Chad Darnell

Chad Darnell

Casting Director


You've got to create your own opportunity. Don't ever let anybody tell you what you can or can't do. Don't let anybody tell you who you can or can't be.

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By Roadtrip Nation

Chad Darnell

Milestones

My road in life took a while to figure out.
Has been acting ever since he was a kid doing community and school theater.
While in high school, he participated in the Georgia Governor's Honors Program and subsequently won an acting scholarship.
When he took the ACTs, they accidentally switched his scores, affecting which colleges he got accepted to—Georgia State University was the only one that would accept him.
Worked as an extra in film and television to help put himself through college, but one day he was asked to help in the casting department and he’s worked in that field ever since.
Decided to move to Los Angeles and got a job working for Central Casting, where he worked for almost 10 years casting projects such as “Spider-Man,” “White Oleander,” “Alias,” and “Crossing Jordan.”
After working extremely long hours on multiple projects, he decided to leave Central Casting and move back to Georgia in order to focus more on pursuing his own projects.
Says the worst moment in his life was when he was misquoted in an article calling actors in Georgia “lazy”—calls this his “turning point” and it subsequently inspired him to start his acting camp.
Says working in Georgia has given him unique opportunities in the film industry—when he started in the ’90s, there were only five shows in production in Georgia; now there are over 100.
Keep following my journey

Career

Casting Director

I cast actors for television shows and movies.

Career Roadmap

Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Film
Acting & Theatre
Being Creative

Day to Day

When a get a casting job, one of the first things I do is to travel to visit with the producers and director(s) of the project to talk about the look of the project, specific casting needs, and my timeline. Once I have a good idea of what we are looking for, I organize casting calls (meetings) and put out advertisements with various theaters, talent agencies, websites, newspapers, etc. to get local actors to come in and read for the different parts.

Advice for Getting Started

Here's the first step for college students

Start getting work in the field of your choice as soon as possible. Intern, volunteer, get part time work, whatever you can get so that you can get the experience and start building your resume and connections.

Hurdles

The Noise I Shed

From Peers:

"No, you can't cast that actor because nobody will know who they are and you can't pitch that movie because it's not what we are looking for. "

Challenges I Overcame

Learning Issues
Exhaustion
Outspoken