Spot On: Commercial Workshop

12:00pm-1:30pm – Room C937
Focus on the tools you need to ensure success in the competitive commercial acting market. Casting director and teacher Killian McHugh will start with a general Q&A from the audience covering questions you may have regarding the world of commercial casting and commercial acting. Subjects that most often come up during this are: figuring out your "type" as an actor, what casting directors are looking for in a headshot, how many looks should you have up on your LA Casting profile, how to get started, and finding the right agent for you. McHugh will also have an empowering "mini-class" taken from one of his four-week commercial workshops.

Speaker:

-- Killian McHugh, Teacher and Casting Director, Alyson Horn Casting

SPEAKER BIO

Killian McHugh, Teacher and Casting Director, Alyson Horn Casting
Killian McHugh came to Los Angeles in 1998 to pursue acting and actually booked the first job for which he auditioned! Since then, he has become a very successful actor in commercials. He began his career in commercial casting in 2000. Over the years, he has worked with just about every top casting office in the commercial industry both as a casting associate and as a session director.

He has also worked with many of the top commercial directors in the industry in the role of on-camera principal and through the casting process. In 2005 he found his home at Alyson Horn Casting and quickly became her "No. 1" session director. In 2006 he founded Killian's Workshop. This series of commercial workshops is geared toward teaching actors the intricacies involved in having a career in the commercial industry. In 2010, Killian's Workshop was voted favorite commercial workshop/class in Los Angeles in the Back Stage Readers' Choice Awards, and Killian tied for favorite on-camera teacher in Los Angeles in the same poll.

He was also promoted from session director/casting associate to casting director within the Alyson Horn Casting organization. When asked about his philosophy and the point of view from which he teaches, Killian responds, "I am all about empowering the actor. I am not teaching people how to book a commercial; I am teaching them how to have a career." "Leap and the net will appear" is his philosophy for casting, teaching, and living.