How to Get Cast in a Ryan Murphy Production

While Murphy’s expansive catalog reaches far and wide, his most famous works include:

• “Nip/Tuck” (2003–2010)
• “Glee” (2009–2015)
• “Eat Pray Love” (2010)
• “American Horror Story” (2011–)
• “The New Normal” (2012–2013)
• “The Normal Heart” (2014)
• “Scream Queens” (2015–2016)
• “American Crime Story” (2016–)
• “Feud” (2017–2024)
• “Pose” (2018–2021)
• “9-1-1” (2018–)
• “The Politician” (2019–2020)
• “Hollywood” (2020)
• “Ratched” (2020)
• “The Boys in the Band” (2020)
• “The Prom” (2020)
• “9-1-1: Lone Star” (2020–)
• “American Horror Stories” (2021–)
• “The Watcher” (2022–)
• “Monster” (2022–)
• “Grotesquerie” (2024)
• “Doctor Odyssey” (2024–)
• “American Sports Story” (2024–)
• “9-1-1: Nashville” (2025–)

Murphy will soon add two highly anticipated titles to his portfolio: “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” (Season 3) and “Love Story” (Season 1). “The Ed Gein Story,” the third in Murphy’s “Monster” anthology, follows the serial killer—and grave robber—who ultimately inspired modern moviemaking’s genre-defining horror films, including “Psycho,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” and “The Silence of the Lambs.”  “Love Story,” on the other hand, explores the iconic real-life relationship between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, who lived their lives in the spotlight of public scrutiny before their untimely deaths in 1999. “The Ed Gein Story” premieres Oct. 3 on Netflix, and “Love Story” is slated for a Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14) 2026 release on FX.

Tiffany Little Canfield led the casting team on Murphy’s “Doctor Odyssey,” “Monster” (Season 2), and “Grotesquerie.” But Murphy has collaborated with the Ulrich/Dawson/Kritzer Casting team repeatedly during his career. Robert J. Ulrich, Eric Dawson, and Carol Kritzer partnered with Murphy on numerous shows—including “9-1-1,” “Monster” (Season 1), “American Horror Story,” and “Glee.”

Murphy has also worked with Eric Souliere on multiple series, including “Nip/Tuck” and “American Horror Story,” and with Alexa L. Fogel, on both “Feud” and “Pose.”

As Fogel told us, it’s important to remember that CDs and actors are both at the audition for the same reason: “[We’re both there] to collaborate and do the work—and we should both be prepared.” In fact, that’s the best way to impress all of Murphy’s collaborators.

“It’s about doing your homework,” Dawson told us. “If you’re going to do medical jargon, you better know what it is that you’re talking about or it comes out as gobbledygook. Or people who don’t look up pronunciations of words. You want to go, ‘How long would it have taken to realize how to say “Potomac”?’ Those things just ding you as not doing the work. Everybody likes to see people who put in the work. People come in sometimes and say, ‘I only had time to prepare one scene, so I’ll do that.’ It just gets you off on the wrong foot.”

When it comes to casting one of Murphy’s projects, Dawson recommends bringing your personality into the audition. “What I actually think is nice and [Murphy] does watch for is a little thing—30 seconds at most—at the beginning [of your self-tape]. Say something important about yourself, or the shows he does, or the character you’re reading for. Just a personal moment, and probably not more than 15, 20, 30 seconds. But I think sometimes that’s important, to just see the person for a second,” he said.

“You get engaged with the person or a little snippet or story,” he continued. “Michael Learned, who played Evan Peters’ mother in [‘Monsters: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’], was friends with Sarah Paulson. When she taped, she told a little funny Sarah Paulson story at the beginning. I think Ryan enjoyed that. Nothing too big, but just a little bit of your personality.”

That’s precisely what Angelica Ross (“Pose,” “American Horror Story: 1984”) did. Ross turns to acting coach Brad Calcaterra ahead of each audition. “He gives me notes and then I forget it all,” she shared, as she insists on being present when she’s in the room. 

“To speak to that, specifically, I had prepared my ass off for the audition for Blanca for ‘Pose,’ and once I got into the audition room, I had a whole thing prepared,” Ross said. “I had these really short ’80s short-shorts and these high stiletto heels, which I stupidly was walking down New York City streets to get to the audition in. By the time I got in the audition room, I had a charley horse in my leg. They’re like, ‘Are you OK? Do you need a moment?’ And I’m like, ‘No, I’m OK! I just got a charley horse.’”

“And I put my heel on top of the chair so my legs are showing in the short-shorts and I bent over and something in me, it’s an improv skill, turned that moment into my audition. It made such an impression on the room. I brought Candy into the room, and I didn’t know that’s what I was doing,” she explained. “What I’ve learned is to always bring myself into the room with the character. I’m alive. It’s not just on the paper; I am her. I’m who you’re looking for.”

For Matt Bomer (“The Normal Heart,” “The Boys in the Band”), however, getting cast was a more drawn out process. As Bomer told us, his conversation with Murphy about playing a role in “The Normal Heart” turned out to be a very long discussion. “This was before ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ or any of that stuff had come out, and I was like, ‘If you could shut down production, I’ll lose 50 pounds in the middle of this and then come back for that second part.’ We kind of came up with that together. And he’s never said as much, but I always felt like I was kind of doing a series of screen tests for it, because he had me do a guest spot on ‘Glee’ and then a guest spot on ‘The New Normal,’ ” Bomer said. “I thought, OK, my mettle is being tested here.” 

He added, “I just tried to bring my best work ethic to both of those pieces before the movie finally materialized. I’m grateful that it all worked out the way it did. But it was probably, like, a two-year process. I mean, [Murphy] is really in so many ways the architect of my career, and I’m so thankful for him, for all the opportunities he gives to so many members of our community. We’d be in real trouble without him, so I love him and I’m eternally grateful to him.”

Murphy’s projects are notoriously secretive. Souliere told us, “We have to be very careful about keeping everything secret. Whenever we put out a casting notice, we change the character’s name.” 

He continued, “There’s never any plot, the sides are fake, and the names are changed, so if it does get out, people have no idea what anything means. Also, every actor who auditions has to sign an NDA, and they can’t say that they went in for this show or disclose any information about the audition or role they’re reading for. We’re very protective; [we want] audiences to be surprised as they watch.”

So it’s highly unlikely you will ever come upon a public casting call for one of Murphy’s productions.

We recommend exploring our guide on how to get an acting agent if you do not yet have representation, as these industry insiders often have the scoop on which projects are casting right now. We also suggest bookmarking our main casting page, which updates regularly as new opportunities become available. Or this page of horror casting calls is always a good place to find gigs. And if you are looking for additional insight into auditioning for Murphy, check out our guide on how to get cast on “The Beauty,” another one of his upcoming series.

Show them who you are. “In the beginning of my working life, I felt I had to remove me from the work,” Sarah Paulson told us. The actor is a repeat Murphy collaborator, starring on “American Horror Story,” “American Crime Story,” and more. “And I actually think the only thing that separates me from any other actor is me. When you think you have to excise your uniqueness or your take on something to deliver what you think they want or what your agent has said they’re looking for, you’re putting it through this filter of: ‘I want to give them what they’re looking for.’ 

“They don’t know what they’re looking for. They have an idea of what they’re looking for, and they want to be shown it.… But if you don’t disavow yourself and you allow [a] note to sort of flow through you like a sieve or like a colander, and you let yourself pour out of it, that is going to be the thing that makes it different, special, unique.”

Focus on your own success. “Keep your eyes on your own paper. Don’t be looking around to see what other people have that you don’t. I spent a lot of time in my 20s being jealous of people and what they had, and I regret that. It was a lot of wasted energy,” Andrew Rannells (“The Boys in the Band”) told us. “You do what you do, you’re going to get what you get, and you shouldn’t be looking at other people and coveting their careers and their jobs. Put that time and focus into something else.”

Act for yourself, not for the fame. “The hardest thing is, how do you carry on? How do you continue? I think this applies today. As long as you love [performing], you can’t go wrong. If you’re becoming an actor because you want to be famous, have money, have power…don’t do it,” Dylan McDermott (“Hollywood”) shared with us. “One of the biggest lessons I ever learned was, I was doing a play and I was busting my ass. It was like three hours onstage and I’m sweating and bleeding out. There’s three people in the audience. But I learned a lesson that night: I asked myself, Why am I acting? Who’s it for? Is it to get the approval of the audience? No, it’s for me, because I love it. So it doesn’t matter if there’s 10 billion people watching, 100 million people watching, or one person watching. It’s for you. And, therefore, you can never go wrong.”

Embrace the uncertainty. “I think young Jeremy, he was very fearless,” Jeremy Pope (“Hollywood”) told us. “‘You moved to New York, and you didn’t know nobody?’ I ask myself those questions now. But the one thing that I would tell myself is it’s OK to be scared; it’s OK to not know what the outcome is going to be. Trust your gut and listen to your instincts. You know that you’re going to work and you’re going to prove and you’re going to show up when it’s time to show up. I would just tell myself to lean into that. It’s going to be scary; it’s going to be hard; you’re going to feel lost; you’re going to feel confused.”

Pope added, “Lean on your friends, the people that you’re meeting, and trust that it’s going to work out in a way that’s unimaginable. I couldn’t have written the story any better. Everything that’s happening to me, it’s like, at this point, I just have to literally close my eyes and lean forward. At this point, I’m just learning. This is all a dream.”

Use those nerves to your advantage. Laurie Metcalf, who’ll play Augusta Gein on Season 3 of “Monster,” has been a star of both stage and screen for decades, but as she told us, the audition nerves never truly fade. However, when used strategically, they can become your superpower. “The audition room is tough, and I feel, just speaking for myself, no matter where you are in your career, it’s hard not to have the nerves kick in—probably impossible,” Metcalf said. “So all I’ve ever heard or tried to do is use the nerves if you can; let your character be in that place instead of trying to shut them down, because that’s impossible and that just looks [bad]. Then you’re just in some horrible flop sweat—you know, you’re not getting anything; you’re not going to be rewarded with the part. Just try and say, ‘OK, well, my character’s going in here extremely nervous about something,’ and try and use it.”