We recently connected with Marisa Munoz and have shared our conversation below.

Marisa, appreciate you joining us today. How has Covid changed your business model?

Covid made a huge impact for Casting Directors and for the casting process in general in the Entertainment Industry. Going from in person casting sessions to a self-tape / zoom model has hugely impacted the way we are doing our job.

Pros- With the “Work from home” model that has been the new norm for most industries and businesses, post covid has allowed Casting Directors to follow suit and work from home, the office space of choice, or location of choice in an environment that fits their likes and needs. It has opened doors to the amount of talent we can see per project giving us more options, more diverse talent choices, and more ways to discover new talent etc. Which in turn, allows us to give our clients more options and a chance to see new fresh faces and undiscovered talent. I believe this is a plus for Actors as well. Giving Actors more opportunity to be seen. We are able to cast various projects at one time within our community as well as cast projects nationwide and worldwide. Having more options and choices has personally been a huge win from my perspective. I have been able to keep my creative eye inspired, active and on high alert.

Cons- Casting has become more technical as opposed to creative. Don’t get me wrong, we can still find the needle in the hay stack so to speak! As a community, Casting Directors have had to learn how to be more tech savvy and spend endless hours staring at a computer screen to get the job done than they ever have before. Actors send in their self-tapes by a deadline and at the end of that deadline we sit and watch every single self-tape prior to sending them off to our client. Where an Actor may have to do 2 or 3 self-tapes in a day, we are watching on an average 2 to 3 hundred tapes per day. If we have more than one job going on at a time the amount of screen time is endless. The wear and tear on the eyes, mental and physical state can be endless.
Zoom Callback are the time and opportunity for Casting and Directors to give feedback to the Actors and a time to get to know the Actors and creatives on a more personal level.  At the end of the day, we are still able to do our jobs, do them well, just in a different format and style compared to pre-covid times.

We may not go back Casting sessions as they were. But then again, do we every really want to go back? I do hope we find a” happy place” for all. I started doing what I do because of the creative aspect. I love people! Talented, unique, beautiful, quirky, diverse, you name it. I love them all! I love seeking out the unseen and I love to see what each talented individual authentically brings to the table. The pandemic for sure changed our process yet it gave us an opportunity to grow, see outside the box and adapt.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Marisa Munoz and I am a Casting Director, Talent Manager, Consultant and Creator. I am the found and CEO of M Casting Worldwide. My Company has offices in Los Angeles and Nashville with services available worldwide. We have been in business for over 20 years. We are women owned, Minority owned and are committed to diversity and equality. We specialize in commercials, print campaigns, beauty &fashion, music videos, as well as film. M Casting Worldwide thrived and survived during the pandemic by accepting the circumstances, adapting how we conduct a worldwide business and continued on a path of supporting creatives in all areas of the entertainment industry. We pride ourselves on our professionalism, commitment, reliability, our keen creative eye and the ability to seamlessly provide our clients with exactly what they’re looking for for each and every project that comes our way.

A little about me personally – I grew up in the Santa Barbara region of California and went to college at Cal Poly University, where I studied graphic design and advertising. Before college and before entering the casting industry, I was a dancer. Dancing has always been my passion and my true heart and soul. I studied, performed, taught and did Choreography. I decided, after a knee injury, that it was time to move in a different direction. At the time, I was working in the service industry in Los Angeles. I asked some of my regulars who worked in the film and TV industry “Can I come along and see what you do?” That’s all it took and that was the beginning of my next chapter.

I started as a Production Assistant and moved up quickly to being a Talent Coordinator/ 2nd AD. I worked closely with Director Danny Duchovny (brother to actor David Duchovny) and prominent Photographer and Director Peggy Sirota. While working with Peggy on various projects as well as on her “Guess Who “coffee table book, I received a call to do my first casting job for a print campaign with celebrity beauty Photographer Matthew Rolston. I had not officially cast a project on my own but was willing to take the dive to make it happen. With help and support from a great mentor I made that job happen! That was over 20 years ago. In that moment my career completely changed, another door was opened and another chapter was to begin. That was the beginning of M Casting Worldwide.

Casting seemed like the best way to stay creative, stay in the entertainment world, continue to work with talent and be a source of positivity and encouragement for people who started out like me…in front of the camera. When I was dancing and auditioning, I didn’t feel I was given enough direction in the room. Most of the time, I would wing it. So, when I stepped behind the camera and started watching auditions from that point of view, my first thought was, ‘I wish I would have known how things looked from this angle when I was in front of the camera.’ After having my soul tampered with in rooms of people, I made a promise to myself to always be constructive as a Casting Director. I don’t care how experienced or not experienced you are. If this is your passion, I will do my best to give positive feedback in any situation. I will support you the best way I can. There’s no reason for harsh or negative feedback.  I prefers to build people up rather than tear them down. This is a philosophy I pride myself on in running my business.  While the job can be crazy and exhausting at times, I do all I can to maintaining an empathetic, positive attitude towards each individual that comes into my space.

I have worked with some incredibly talented Directors and Photographers ( Herb Ritz, Annie Leibovitz, Peggy Sirota, Mark Seliger, Guy Ritchie, David Gelb, Helmut Newton, etc.) and have been able to watch young new actors grow and turn into the mega super talents they are today. ( Cameron Diaz, Yara Shahidi ,Channing Tatum) to name a few.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Our industry is significantly based on reputation, who you know and what you deliver.  I was fortunate to start my career in the Casting world with 2 of the most prominent Lifestyle and Beauty photographers and Directors in the industry at the time. ( Peggy Sirota & Matthew Rolston). As soon as I did my first jobs with Matthew things started to flow and my name started to circulate. We followed through with a professional delivery. The ball started rolling and has been rolling ever since.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

When I started M Casting Worldwide I did it all on my own. I quickly started to get busy and my Brother started to help me when he had some free time. ( He had just graduated from College and was working in sales and would spend his free time with me in the Casting world). It was clear we were a good team personally and in business. I soon made the decision to make it a partnership and we worked as a brother sister and business partner duo for several years. I now have an amazing Associate, Taylor Neilson, who has been an excellent addition to M Casting Worldwide.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mcasting.com
• Instagram: @mcastinginc
• Linkedin: Marisa Munoz or M Casting Inc

Image Credits
Photo by Aña Monique