Tasha S.
Bay Area, California

Tasha Smith

Casting Director
The Casting Hustle

I spent years finding the right person for the room, and now I find them for the screen.

About

A recruiter's eye, now pointed at casting.

I am actively transitioning my deep talent evaluation background into my lifelong passion: Casting. Over the past 13 years as a Senior Technical Recruiter, I've sourced and hired specialized engineering talent for industry leaders like Google, Amazon, and Waymo—including hiring first MLE engineers and building a new team at Google. I bring that same rigorous pipeline strategy, high-volume evaluation, and eye for exceptional talent to casting.

That work came down to one skill: finding the right person for a very specific room, quickly and accurately, out of hundreds of candidates. Casting asks the same question — just for a different kind of room.

Selected Work

Building casting from the ground up.

Casting Director
Missing Spoons
Short Film — Oakland, CA
  • Built the full casting process from the ground up, with no existing system to work from
  • Created a casting hub in a single day, giving the production a clear way to track status and progress
  • Ran full-circle casting: posting breakdowns across casting sites, managing submissions, scheduling, auditions, callbacks, and chemistry reads
  • Coordinated Zoom auditions and chemistry reads, leading them alongside the director
  • Communicated directly with every actor, whether moving forward or not, from first submission to final decision
ADMIT ONE
Missing Spoons original casting call flyer
The original casting call flyer for Missing Spoons, showing the full roster of roles cast for the production.
Casting tracker built in Airtable, showing sample entries
The casting tracker built in Airtable for Missing Spoons. The roles and project structure are real — the actor rows shown here ("Actor 1," "Actor 2," "Actor 3") are sample entries added to demonstrate the tool without sharing real actors' information.
Approach

What I bring to a production.

A recruiter's eye
Thirteen years evaluating people quickly and accurately, for highly specific and hard-to-fill roles.
  • Sourced and hired specialized engineering talent for Google, Amazon, and Waymo
  • Built high-volume pipelines that still found the exact right fit
  • Same instinct, now applied to finding the right actor for a specific role
End-to-end ownership
I build the process, not just fill the role.
  • Created a full casting hub from scratch in a single day
  • Posted breakdowns across casting sites, ran submissions, scheduling, auditions, callbacks, and chemistry reads
  • Planned for understudies on every role, not just the lead
  • Followed up with every actor directly — no handoffs, no gaps
A system the whole team can see
A live Airtable tracker keeps casting status visible to everyone, in real time.
  • Built a submission form in a day, tied directly into Airtable — with a flyer and QR code linking straight to it for easy actor access
  • One click to see every actor who submitted for a role, or to open an actor's name for their full profile and audition history
  • Every submission logged with status — no more "what's the status?" emails, anyone on the team can just look
Designing the audition itself
A good audition is structured on purpose, not run on the fly.
  • Planned chemistry-read pairings around which relationships actually carry the story
  • Gave real-time direction and redirects, and evaluated how actors adjusted
  • Built multi-hour sessions that stayed on schedule for every actor and the team
Casting minors, done right
Real experience working with young actors and their parents.
  • Clear, age-appropriate communication with both actors and parents
  • Understudy planning for every youth role
  • Set expectations early around set life, filming days, and what to expect
Real care with actors
Every actor should always know where they stand.
  • Honest, specific feedback at every stage — not just yes or no
  • A structured status pipeline so no one is left wondering
  • Thoughtful rejections that keep the door open for future roles
Testimonials

What it's like to work with me.

“

Tasha came across this opportunity and really took it as her own, bringing her experience, creativity, and passion to the project in a way that genuinely impressed me.

I was overly impressed with her ability to not only capture the essence of the story, but also create the systems needed to make the casting process seamless and efficient. She was very ingenious in creating an Airtable submission form we were able to use across all of our websites and platforms, which made the application and audition process easy and efficient for everyone involved.

I am a strong supporter and advocate for Tasha, and I endorse her all the way. I would absolutely recommend her to any production company looking for someone who can rally people around a story and its characters.

— Shanita Perdomo, Writer & Executive Producer, Missing Spoons

Let's work together.

Open to casting opportunities on independent and studio productions across the Bay Area and beyond.

creativecasting.origins@gmail.com Instagram — @thecastinghustle LinkedIn — professional background
Actor? Submit your info for future casting consideration