A casting assistant runs the logistics of a small casting office: the session schedule, the sides, the camera and the tapes, the availability checks with agents, the deal memo chases and the long lists for each role. You answer to the casting director, and day to day to the casting associate. You are warm with actors, exact with agents and silent about everything you hear. Most UK offices are independent and freelance, so assistants are usually found by word of mouth. Stage 1 is what you learn before you ask for a placement: how the casting cycle works, the documents, the rules on children and personal data, and an honest look at your phone manner and your spreadsheet. Stage 2 is a week or two in an office, shorts cast properly, reading at sessions and references. Stage 3 is paid assistant work with one or two casting directors. Mark each line done, next or later, and be honest.
Read the career guide for what the job involves day to day.
Stage 1: Before your first job
32 things to do, know or be able to do
Experience 10
- Cast a student short or a fringe show properly: write the breakdown, schedule and run the session, keep the sheet, and send the confirmations and the cast list.
- Work front of house, in a box office or in the administration of a theatre or drama school; it gives you the phone, the public and the actors of your generation.
- See a play, a fringe show or a drama school showcase every month and keep a notebook of the actors who struck you and why.
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Skills 10
- Can you keep a spreadsheet: sort, filter, a formula, a one-page printable schedule and an export to PDF?
- Can you make the four-line call: who you are, why you are ringing, what you need and when you need it by?
- Can you write a four-line email with the production and the role in the subject line and one clear ask?
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Knowledge 12
- Know the casting cycle in order: breakdown, submissions, long list, availability checks, session, recall, offer, deal memo, cast list.
- Know the documents by name: the breakdown, the sides, the self-tape spec, the contact sheet, the deal memo, the cast list and the production office's DOOD.
- Know what Spotlight is: the UK casting directory and breakdown service that offices send breakdowns through and receive agents' submissions from. It is not a job board.
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Stage 2: Experience and contacts
28 things to do, know or be able to do
Experience 10
- Get a week or two of work experience in a casting office in prep: set the room, answer the phone, run the waiting room, do an availability check, and leave with a referee.
- Aim for two or three placements, across a drama office, a commercials casting house and a crowd or street casting agency.
- Take an assistant's job at a talent agency if one comes up; the CDG names a year or more on an agent's desk as a route into a casting office.
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Skills 8
- Can you set a session room: camera with a fresh card and a charged battery, the light, the backdrop, sides for each actor and a spare set for the reader?
- Can you slate an actor, run the camera, note the take numbers, and upload the day labelled and checked?
- Can you do an availability check with an agent and log the answer on the sheet the same day?
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Knowledge 10
- Know the phrases: avail check, pencil, recall, chemistry read, playing age, billing and buyout.
- Know that Equity, the performers' union, negotiates its collective agreements for screen work with Pact, the producers' trade body, and read Equity's self-tape and Zoom auditions guidance so the specs you send are fair to actors.
- Know the rules on children: the person in charge applies to the child's local council for a performance licence at least 21 days ahead, a council-approved chaperone supervises, and you are never alone with a child.
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Stage 3: Paid work
22 things to do, know or be able to do
Experience 7
- Work as the regular assistant to one or two casting directors, trusted with sessions, availability checks and the smaller deals.
- Work on a television series through its run, casting guest and small parts week by week.
- Run a session on your own when the casting director is with the director.
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Skills 6
- Are you able to fit into an established team?
- Can you run a session alone, keep it to time and keep the director's assistant informed?
- Can you build a long list with reasons for a part the office has not cracked?
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Knowledge 9
- Look for work before the job you are on finishes.
- Have a network of casting directors, associates and agents who know who you are and what you can do.
- Keep refining your CV, keep it to one page, and rebuild it in the MFJF CV Builder each time your title changes.
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Ways in for a casting assistant
Real schemes, checked on the organiser’s own page. A shut one is still here with when it comes back, because half the big schemes are closed at any one time and that is worth knowing.
- Trainee FinderScreenSkillsPeople over 18 who live in the UK and have less than 12 months of paid production experience in their chosen department. No on-set experience is needed, and there is no upper age limit.Final deadline 28 October 2026
- Yorkshire's Screen Diversity ProgrammeScreen YorkshirePeople aged 19 or over who live in York and North Yorkshire and have not done a Skills Bootcamp in the last 12 months. No screen experience or qualifications are needed, and graduates and career changers are welcome. Screen Yorkshire particularly encourages applicants from groups under-represented in film and television.Final deadline 2 November 2026
- Sara Putt Associates Trainee SchemeSara Putt AssociatesTwo professional credits but under three years' cumulative experience, in Camera, Sound, Edit, Production Office, Art, Costume, AD, Script Supervisor, Locations, or Hair and Make-Up.Final deadline 24 January 2027
Sources and References
This is MFJF’s own three-stage career plan for a casting assistant, written up from our Foundations course and careers guide for the role. Open any of them yourself.
- MFJF careers guide: Casting Assistant what the job involves day to day
- The Three Career Stages the framework all three stages follow
Every link checked 19 September 2026. The plan itself was last revised October 2026.
