Casting secrets of Hollywood: Top casting directors and their most celebrated works

The work of the casting department often goes unnoticed — the people in charge of choosing the best possible lineup to lead any production are arguably the backbone of the whole operation.

While the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has decided to recognise the tireless efforts of casting directors starting next year — the Oscars are will inaugurate an Achievement in Casting category at the 98th Annual Academy Awards — many within the industry lament that the acknowledgement has already missed several stalwarts of the craft which laid its foundations in Hollywood around the end of the 1960s.

Bernard Telsey, casting director for Wicked, told Variety, “Mike Fenton, Juliet Taylor and Marion Dougherty would probably each have five to 10 Oscars by now”. The names on his list have been responsible for discovering such talent as Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, and many others.

Nevertheless, here are a couple of names who can still seize the opportunity to make history as some of the casting department’s best:

Sarah Finn

Founder of the Sarah Finn Casting Company, Sarah Finn is best known in the business as the casting wizard behind some of MCU’s biggest names. Finn launched formerly obscure actors, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, while she was also responsible for the casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man and Paul Rudd as Ant-Man.

Ellen Lewis

Ellen Lewis is an Emmy-winning casting director, an accolade she bagged for her work on Netflix’s hit miniseries, The Queen’s Gambit. While the longtime professional’s credits also include renowned works like The Devil Wears Prada, Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, and many more.

Ellen Chenoweth

One of Hollywood’s foremost names in the casting arena, Ellen Chenoweth has provided services for Best Picture-winning films like Terms of Endearment and No Country for Old Men. She is further recognised for her fruitful collaboration with filmmaker Barry Levinson, which started with 1982’s Diner, Chenoweth’s second feature film and Levinson’s first.

Kerry Barden

The Atlanta based Kerry Barden actually started out on stage, later forming a casting company with fellow casting directors, Billy Hopkins and Suzanne Smith. He is known for casting projects like Good Will Hunting, The Help, and the winner of the 2016 Oscar for Best Picture, Spotlight.

Victoria Burrows & Scot Boland

A rare case of partnership between casting directors, Victoria Burrows & Scot Boland first came together while working on Robert Zemeckis’ 1997 directorial, Contact. The pair have since collaborated on well known motion-capture films like 2004’s The Polar Express and 2011’s The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn.