 Hi, my name is Benjika and I'm an actress. We set up California and I'm a fan of the office Okay, Alison Jones cast the office obviously not by herself. She has a team. She's a very Successful woman. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna make this video Looking like this. It's it's a little Embarrassing that's one of the things that Alison Jones cast so you have definitely seen things that she has cast and I just went through a deep dive of Alison Jones because I'm about to watch yet another show that she cast I watched the trailer for what we do in the shadows and I thought it was hilarious So I was about to start watching it and I was like hmm I wonder who cast this because it's hilarious and of course it's Alison Jones So I thought my deep dive. Let's you know, put it into good use and tell you about it all of this information I found online. I personally prefer to listen to podcast interviews watch videos where the casting directors are interviewed or read articles where again the casting directors were interviewed I prefer not to read second-hand third-hand because I feel like information gets jumbled just like today I might say something that's not a hundred percent correct If you know of any other interviews that I haven't linked in the description Please leave them there because I am linking everything that I Watched I don't think actually I saw any footage like any interview Videos of Alison Jones, but I did listen to a few podcasts I read a few articles some from the early 2010s and then some from a little bit more Current Alison Jones is an American casting director and she has been casting since the 80s. I absolutely we fell in love with the office because of the casting and I'm sure you have seen it too all of the auditions of other actors who were going for like Michael Scott or Dwight Shrew or whatever and You're like, no, no, it just doesn't quite seem like it and maybe it's because those actors performed it so well And that's what you're used to but also casting does you know plays a huge part in it I'm going to tell you a little bit about what Kind of people she looks for and how you can potentially audition for her and what I learned about her today There's not a lot about her personal life I know that she you know was born in the US as she came to California Because she just thought California was amazing and wanted to be here So she went to Pomona for college moved away for a little bit thinking back and went to UCLA to business school and then finally was in the American Film Institute and then after that she Stumbled into casting as many many casting directors do she has cast so many other things You have definitely seen her work the office parks and recs the good place back in the day fresh prints of Bel Air Golden girls Freaks and geeks the 40 year old virgin arrested development. She has hundreds of Credits you can go on to our IMDB Pro or IMDB and look at all of the things that she has done Of course won a lot of awards the shows have one on a lot of the words the actors A lot of the actors have gone to be huge stars so she's definitely a person that you want to audition for and It's likely if you are an actor that you will audition for her It's very unlikely that you might get cast by her But if you do then you're probably really funny and you might be a little nerdy or weird because that's who she tends to Go for in almost every interview if not every interview she talks about that she really likes Nerdy interesting people she doesn't want to look for somebody. That's just a beautiful and she says that she's always struggled with The exacts wanting her to cast somebody that's really beautiful or cast somebody that is a big name And she really likes to go for people that are lesser known and that might not be as attractive But are hilarious and just really innocent and honest and you know just who they are So a way that she finds people and this is where how you can audition for her is I She likes to see lots and lots of things in person before the pandemic And I'm sure you know now that the restrictions are going down She's gonna go back to seeing things in person But she mentioned YouTube a couple of times on the interviews, but not YouTube videos like this one She likes to watch stand-up comedy on YouTube So if you are a comedian, I would suggest posting a bunch of stuff and maybe one day she'll see it And I know a friend who was able to audition for her through actors access and it was through his agent So big casting directors like this and I've talked about it when I talked about Carlajun and Carmen Cuba. I made videos about them as well They're also casting directors if you don't know their names I made videos about them and when casting directors are that big they have a team They have associates. They have interns, you know assistants all of that stuff Another thing they do is filter who they send out the the breakdowns to so on actors access They let's say they're looking for somebody Super super specific that they haven't been able to find then they might release it to actors and the Agents, but if they don't want to go through you know thousands and thousands thousands of Auditions because maybe they're tight on time or whatever then they will say okay this breakdown We're going to only send to the reps to the agents and managers And then they're going to filter people through and then send us some so then that way, you know, they can actually cast things quickly because I think for the Fresh Prince of Bel Air she had something like a week to cast it so I Don't that's crazy to me that they have to cast shows sometimes within a few days or films and She does cast a lot of TV shows, but also films which I know most of the things that I said were TV shows, but She also cast movies and one of the articles that I read she mentioned that in the last 15 years What has really changed in the industry as far as casting is that now they are able to cast people from all Over the world, which is great I love to hear that there's opportunities for everybody in the US because I know We are so lucky in the US that there's such a huge actors market And I would love for you know people from all over the place that want to be actors or that are actors I love to hear that they have opportunity here. So They she has said that now with zoom and you know, just the internet and being able to connect via a video They can audition a lot more people via self-taped or zoom live auditions or a self-tape auditions And so that's something that has changed But I don't want to get your hopes up if you do live in another country It's going to be a lot harder for her to find you if you don't have some kind of online presence or an Agent or just a reputation in your country for acting. That's what I have been able to see of course I don't have experience myself in that because I came to this country when I was four So Alice and Jones you guys the office like you now know who cast the office and so many other shows I think it's really important to know who these casting directors are because I was just thinking about it today and I said this earlier today that casting directors are our co-workers that we haven't met yet because You know, we're eventually hopefully maybe going to work together. We're just part of this big Company part of a big industry and there are co-workers and Yeah, we should know who they are. So that's one of the reasons why I've started to make a lot of these videos It's because I myself am also learning a lot about these casting directors Of course, I just gave you a little clip a little Wrap-up of everything that I read today and listen to today but I definitely recommend you go to the links in the description and Read all those things listen to them for more details and read Jennifer's book the Actors Life a Survival Guide It's a really good book. I've listened to it at least twice now The office deep dive podcast the good place the podcast and reading all of those interviews that I I also read today from 2010 14 18 20 they were really interesting to Like, you know, see the perspective of the casting director and really learn what that specific casting director likes and what they're Routing for and fighting for all of the time because you definitely see a pattern of okay This casting director definitely cares about you know in this case Allison Jones really cares that you're funny versus Beautiful Thank you so much for watching and 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