In this season of The Academy Museum Podcast, we’ll explore the history of the job of “casting director”: one of the most essential and under-appreciated roles in filmmaking.

The biggest question around casting is: Who gets to play what role? 

It’s a question that has a huge influence - not just on a single film, but on actors’ career trajectories and on audiences’ ideas of who can be and do what.

And while casting directors are gatekeepers, they are also people who can open a director’s eyes to a possibility they hadn’t considered before, or help an actor realize their potential in a way they wouldn’t have on their own.

Throughout this season we’ll explore how casting directors have answered the question of who gets to play what role in different ways over time.