Actor guide
How to track casting directors:Contacts that come from real auditions.
A casting contact list isn’t a pile of scraped emails. It’s a living map of who has actually seen you — which offices keep calling, which names show up on breakdowns, and what you can honestly tell a new agent.
That map builds itself if you write the casting name on every job. It never builds itself if you only remember “that crime one in March.”
Why bother
Casting relationships move slowly. You might read for the same office three times before anything books. Without a log, those near-misses vanish. With one, you can see:
- Which casting directors have had you in more than once
- Who called you back even when you didn’t book
- Whether your agent and your self-submits open different doors
- What to say in a rep meeting beyond “I’ve been busy”
Coaches like Marci Liroff have pushed this for years: give a new agent fans in casting and rooms you’ve already been in — facts, not vibes. Same idea lives inside a proper audition log.
What to write on each job
Keep it light enough that you’ll still fill it in at midnight:
- Casting office / casting director — as printed on the breakdown
- Project and role
- Date and format (self-tape / in person)
- Outcome when you know it: pending, callback, booked, not booked
- Optional one-liner: “warm note from CD,” “chemistry with X,” “they’d seen a previous tape”
You don’t need their personal mobile. You need the professional thread: this office has seen this work from you on this date.
How to use the list
Before a callback — check whether you’ve read for them before and what you did. Continuity helps.
With a new agent — “These three offices have brought me back twice this year” beats a vague reel chat. Pair it with getting an agent habits if you’re pitching cold.
When you’re stuck — if one office keeps seeing you and never booking, that’s information. If nobody knows your name yet, that’s different information. Both are better than guessing.
Don’t turn it into spam. Tracking contacts is for your strategy — not for cold-emailing every CD who ever opened your tape.
Casting contacts in Audition Tracker
In Audition Tracker, casting details sit on the audition card. Over time those names gather in Emails — your casting contacts, pulled from the jobs you’ve actually done, not a random directory.
Search when your agent asks about a specific office. Filter Stats when you want patterns. Mark outcomes so the contact history means something.
One-time purchase on iPhone and iPad; Premium is optional (including import from casting email so the office name lands on the card without retyping).
Download Audition Tracker — or keep casting in a Sheet column. The habit is the same: name on the job, every time.
A few quick ones
Should I save every casting email address?
Save what helps you recognise the office and follow professional channels — usually through your agent. The win is history, not a spam list.
What if the breakdown only says the office?
Log the office. Add the CD name later if you learn it. Consistency beats empty fields.
How does this help booking rate?
Indirectly. Offices that call you back are a signal — see actor booking rate explained. Contacts tell you who; rates tell you how often.