Industry Pros

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.

Craig is celebrating 21 years as an agent and 16 years as an agency owner this year!!! Avalon Artists Group is a full-service talent agency with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and Miami.

Avalon Artists Group represents actors of all ages for film, TV, theater, commercials, voice over, hosting, industrials, and commercial print. A veteran in the business for over 35 years Craig started his career in Los Angeles as an actor and model.  Craig began his career as an agent with Talentworks in New York, as both a commercial and legit agent before moving back to Los Angeles to open his own bi-coastal agency.  

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.

Jacob St. Aubin manages talent with Jamie Malone at MC Talent Management.  Starting as an intern at a management company, he has worked in and out of the representation world. Originally from Columbus, OH, he moved to Los Angeles in 2013 after graduating from Ohio Universityand has worked at several different agencies in Print, Theatrical, and Commercial. 

Richard has been in the business for 25 years, casting for the last decade. He is known for casting up-and-coming actors and giving chances to those underexposed & underrepresented.  

He casts a wide variety of projects from independant film, commercials, music videos, voice over, print & live events. Currently he is the East Coast casting director for a new series shot in New Orleans called THE PARK. This past year his films have appeared at top film festivals including SXSW, TriBeCa, and took the top prize for best drama at Vimeo’s Staff Pick of the year award with “SICK BOY”. Commercial clients include British Airways, Victoria beer,  Minute Maid, Bud Light, ADIDAS, & Nectar Mattress which won a Webby award for YouTube ad of the year. Music  videos for The All American Rejects (Nominated  for British Video Music Awards), Norah Jones, Lewis Capaldi, DRAM, Joey Badass...etc
In addition to Richard's casting he has produced award winning branded content and if that's not enough he teaches the business of acting, gives talks, lectures and judges competitions. He's been a judge or speaker for several film festivals including New Orleans Film Festival, Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, Winter Film Awards...

Melissa is a casting associate/casting director and has worked on multiple series, pilots and films in both NY and LA. 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.