Industry Pros

Andre Murphy is a Film and TV Agent who works for the Polygon Talent Agency located in Burbank CA. Polygon Talent Agency covers the entire spectrum of the performing arts, representing talent in the fields of TV/Film, Commercial, Print, Music, Literary and Voiceover. Andre has over 8 years of experience as an agent and has worked in every position in the company. Andre has a BA in Mass Communication from Shaw University and a Masters in Public Administration from Strayer University in Raleigh, NC.

Daniel Ortega has been in the film an television business for more than 15 years.  Daniel started his career in talent management representing actors, writers, and directors. He’s currently a theatrical agent at Pantheon Talent in Los Angeles, California, representing a variety of actors of all ages. He is a graduate of the University Of Arizona.

Julia Schneider heads the TV/Film department at  the Ambition Talent Agency. Her background as a casting assistant to acclaimed CD Stephanie Gorin enabled her to experience first hand the details involved in casting commercials, television series and feature films. Julia began her career in the entertainment business at the age of 13. She worked as an actor for over 10 years, appearing in various TV series and feature films. Her behind the scenes knowledge of the acting world enhances her knowledge of the business side.

Melissa is a casting associate/casting director currently based in Los Angeles. She has come full circle by working with the office she started her casting career off with; La Padura and Hart Casting. She is currently working on a movie for a streaming network and whatever other projects may come her way! She was in NY before this current move to LA and some of her credits include CBS's BLUE BLOODS for 5 seasons. She worked on the first season of Showtime's BILLIONS for which she was nominated for an Artios Award with Allison Estrin and did a BET pilot. Melissa has worked on multiple series, pilots and films in both NY and LA.

Brooke Thomas is a veteran commercial casting director in New York City. Recognizing a need for more personalized casting services that leveraged her experience and vast network of actor connections, she formed Brooke Thomas Casting in November of 2012. She was originally drawn into the world of casting 17 years ago and worked at Liz Lewis Casting and most recently at House Casting. Brooke has cast well over 2000 commercials for brands such as ETrade, Hummer, NY Lottery, Red Lobster, Pizza Hut, Charles Schwab and Huggies. She has cast for many directors such as Robert Altman, Fredrik Bond, Dave Meyers, Clay Williams, Stan Schofield, Mark Tiedemann, Tim Abshire, Luc Janin and many others.In addition to being a full-time casting director, Brooke also teaches a word-of-mouth, always-sold-out, award-winning commercial class for aspiring actors, many of whom are top notch-talent on the NYC improv and comedy scene and have gone on to achieve amazing success in television and film. Brooke lives in Tribeca with her two teenage children, a high school sweetheart, and an opinionated Shih Tzu.

From Paladino Casting, one of the leading full service casting companies in NYC! Lori started her career at Casting House in 2003, a full service casting company focusing on film, TV and commercials. There, she worked on several indie features that discovered talented actors that you now see on the big screen today. Lori also worked for Discovery Networks as their Talent Coordinator. There, she worked on casting hosts for all 10 Networks. After Discovery, Lori continued to freelance with Casting House, where she cast several projects with Miramax and Michael Bay's Amityville Horror. She also worked on shows for ABC, NBC, MTV and BBC. For the last 10 years, Lori has been freelancing at Paladino Casting, where she has worked on NBC's Taxi Brooklyn and several indie features/shorts, some of which have won awards at film festivals. Lori also has her own company, LB Casting, where she produces and casts her own projects. She cast a web series for TIME Inc, an award and festival winning web series Q's One Night Stands, the play A Room of My Own and most recently the indie feature, By Dawn. She is currently casting a scripted podcast for Slate and has several indie features coming up for this year.