Meet Louise Kiely, Ireland’s Casting Queen

February 3, 2025 | Neil Turitz
Photo credit: Louise Kiely

If you’re making a movie or TV show in Ireland, there’s a good chance that you’ll work with Louise Kiely.

One of the Emerald Isle’s preeminent casting directors, Kiely is one of those rare people who never apprenticed, never was an associate or an assistant. She’s only ever been her own boss, and the results pretty much speak for themselves. Sing Street, Normal People, The Banshees of Inisherin and The Tourist, Kiely has been behind all of them and dozens more.

She and her partners — Karen Scully and Thyrza Ging — are so busy that it took eight months to schedule this conversation. She spoke to us from her home in Drogheda, about an hour north of Dublin. 


Insights: Lessons From Louise Kiely

  • Prepare thoroughly for auditions; read the script multiple times and research the director’s previous work to have an informed conversation.
  • Avoid rushing self-tape submissions; take the time needed to deliver a quality audition, as early tapes may not always be advantageous.
  • Embrace continuous improvement; be open to feedback and willing to refine your performances based on casting directors’ notes.

How did you get into casting?

I wanted to be an actor, as I would imagine a lot of casting directors do, so I did a law degree and hung out a lot at the theater and did a lot of plays and stuff when I was in college. Then I applied to the Gaiety School of Acting, which is one of our drama courses in Dublin, and did that for two years.

I was sort of launched into the Irish industry and was an actor for about five years, but it was hard. I was part of a cooperative agency. I don’t know if you have them in the US, but they are several actors who represent themselves in a collaborative type situation. I was working in the office, like, three times a year, and I enjoyed that.

If you think about my background being law and then drama, and then you fuse them, you think about contracts and negotiations and budgets, and then obviously the kind of the magical acting side of it as well … 

That’s basically casting.

Right. My friend and I just decided one day, “Let’s be casting directors.” We put out our name, and then we got our first short film that evening, which we cast that week.

Our studio was a nightclub floor, and apart from the smell of beer, the place was perfect, you know? (Laughs) It sort of took off from there. She went off and continued her acting career, and I just knocked on doors, took jobs that I could do, whatever. That was 2005, so I’m 20 years in now.

I’m always fascinated by this moment when a person realizes, “This thing that I thought I wanted to do, I don’t want to do anymore. There’s this sort of adjacent thing that I can be successful at and fulfill this creative Jones that I have instead.” Did you have that moment?

I feel like it was slow and steady, but also very particular. I have this strong memory of a restaurant I worked in for several years on and off. There was one night, and I was, I mean, 27 I suppose, and I just felt like, “This is not right. This is not where my heart is at all.”

Falling into casting felt a little bit like an accident, but as soon as it happened, the first job I did, it felt absolutely 100% right. 

Was there any confusion about continuing to act while you did this?

In the earlier days, probably two or three years, a director would say, “Well, why don’t you give it a go?” Or, “Why don’t you read for this?” I drew that line so clearly that not only did I never audition for anything or accept anything, but I also never read with an actor. I don’t think I’ve ever read with an actor.

Really?

My memory of being an actor reading with casting directors just filled me with such uncomfortable feelings that I’m blushing now thinking about it. I just made a huge effort to have a person there, whatever the budget was, who would read with the actors, so that I could take a step back and watch.

To this day, that’s just always been the way. I want to be able to take it all in. I also want to be able to direct in that moment, if I have to, and so that I have to be able to observe.

If I have this right, have you always just been your own boss? Have you never worked for another casting director?

Nobody at any point, which is unusual. If somebody said to me now, how do I do it? I would say, “Well, do this course,” or “Come and work for me for a while” or “Come and work for [fellow Irish casting director] Maureen [Hughes], because that’s the best way to learn.” Should I advise my younger self now, I would say, “Go and work.”

Usually, someone comes up as a casting director under someone else. They either apprentice with one person or move around and work with a bunch of others. Since you didn’t do that, I’m curious about the on-the-job training and learning that you did to slowly but surely create the office that you wanted to run at peak efficiency.

That’s such a good question because now, looking back, several casting directors who have assisted us for a little while, have taken to our way of doing things. It just has sort of grown its own life, which I find amazing.

The short version is, that I like to be very neat and organized. If things aren’t labeled in a certain way, or if there’s any sort of chaos in lists or anything like that, it bothers me.

Thyrza and I are both into tech, as well, so if there’s a chance to try something new that will add to our efficiency, we like to do that. I like to be creative in terms of how we can do our job. I suppose nobody said to me, “Don’t do this,” or “Don’t try this,” or “This is the way it’s done,” so you just put it all into a big pot and see what comes out.

Since you mentioned tech, do you miss being in the room for auditions? Especially since that’s part of why you got into this in the first place.

Very much so. I live on a tiny island. I mean, we have a loud voice, but we are a small island.

The projects, thankfully, that we work on are both native to Ireland, British and Irish, and also very North American. [We have] a lot of studios here and a lot of North American projects. The idea that all the key creative people will be in the same place at the same time to do 10 people for a recall is kind of unheard of, especially in TV with the amount of people that are involved. 

I’m speaking to a director today, and what we’re hoping to do is some chemistry reads for some ladies who are playing age 16 or 17 from Ireland, with some ladies who are playing age 16 or 17 from France. How are we going to do this? We don’t want to bring 15 people in from France. It’s expensive.

Zoom chemistry reads can shorten the list. By the end of that session, maybe have three and three, which is probably quite likely, then we can get them in the room. Also, we work a lot with studios in North America, and what happens is that we’ll get a check for a movie by a production house, and they’ll say, “Sending the script tomorrow, can you meet the showrunner, or the writer or the director or whatever, on Thursday?” You say, “Absolutely,” and they’re not in Ireland.

You said something very interesting in passing, but it makes me think of something else that I talked about with Maureen. You live on a small island, but there’s an enormous amount of talent that comes out of that island. You have made some pretty big actor discoveries in your career. Do you consider it a feather in your cap when these people go on to big-time stardom?

No. I feel very, very, very proud of Paul [Mescal] and Daisy [Edgar-Jones] because working on Normal People was incredible. I also think that they’ve made really good choices, that they’re really strong actors, that they work hard.

Barry Keoghan as well. You see him in Saltburn, and you go, “Wow, that is so different to the Barry that we all knew when he was 17 or 18.” He’s come so far. I mean, as in, the characters are so vastly different from who Barry is, so it’s wonderful to see.

I feel proud when I am part of a team that puts together something that people respond well to, but I’m also incredibly proud of working in Ireland and being an Irish person. Obviously, as a nation, we have a history of poetry and music and all that stuff. The government has Screen Ireland, and they put money into small movies and independent films. Without the foundations, we can’t build the house, and I feel like Ireland supports the creation of the foundations. 

With all of the auditions you do, do you find that there are common mistakes that actors make?

Not really. The only thing I’ll say, and this sounds like a complete and utter first-world problem, but people who get their tapes in early. I would never disrespect anybody for doing that, but maybe there’s a value in just taking that [extra] amount of time sometimes.

I mean, often that’s not even a problem, because it could be brilliant. But if there’s something in it, if we like it, we will send notes. Honestly, it’s just a constant dialogue of, “You can do better. We know you have it in you.” 

With that in mind, what piece of advice or wisdom would you give to someone coming in to audition for you?

Prepare. I know we’ve got timeline issues and all that, and we’ve got families, and I completely respect that, but I will not meet unless I have read the script twice.

I will watch the director’s work. I will interrogate that work or the piece that I’m sent, whatever I’m sent so that I can have a cool conversation with the person that I know who I’m meeting. I show up for myself. If you want it, I think that’s it. You show up for yourself.

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