Why I Became a Casting Director: An Interview with Maya Adrabi

It’s no secret that actors often feel intimidated by casting directors. Every actor has his or her own personal journey that led to pursuing the craft, and casting directors have a big impact on what course that journey takes. If you find yourself nervous around casting pros, remember that they have their own backstories, albeit on the other side of the table.

Knowing more about the casting director as a person can help actors relate to and relax around him or her. Casting director Maya Adrabi of AHC Casting recently worked on an Xfinity spot with Amy Poehler, a Taco Bell spot with Darren Criss and the “Helpful Honda” campaign. She took time from her busy schedule to share with Casting Networks the story of why she got into casting.

“Most casting directors were actors once,” Adrabi begins, “and I’m no exception.” Adrabi started working in casting as an assistant at 200 South, but she was still pursuing acting at the same time. Adrabi recalls that part of the job’s appeal was the opportunity to meet and form relationships with casting directors, which would, in turn, help her acting career. At the same time, she was growing her own photography business. “I was really starting to feed myself creatively with photography,” Adrabi notes. She says the added creative outlet and the stability of working in casting led her to consider a career change.

“The actor lifestyle of not knowing when you were going to work and that self-motivating life was not something I really flourished in,” Adrabi confesses. But her background in acting lent itself to her new career. “What I love about being in casting is that it allowed me to take my experiences and training as an actor and let it evolve to a place that was more in line with the other needs of my life. And now it’s about collaborating with the actor and celebrating the actor.”

Adrabi reinforces the idea that a casting director is always rooting for the success of actors. “We want actors to succeed, and we want to get excited about people,” she remarks. The team at AHC Casting, in fact, is so invested in actors finding success that they partnered with Ross Lacy to teach commercial acting classes to give actors that extra leg up. And whether or not actors take the class, they can learn a valuable lesson from Adrabi’s story. “Before I worked [at AHC], it really felt like casting directors were middlemen, and there was a lack of creativity,” she says. “But what we do here is incredibly nuanced and thoughtful … so that kind of creative challenge was really exciting for me, and it still is.”

Adrabi’s insight should encourage actors to relate to casting directors as fellow creatives. In fact, hearing her tell it, many casting people started out in acting, so they know what it’s like to walk in an actor’s shoes. Understanding this common ground can take a lot of pressure off your next audition. As Adrabi reminds us, when you’re auditioning for a casting director, you’re really engaging in a practice that the director is as passionate about as you are. The only difference is which side of the table you’re on. What you can be assured of, though, is that casting is always rooting for you to succeed.

 
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