Behind the Scenes: The Art of Casting

By Katie Wilson

Hi, Hey, Hello,

I’m Katie Wilson, your friendly neighborhood producer, host, writer, social media professional, editor, creative, casting director, hiring manager, people wrangler, snack provider, person. While I know it sounds silly, because it is, when you’re working on a small team trying to accomplish your dreams (or, you know, battling crippling inflation and a forever increasing housing market), being a multi-hyphenate is just a part of life. Lucky for me, I’ve had years of experience working every single entertainment job known to humankind, which all started when I was 14 and got my first professional performing job working as a host and singer for Radio Disney.

Yup, I was once the opening act for Hannah Montana and the Cheetah Girls. 

But that’s beside the point. Upon moving to Los Angeles in 2008, I worked in everything from craft service, art department, being a stand-in (one time I had to hold a 35lb bow, fully extended for hours, but ask me about that later), to casting, project management, and location scouting (and that’s just the tip of the iceberg).

Beyond performing and producing, one of my favorite (and most rewarding) positions to hold is casting director. You probably hear all of the time about how talented people in Los Angeles are, but nothing truly prepares you for just how high of caliber the talent truly is. 

The Casting Process

I was honored and humbled at the opportunity to take the lead on the casting initiative for additional Tabletop News hosts. We have an already incredible (and beyond talented) stable of hosts, but it has always been our dream to expand our roster to uplift as many different voices as possible. Beyond that, we wanted to keep the commitment relatively low for our hosts, so having multiple hosts in the stable allows for scheduling conflicts and the ability to take on other commitments outside of Tabletop News. 

The first order of business in any casting is to create a “Breakdown,” which is a document that lists the project’s description, character information, filming details, etc. Creating the Breakdown was a difficult task because we needed to hire seasoned hosts with teleprompter familiarity but (equally or more importantly) needed to be avid tabletop enthusiasts.

Then came the question, “How do we find these people?”

I’ve always believed that Tabletop News should be represented by an assortment of familiar tabletop industry members alongside up-and-coming and/or new faces in the community. So, I embarked on a massive casting search to ensure we reached as many interested people as possible.

First, I decided to use a professional casting website called Breakdown Services. This service sends the breakdown directly to agents, managers, and talent to allow them to submit for your project.

According to an article by Stage Milk in 2020, “Breakdown Services, which owns and operates Actors Access, releases over 43,000 projects per year and has a database of over 1.1 million actors.” That’s a LOT of talent!

Next, I created a Google submission form that we could share across our social media platforms for people who are most likely huge tabletop gamers and don’t necessarily have access to a professional casting site like Actors Access.

Once the breakdown went live, it was incredibly heart-warming to see the tabletop community come together to share the submission form and tag folks they felt should submit.

Now, get ready for the crazy part.

In total, we had over 700 submissions to be a co-host on Tabletop News. That’s wild and amazing.

Now, the hard part.

I personally sifted through each and every one of those 700 submissions, reviewing their resumes, tabletop gaming histories, notes, and video clips, and I had to find a way to narrow 700 submissions down to a relatively acceptable amount to submit an audition. While I wish we could’ve auditioned all 700 people, as an actor and host, I have a deep respect for another performer’s time, especially when it comes to auditions, so I wanted to make sure that each person selected for an audition would be the right fit.

From the 700 submissions, I invited 155 people to submit self-tape auditions. Of those 155 people, 83 sent in their video auditions.

Of those 83, we invited 44 people to an in-person callback/screen test at our Tabletop News studio. The knowledge, professionalism, and sheer raw talent we saw that day blew us away. If I could have found a way (and the budget) to hire all 44 people we brought in, I would have. Words truly cannot express just how incredible these talented individuals were. As if my job hadn’t already been challenging, selecting only a few new hosts from this incredibly skilled bunch seemed impossible.

Luckily, with my fellow producers' help, we came to a final decision.

We’re all extremely excited about the new additions to our TtN family and cannot wait to share them with you very soon.

I want to personally thank every single individual who put themselves out there and submitted for this position. Each and every one of you offers such beautiful and raw talent, and I highly encourage you to keep submitting for any of our future positions or other similar opportunities.

It was a magical experience witnessing how tabletop gaming has truly impacted people's lives. I hope that Tabletop News becomes a great avenue that allows us to share those community stories with the world.

If you’re interested in finding a way to work with Tabletop News in the future, please feel free to send an email to jobs@tabletopnews.com. 

Beyond casting, we’ve been working nonstop on preproduction to bring Tabletop News to you as fast as possible. With wanting to cover all aspects of the tabletop hobby, it’s been a massive undertaking and juggling act to finalize segments, crew, writing style, episode length, tone, and so much more. I wish it were as simple as “just posting news,” but we feel the community deserves our best. We’re taking the time necessary to provide you with a high-quality and informative show that I hope you love (because if you do, then I can hire everyone, and we can all live in a wonderful, employed tabletop dreamscape.)

Finally, thank you to anyone who sat here and read through my long-winded ramblings. I’m beyond passionate about the tabletop community, their personal stories, and how gaming can genuinely change lives. This casting process has shone an incredible light on the community that has fueled my passion to even higher levels, driving me to keep working diligently to bring your stories, interests, and passions to Tabletop News. 

If you have questions or wanna chat, my email is always open. kwilson@tabletopnews.com.