On January 4, Netflix revealed that teen mystery drama “Outer Banks” would return for a third season on Feb. 23. According to Decider, the series was a hit right from its premiere, which aired at the height of the pandemic. The second season continued to make headlines, becoming one of Netflix’s most-watched series. So it’s no surprise that a few days before the Season 3 premiere, the streamer renewed the series for a fourth season.
If you’re interested in learning more about how the casting process works, we’ve put together this guide that covers everything you need to know about joining up with the Pogues or the Kooks.
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“Outer Banks” is a mystery drama about two groups of teens—the working-class Pogues and the wealthy Kooks, who live in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The sun-drenched series follows the Pogues as they search for answers surrounding the sudden disappearance of the main character’s father—and a buried treasure at the heart of the mystery.
Sibling filmmakers Josh and Jonas Pate, along with Shannon Burke, created the show. They also serve as executive producers. “Outer Banks” began filming in May 2019 in Charleston, South Carolina, and premiered on Netflix in April 2020.
No production info has been announced for the next season, but Jonas Pate told Entertainment Weekly that the creators have planned the narrative out for up to five seasons. “We’ve sort of long-arced it out pretty far,” he explained. “I’m just hoping that we get a chance to actually tell those stories.”
While “Outer Banks” isn’t currently casting talent, the action-adventure mystery teen drama turned to Backstage to cast background and stand-in roles in Charleston, South Carolina for Season 3. Pay was $132–$168 for 12 hours of work, with a $50 COVID-19 testing stipend. We expect that the team will cast with us again in the future.
South Carolina–based CD Taylor Woodell and North Carolina–based CD Jocabed Aragón of TW Cast & Recruit also posted notices for Seasons 1 and 2 on Facebook. If you’re looking to land a role on the series, it’s a good idea to bookmark TW Cast & Recruit’s Facebook page for updates. And if you’re interested in joining project that’s similar to “Outer Banks,” you can always check out this roundup of teen drama gigs hiring now.
The ensemble of “Outer Banks” Season 2 includes:
- Chase Stokes as John B
- Madelyn Cline as Sarah Cameron
- Madison Bailey as Kiara
- J.D. as Pope
- Rudy Pankow as JJ
- Carlacia Grant as Cleo
- Elizabeth Mitchell as Carla Limbrey
- Austin North as Topper
- Charles Esten as Ward Cameron
- Drew Starkey as Rafe
- Cullen Moss as Deputy Shoupe
- Julia Antonelli as Wheezie Cameron
- Caroline Arapoglou as Rose
- E. Roger Mitchell as Heyward
- CC Castillo as Lana Grubbs
- Chelle Ramos as Deputy Plumb
- Brian Stapf as Cruz
- Marland Burke as Mike Carrera
- Deion Smith as Kelce
- Nicholas Cirillo as Barry
- Gary Weeks as Luke
- Jesse C. Boyd as Renfield
- Terence Rosemore as Captain Terrance
- Jontavious Johnson as Stubbs
The casting directors for Season 2 were Carrie Audino, Laura Schiff, and Craig and Lisa Mae Fincannon. Together, Audino and Schiff cast all six seasons of the Emmy-winning “Mad Men.” They also worked on other hits, such as “Fear the Walking Dead” and “Bosch.” The Fincannons, the husband-and-wife heavy hitters at the Atlanta-based Fincannon and Associates, are known for casting “Homeland,”“One Tree Hill,” “Looper,” and “Halt and Catch Fire.”
When it came to casting the show’s leads, it was crucial to the showrunners to find actors who shared a great rapport. Despite the core cast appearing Abercrombie & Fitch–ready, looks were not a priority. Madelyn Cline, who plays John B’s love interest Sarah, told Refinery 29, “[Jonas Pate] wanted people who were honest—real human beings who could portray the type of experiences that were going on in ‘Outer Banks.’ So he cast a majority of the show based on not social media presence. He immediately was X-ing out people who weren’t able to bring the performance and was looking at their social media like: Are they taking a bunch of selfies? What’s their M.O.?”
Rudy Pankow, who plays JJ, told Entertainment Weekly that the chemistry between cast members played a key role. “I met [Madison] Bailey on the plane [on the way] to the chemistry read. Immediately, immediately when she got on the plane, I was like, Oh, that’s Kiara. Then we started acting in the room, and boom, it was instantaneous.”
- Don’t rule anything out, and don’t give up. As perfect as Chase Stokes is as John B, he came very close to not getting the part—according to Decider, he initially passed. When his agent first emailed him about the project, it was pitched as “four friends on a treasure hunt” with a main character named John B, which he found fishy. In Feb. 2019, the project made its way back to him, and unemployment led him to consider the role. “I was like, I don’t even care at this point,” he said. His first read didn’t go well. “[It was] arguably in the top 10 worst auditions I’ve ever had in my life,” he recalled. Luckily, Lisa Mae Fincannon was in the room, and she had cast Stokes in one of his first roles (on “Daytime Divas”). She saw his potential and urged him to read the pilot and reconsider the part.
- You don’t need to live in L.A. to land gigs. “This was not a job booked out of L.A.,” Stokes told Decider. “This was a job that was booked in Atlanta. This was Lisa Fincannon who got me this job, so for the people who feel like there’s an obligatory need to come to L.A. and get their career jump-started, and they feel like this is the only place that you can do it… Don’t question your worth. Don’t question your value. The Southeast is incredibly strong. Out of the cast, Madison Bailey, Madelyn Cline, Drew Starkey, and myself were all, at some point, based in the Southeast, and all of them have roots there. Drew booked the job as Rafe out of Atlanta.”
- A rejection might not be the end. You might not get the job you auditioned for—but you could be remembered down the line for other parts. “I feel like that’s a huge portion of our job, to have a database of actors, either in our heads or in a computer,” Audino told Backstage. “If [CDs] had to start from scratch, not remembering anyone, every episode, every pilot, or every movie, we would not be able to do our jobs. Our biggest tool is our memory of actors.”
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