Join us for a live Q&A with the casting team of CODA, Siân Heder's remarkable film about a seventeen-year-old who is the sole hearing member of a deaf family – a CODA, child of deaf adults. The panel features casting directors Deborah Aquila, Tricia Wood and Lisa Zagoria and will be moderated by Rochelle Rose, National Director of Performer's Programs for the SAG-AFTRA Foundation.
A Q&A will follow the panel, and member participation is encouraged.
PANELIST BIOS:
Deborah Aquila - Casting Director
After graduating from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and The Stella Adler Conservatory, Deborah Aquila worked on the first two seasons of Miami Vice and several feature films including Michael Mann's Man Hunter and The Pope of Greenwich Village, as an associate. Her independent casting director career began with Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies and Videotape and Uli Edel's The Last Exit To Brooklyn. Before moving to Los Angeles in 1993 to cast Frank Darabont's The Shawshank Redemption, Deborah had completed over 18 independent films in New York.
In 1993, she was named Senior Vice-President of Features Casting for Paramount Pictures. During her nine-year tenure at the Studio, Deborah cast such notable films as Primal Fear, Mission Impossible II, Double Jeopardy, Varsity Blues, The Brady Bunch, Kiss The Girls, Mother, and What Women Want. In March of 2020, Deborah returned to Paramount as Executive Vice President of PTVS Casting.
Most recent film credits: CODA, Cherry, The Tomorrow War, La La Land, Wonder, Stronger, Deep Water Horizon, and Woman In Gold. Television credits include the critically acclaimed Showtime series Dexter, FX’s The Shield and TNT’s Mob City.
Deborah is a proud member of the CSA and has been nominated sixteen times by the Casting Society of America, for the Artios Award, winning for the features Red, My Week With Marilyn, and La La Land. In 2003, Deborah was recognized by the Hollywood community with the Hollywood Film Festival Career Achievement Award. In 2020, Deborah was recognized with the CSA’S Hoyt Boyers’ Award for Career Achievement.
Deborah has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1994.
Tricia Wood - Casting Director
Tricia Wood started her casting career as an intern in 1993 in the Features Casting Department at Paramount Pictures Studio under her mentor and then Sr. VP of Casting, Deborah Aquila. During the next three years, Tricia continued her casting education in the Features Casting department, moving up from Casting Assistant to Casting Associate. After a brief period of working in production, Tricia reunited with Deborah Aquila in 1999 as an independent casting team. After several years as a successful independent casting company, in 2014 Aquila Wood Casting joined Lionsgate Entertainment as their in-house casting department. After five successful years at Lionsgate, in September of 2019, they returned to independent casting, relocating to downtown Los Angeles in the Russo Bros. production space at AGBO. In March of 2020, Tricia returned to Paramount as the head of features casting and is currently their EVP, Casting Film. Born and raised in Oklahoma, Tricia is a member of the Seneca-Cayuga Nation and Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She studied Architecture at Oklahoma State University before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in Film. She has cast over 150 feature films and several notable television pilots, including La La Land, Wonder, American Pastoral, My Week With Marilyn, and The Human Stain as well as Dexter and The Shield. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Lisa Zagoria - Casting Director
Lisa Zagoria started her casting career at Aquila Wood Casting where she worked alongside her mentors, Deborah Aquila, Tricia Wood and Jen Smith for 13 years. During her time at Aquila Wood, she worked on such films as CODA, starring Oscar winning actress Marlee Matlin, International film star Eugenio Derbez, and breakout find Emilia Jones, which swept the top awards at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and the Academy Award winning La La Land. In late 2019, she opened her own office, Lisa Zagoria Casting. Her recent credits include Brothers, starring Josh Brolin, Peter Dinklage and Glenn Close and the Showtime pilot, Rita, starring Lena Headey. In addition to film and TV, she also cast the music videos “Magic” and “True Love” for Grammy award winning rock band Coldplay, as well as the plays, A Song at Twilight, Stop Kiss and Native Gardens at the Pasadena Playhouse. Lisa is a graduate of the Florida State University School of Theatre and a proud member of the Casting Society of America.
