 Hi my name is Beljika and today we're going to talk about Carmen Cuba, Carmen Cuba. If you speak Spanish she is bilingual and I didn't know that. I was a little curious because her name is Carmen and Cuba is her last name Cuba. All of this information that I'm going to tell you is based off of videos that I watched, interviews, articles that I read, everything online and I did see a lot of different information from different resources so I'm going to link everything in the description but because there was a lot of mixed information I only am going to share with you what I heard her say with her own voice so during some interviews because there's some people that said that she was born in Peru which I don't think so. Her dad is from Peru but I don't think she was born in Peru. You have heard of Carmen Cuba first of all. She cast Stranger Things that's what she is mostly known for. That's really what put her on the map publicly so we're going to talk about a little bit of her background what I was able to find online as well as how you can audition for her. She is half Peruvian. Her dad is from Peru and her mom is American. I wasn't really able to find any information about that but in general it sounded like she spent a lot of time in I believe it was Bolivia, Peru and here in the U.S. and because of that she's bilingual so she originally was a journalist in New Mexico and that's what she wanted to do. She was a journalist for Univision if you guys don't know that's a Spanish speaking network and so she went to LA for school and she was working at a law office and in that same building the real world if you guys remember I think the real world still has seasons coming out. I haven't watched it in such a long time but the real world had offices in the same building that Carmen Cuba was working in for the law office and apparently somebody in the elevator was like hey we're doing interviews today for the real world if you want to come up and interview basically you know inviting her to audition for the real world. Well she went to the audition and she was already a fan she had seen I believe at this point there were three seasons or something like that and when she interviewed she was like you know what I love this show but I don't want to be in front of the camera is there any way that you can that I can be a part of it in a different way so she ended up working for them eventually landed in casting for them and after five years of doing casting slash interviews because she did describe these more as interviews because you know it's not like they're performing a monologue in order to get into the real world but she did that type of casting for about five years and then through a friend she was able to get into film casting so she has been doing that for quite a while and she used to do mostly films but now she is doing a lot more tv shows that's really interesting and such a great thing to know that she comes from casting reality because you really have to see who those people are as humans right because for reality shows you're not trying to you know have them perform this specific script you want to see what they have in them for real in real life how are they going to react to different situations representation has always been at the forefront of everything I've done I was a journalist first with univision and uh Abba Kirk in New Mexico that was what I thought I was going to do until I realized it was not the kind of storytelling I really wanted to tell I really do try to get everyone relaxed and everyone connected by talking to each other you know it's a dialogue those moments for me are helpful in figuring out how to give somebody direction because no two actors you can't just give every actor the same three kinds of direction and expect to feel like they can give you something authentic to themselves but still in character I think that gave her that background of casting reality shows for five years really gave her a good idea on how to talk to people and get to know them as humans because in the entertainment industry you do have to have talent but you also have to be able to be somebody that people want to hire films might take a few months but if you're in a tv show it might take like six months to film one season and then if that tv show goes on for years and years you really don't want to deal with adiva or a bad person in general and when I was listening to her in an interview with one of the actresses from Viva the actress said that Herman has this amazing way of she just like starts talking to them and she's recording the whole time and she's recording them as they talk about their lives and that's how she gets to know these people in the way that they express themselves you kind of start seeing the character or not Garmin and Tanya did a really great job not only of casting like very talented actors but genuinely good people and that's always just like a gift when you get to work with beautiful people that are also talented because it just makes it so much easier and much more enjoyable and you and you build relationships that become long lasting and then you you know you're constantly thinking for the next projects like oh I want to bring this person in I want to bring this person in Garmin Cuba really has a way of choosing people that are good genuine kind people in real life so it's really nice to you know go on set and work with people that you really like versus not liking them you know when you're not acting because they're just not great people to work with the shows that she has cast for have had a lot of awards she's also won an arduous award if you guys don't know what that is they have awards for casting and she has won and she's currently nominated for one for 2021 for Mrs America I'm currently watching that so Carmen Cuba is an LA based casting director and she now lives in LA and that's where her offices are based out of but because she is such a huge casting director and she really dedicates herself in finding the right people for the right role versus um you know oh what big name can I put into this film sometimes casting directors have to do that because you know they're they're they're not the people that ultimately make the last decision they have people that are above them so they do have to pay attention to what their directors and the role their producers want but in general a lot of the what I got from the interviews about Garmin Cuba is that she really focuses on casting the right person you know and that's what I strive for that too of just to sort of always forget anyone that I used before and when I read a new script and just find the new people that can tell those stories obviously you can look through my work and there's people and I love working with people again. Some of the work that she has cast recently is Mrs America which is currently on Hulu and then Stranger Things um she's done all seasons of Stranger Things and I know season four right now is still in production as of February 2021 at least that's what it says on IMDB Pro um but a lot of her work that is current and um a lot of the things that kept coming up in a lot of these interviews because Stranger Things has a lot of kids she really enjoys casting kids casting people under 18 she does cast for all kinds of people but she really enjoys that. I am very connected to children and um and uh so like Pan's Labyrinth is another one that I just look at and I think that maybe what that means is that I also like look for that in adults that vulnerability that openness that inability to hide who they actually are I think that I connect the most to the people who still have that access to the freedom of being a child of embarrassing themselves of not being able to protect the very thing about them that makes them different from everyone else. I observe them a lot and I just think that they're much more complicated than we often see in television and and so the mirror of trying to sort of match the complexity of my own children with with finding actors to to portray that was really exciting for me because of course casting children is different because they don't have as much experience as an adult does and they really are more genuine I think um so she really likes to cast children specifically and because she does have such a huge team and she really wants to cast the right person she will often talk to certain agencies globally and try and get as many submissions as possible that are accurate so this brings me to how can you audition for her of course the best way to audition for any casting director especially somebody as big as this because you have to think about everybody wants to audition for her because of her reputation of how successful all of her shows are so how you can audition for her the best way is through an agent because they will have the most opportunities to submit you to her how do you find new talent what where do you look how do you do it watch a lot of stuff um read a lot theater sort of everything that you would imagine and then I actually do have a few sort of key people I have someone in New York who you probably worked with her Heidi Marshall Heidi Marshall is this brilliant theater director and who who has always sort of worked with actors and just is somehow on the ground with up-and-comers in New York and so I'm not gonna lie I send her my breakdowns and she sends me tons of people who don't have agents who aren't and I read all of them because she knows me she knows my taste and um and I trust her and I've cast lots of people from her so that and I have other people like that people who I know are you know who run theater groups who are are at theater schools introduce me to people agents obviously are always sort of pointing out new talent I've actually been thinking about collaboration a lot lately too and including in it agents right because I think we don't and managers representatives I think you don't think about those as those kind of relationships but they make our lives really it really is a huge part of it and and it goes back again to people who know you those are the relationships when you've been around long enough you know when someone calls and they say you know I really think you should check this person out it's a shorthand you go yes fine I'm not gonna don't prove you don't have to prove it to me just I'll do it right and that's huge it's huge for saving time it's huge for staying open all of that but it is it's relationships people you trust people who aren't going to waste your time because you're not going to waste their time but you can also self-submit in some occasions so you should know what her name is Carmen Cuba in order to be able to identify those auditions when you see them online so Actors Access and Casted Talent are a couple of different websites that I would suggest that you create an account for and then whenever there's casting calls and you see Carmen Cuba you know who she is and if there happens to be a big open casting call for that that you can submit to then you can do it through there but again having an agent and if you're interviewing with agents or doing research with agents make sure that if you want to audition for Carmen Cuba you do have that conversation with them and say hey there's these casting directors that are really like their work would you be able to submit me through them have you seen them on these casting websites because in a lot of casting websites like I've said in a lot of other videos casting directors have the option of sending it to just agents for the agents to submit the people that they know will be good for those or agents and actors and one of the auditions Carmen also said that sometimes she will do fake auditions she will put you know some random sides with a pseudo name and she will say hey I need these type of people and give a basic you know outline of what kind of people she wants to submit and then she will be able to audition people from there versus putting out a big casting call for a specific character on stranger things everybody and all of their friends are going to audition for that because that is such a huge show I create fake projects when I'm trying to hide certainly for something like stranger things I wouldn't have wanted to give away that we've had a Russian storyline so I created some search for something that didn't exist and fortunately I've been working long enough that people trust that it's going to be something even if they don't know what it is and so I did this general search for for Russians and used you know fake sides I think we used like mission impossible sides or something so maybe she'll get less attention but people who actually know her will be like okay I definitely want to get in front of Karman Kuba no matter what she is casting for if it's stranger things or any other project because if you have the privilege of having her take a look at your audition then you are in a great place because if she really likes you she is going to keep you in mind for that project or for future projects. Self tapes too because we can see so many more I'm often asking people to tape who aren't going to be right for that part but who look interesting and who I can sort of then catalog for something else. I also have a category in my notes which is interesting but not for this and I could have watched for two seconds and thought that and that gets put into its own thing and I will always go back and look at that. And because she's so dedicated to finding the right person she's also mentioned in a few different interviews that she not only auditions actors through these casting websites but she also has her team and herself look on Instagram and see what actors are posting. Tanya and I actually do a lot of Instagram stalking stalking yes I was like digging yes stalking stalking and we do that before not casting you know we keep in touch we're like oh did you see this woman and Tanya's like who's that. See what actors are posting and ask theater ask other actors like hey what actors that aren't represented do you think I should look at do you have any talented friends that might be able to fit this role give me their information so creating your own work and posting it on Instagram on YouTube is really great because especially right now where she can't go and see a performance of yours in the theater if you have some kind of presence on Instagram or YouTube or one of your acting videos makes it to her then she can you know see your talent without you necessarily having to audition along with these thousands and thousands of people through an actors access um submission so she does do a lot of research outside of all of these casting websites which I think is great but is also um so much work and it shows how great her team is because of course she's not just one person doing all of these different projects she does have a team that helps her in finding the right people and auditioning them. She did mention that when she cast in other countries there are specific agents that she goes to she didn't mention which ones so again doing more research and seeing which agents she has cast from so if you go onto the IMDB for a certain show and you see the actors IMDB pro you see the actors see who they're represented by let's say in um Australia if she cast somebody from Australia well which actor was it and who are they represented by in Australia and you will maybe be able to see okay those agents are somebody that Godman has worked for so essentially doing more research and seeing who she has worked with because she does do a lot of work consistently like Stranger Things she's been doing for seasons now you know so she works a lot with that director those directors those writers those producers and when you continue to see repetition of oh this director uses her a lot or this producer uses her a lot then you can do more research on okay they're working on these five projects maybe one of them will be Carmencuba or in general when you see something you know on a casting site for Carmencuba get on it right away and send in the audition as soon as possible so you are you know maybe one of the first five hundred versus one of the first five thousand and if you want to learn more other than you know the interviews that are available I highly suggest you watch some of her work and of course please watch work that she has gotten uh awards for but also look at work that she's done five years ago 10 years ago uh so you can see her work in action so for example Stranger Things of course you definitely should watch Mrs. America something that I'm watching right now I'm on episode three or four and then I also want to watch Vida I can't believe I still haven't seen Vida and I also want to watch the girlfriend experience just so if I ever have the chance to talk with her I know her work and maybe if she references a character from one of those shows I know exactly what she's talking about but yeah you should definitely watch these casting directors work that will give you such a great idea and if you want to continue to learn more about casting directors I highly suggest the SAG after a youtube channel the back state youtube channel or their podcast in the envelope I believe Breakdown Services Actors Access also has a youtube channel there's just so many interviews and so many casting websites that also do interviews do podcasts and you will learn so much because inevitably they get asked where do you post your auditions do you only go through agents and then you will be able to hear oh I do a lot of casted talent I do a lot of actors access and you will be able to stay up to date to what they're currently using because of course it's always changing and do you want to keep up to date with them in general so that's Carmen Cuba that's all I know about Carmen Cuba and I'm excited to have learned more about her another latinx casting director um thanks so much for watching at the end of every video I feature another channel this is today's feature if you would like to be featured on my next video make sure you're subscribed like this video and leave me a comment