Join us for a LIVE virtual discussion featuring Casting Directors from this year's Academy Award Best Picture nominees including Dixie Chassay, Ellen Lewis, Shayna Markowitz, John Papsidera, Jacqueline Rietz, and Susan Shopmaker. Moderated by SAG-AFTRA member actor/writer Lori Hammel.
PANELIST BIOS:
Dixie Chassay - Dixie started out in the industry on NBC’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE as a cast and writers, research assistant.
She went on to work at Independent Talent Agency, formerly ICM under two prolific actors’ agents and then moved into casting to train, working on such films as ATONEMENT, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, MUNICH, IN BRUGES, HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY. Since she has worked on great number of Multi Award Winning films and series including POOR THINGS (2024), THE FAVOURITE (2019) and THE GREAT (Hulu) and with exceptional directors and writers such as Joe Wright, Yorgos Lanthimos, Tony Gilroy, Stephen Daldry, David Hare, Will Sharpe, and Tony McNamara to name but a few.
Recent casting projects include DUNE: PART TWO (2024), POOR THINGS (2023), THE BOOK OF CLARENCE (2023), THE LESSON (2023), PERSUASION (2022), THE GREAT (2020-2023).
Ellen Lewis - Ellen grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and started her career in Casting working for Julie Taylor for 8 1/2 years.
Ellen has had the pleasure of working with Martin Scorsese for 34 years and counting, working on such films as Goodfellas, The Age of Innocence, Casino, Kundun, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Hugo, Boardwalk Empire (pilot), The Wolf of Wall Street, Vinyl (pilot), Silence, The Irishman, and Killers of The Flower Moon.
Ellen’s other credits include: Scent of A Woman, A League Of Their Own, Postcards From The Edge (co-cast), Forrest Gump, The Birdcage (co-cast), The Fan, Big Night, Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai, Changing Lanes, Angels In America (HBO film), 13 Going On 30 (co-cast), Broken Flowers, The Devil Wears Prada, Infamous, Charlie Wilson’s War, Mamma Mia!, Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead, Revolutionary Road, Her, The Leftovers (pilot), Bridge of Spies, Paterson (co-cast), Ready Player One, The Post, Godless (Netflix limited series), The Dead Don’t Die, Bad Education (HBO film), The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix limited series) (co-cast), as well as Landscape With Invisible Hand (co-cast), Dream Scenario, and upcoming Project Artemis.
In 2006, Ellen received the NY Women in Film & Television Muse Award and in 2015, she received the Hoyt Bowers Award from the Casting Society of America. Ellen has been nominated for 6 Emmy Awards and won for Angels in America (co-cast), Boardwalk Empire, and The Queen’s Gambit (co-cast). She has been nominated for a BAFTA award. Ellen has been nominated for 22 Artios awards and has won 6 for A League of Their Own, Boardwalk Empire, The Wolf of Wall Street, Godless, Bad Education, and The Queen’s Gambit.
Shayna Markowitz - Shayna Markowitz is a casting director best known for her work in film. She began her casting career 17 years ago, working with Casting Director Debra Zane. With Debra, she cast Ocean's 8 for Warner Brothers, Netflix' "Bloodline", STX' The Best of Enemies as well as worked on a multitude of films including The Hunger Games and The Planet of the Apes franchises, among many others.
In 2018, she created Shayna Markowitz Casting. Shayna cast Todd Phillips' Joker for Warner Brothers, for which she received the inaugural BAFTA for best casting. She also cast the television series' "Dash & Lily" for Netflix and Starz' "Three Women" (alongside Ellen Lewis). Most recently, Shayna cast Bradley Cooper's Maestro.
Shayna is a member of the Casting Society of America and has been nominated for four Artios Awards (winning one for her work on "Bloodline"). She also received a Daytime Emmy nomination for her work on "Dash & Lily".
Shayna is a graduate of The University of Michigan.
John Papsidera - John Papsidera started his professional career as a trained actor graduating from Florida State University with a BFA degree and attending post-Graduate studies at Circle in the Square in New York City.
Starting as a casting assistant at The Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, John moved into feature film casting and worked on such big budget action films as Clear and Present Danger, The Net, Anaconda and Cutthroat Island.
Starting in 1997, Papsidera embarked on forming his own casting company and over the past 25 years has been the Casting Director for over 200 films and television projects. His film credits include, the original Austin Powers, Boiler Room, Memento, Batman: Begins, The Longest Yard, The Prestige, Enchanted, The Dark Knight, Zombieland, Inception, The Grey, The Dark Knight Rises, Oz: The Great and Powerful, Gangster Squad, Men Women and Children, Interstellar, Independence Day: Resurgence, Venom Dunkirk, Tenet and Oppenheimer.
Television credits include, HBO's If These Walls Could Talk, Live from Baghdad, Carnivale, Lackawanna Blues, Prison Break, Showtime’s Ray Donovan, Hulu’s Casual, Netflix’s Lost In Space, HBO’s Westworld, HBO Max’s The Flight Attendant, Paramount’s Yellowstone, 1883, Lioness, Lessons in Chemistry and The Offer. His achievements in the field of casting include 22 nominations and five prestigious Artios Awards for outstanding casting and six nominations and two Emmys for his work in television.
Papsidera formed his entertainment company, automatic sweat, in the fall of 2000. He opened with friend and Producer, Gavin Polone, a Hollywood restaurant, The Waffle in the Winter of 2007. An avid art collector, he owns and curates his own gallery, The Salon @ automatic sweat. John currently resides in Nashville, still casts feature films and television, is in the process of producing two films and is still looking forward to new horizons of opportunity.
Jacqueline Rietz - Jacqueline Rietz was born in Babelsberg/East Germany in 1971.
In 1990 she graduated from school shortly after the Berlin wall fell. The same year she began studying cultural studies and English at the Humboldt University in Berlin. During an exchange course at Middlesex University London, she met film students and cast her first short film, not knowing that this would become her future career.
In 1996 she started working as a casting director, focusing on casting children and young actors. She has sticked to this specialization ever since.
She worked on award-winning films such as SUN ALLEY (dir. by Leander Haußmann), SYSTEM CRASHER (dir. by Nora Fingscheidt) ALL ABOUT ME (dir. by Carline Link), RABIYE KURNAZ VS. GEORGE W. BUCH (dir. by Andreas Dresen).
Her international work includes CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (dir. by Tim Burton), THE COUNTESS (dir. by July Delpy), LORE (dir. by Cate Shortland), THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES (dir. by Francis Lawrence) and THE ZONE OF INTEREST (dir. by Jonathan Glazer).
Susan Shopmaker - Susan Shopmaker is an Independent Casting Director in New York City.
In 2022/23 Susan cast Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers and Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw. Current credits include: Alonso Ruizpalacios’s La Cocina and Michel Franco’s Memory.
Susan cast Paul Schrader’s First Reformed, The Card Counter and worked on Schrader’s The Master Gardener , Michel Franco’s Chronic and Sundown, In addition to The Iron Claw, she also was Casting Director on Sean Durkin’s The Nest & Martha Marcy May Marlene. She also cast Darius Marder’s 2019 film Sound Of Metal, which garnered 6 Academy Award nominations.
Television work includes the Amazon series Dead Ringers and both seasons of Terence Nance’s Random Acts Of Flyness for HBO.
She won the Casting Society of America's Artios Award for Eliza Hittman's Beach Rats and Sean Durkin’s acclaimed Sundance drama Martha Marcy May Marlene.
Susan is a proud member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and two weeks ago she won a BAFTA for her work on The Holdovers.
Run Time: 60 Minutes
Please feel free to submit questions in advance for our panelists here. The form will also be available during the program.
