Episode 138: Interview with Casting Director Andy Roth

About Andy: Specializing in voice-over, Andy Roth is one of New York’s busiest casting directors with a career that has spanned over two decades.  After several years as the in-house casting director for one of the country’s top commercial talent agencies, Cunningham Escott Slevin & Doherty (CESD), where he did the voice casting for over a thousand projects for animation, commercial, television, film, video games and more, he started his own company and has since been working with many of the biggest advertising agencies, casting houses and production companies in the world.  He has cast shows for such high profile companies as Discovery Kids and Netflix and worked on projects for known brands including, Spotify, Oculus, Target, Calvin Klein, Geico, Kraft, Coca Cola and many more. His handiwork can be seen on just about any network, cable channel, video game system, and all over the Internet. As a voice director, he’s directed shows for major companies including Netflix and Funimation.  And as an award-winning producer, his most recent documentary “The Animal People,” executive produced by Joaquin Phoenix, quickly became one of iTunes top 10 most watched docs.  His award-winning animated projects “Enchanted Thyme – The Delicious Adventure Series,” and “The Peculiar Adventures of Willow B. Star,” for which he served as both writer and producer, have gained national attention. With a teaching resume that boasts three of the Hollywood Reporter’s top rated college acting programs, Andy has served as a faculty member at New York University’s Tisch School and is a regular guest artist/speaker at many highly regarded acting programs including Rutgers and Syracuse.  His voice-over workshops sell out months in advance, and he was twice voted “Best Voice-Over Teacher in NY” by “Backstage”. What do you want actors to know that you never really have time to tell them? The Casting Director is NOT THE ENEMY. Casting Directors is not higher on the food chain. It comes down to the work It’s not about proving that you’re a great actor. Walk into the room like you belong there. Make the choices based on the information that they have. Commit to those decisions. If you are called in to audition, either there’s a personal trust OR it's a recommendation from some I trust. Not getting a job isn’t a rejection, it's an inevitability of a freelance lifestyle.