV; and "Happily Divorced," starring Fran Drescher, for TV Land.

During 2009-10, he cast the pilots for the one-hour dramas "Miami Medical" for Bruckheimer Television/Warner Bros. for CBS, "The Whole Truth" for Bruckheimer TV and ABC, and "Sherri," starring Sherri Shepherd, for Lifetime Networks. He recently completed casting the NBC one-hour romantic-comedy anthology series "Love Bites," created by Cindy Chupack, which aired on NBC this past summer.

Marc also has a casting consultant business and supervises all casting for Starz Media, including "Spartacus," "Camelot," "Torchwood," and the upcoming dramas "Boss," starring Kelsey Grammer, and "Magic City," starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan. He also supervised both scripted and unscripted talent and casting for CMT Network, including its first multicamera comedy series, "Working Class," starring Melissa Peterman and Ed Asner.

Prior to joining NBC as executive vice president of casting, Marc spent 12 years establishing Liberman/Hirschfeld Casting, which he founded with partner Meg Liberman, as one of the nation's largest and most successful casting agencies. He received multiple Emmy nominations for casting the NBC comedy series "Seinfeld" and in 1998 won the Emmy for outstanding casting of a miniseries or a movie for his work on "From the Earth to the Moon."

Marc has also been recognized by his peers in the Casting Society of America with more than 30 nominations and six Artios Award wins for outstanding achievements in comedy episodic, pilot, and daytime casting, and he received the CSA's highest honor, the Hoyt Bowers Award, in November 2007 in recognition of his body of work.

MODERATOR

Simi Horwitz, Senior Features Writer, Backstage
Simi Horwitz has been at Back Stage for 14 years. Her beat is theater, film, and television. She regularly writes profiles of newsworthy personalities in the arts and covers behind-the-scenes trends, in addition to reviewing movies and conducting video interviews for the Back Stage website.

Simi won the William H. Donaldson Editorial Achievement Award, a corporate prize, for her Back Stage piece "Ambivalence, Ambiguity, and Culture Shock: The Immigrant's Experience in Theatre." The story looks at how immigrant theater artists have to reinvent themselves—their expectations and career tactics—in order to make it in American theater.

Prior to joining Back Stage, Simi was a feature writer for Theater Week for eight years and a frequent contributor to The Washington Post's TV Week.