EP 215 Ivy Isenberg: Animation Casting Director - Call of Duty & Robot Chicken

Chuck and Stacey bring you the respected Casting Director of animation, video games, film and television, Ivy Isenberg of Ivy Isenberg Casting. She is a USC Film School graduate who went on to work at MGM Studios on Stargate and Stargate Atlantis, the Species movies with Natasha Henstridge and now on projects like Comedy Central’s Jeff and Some Aliens, Trip Tank, Robot Chicken and Call of Duty.

Ivy discusses her process for casting Performance Capture for video games and animation and why she goes overboard with submissions to make sure there are plenty of choices which includes giving deserving new talent an opportunity. She answers what she needs to hear in voiceover auditions to garner a callback and why she saves every audition for future consideration. Ivy mentions the kinds of actors she won’t hire and challenges actors to train and educate themselves, be dedicated and proactive with their careers.

Striving to be the best at everything she does, Ivy discusses the importance of why talent needs to balance both art and commerce to be successful and that finding talented actors who are reliable and deserving are actually in the minority. She explains that she casts through agents and managers and will consider people outside Los Angeles for projects if they are actively working. While talent can’t do much to get on her bad side, she has zero tolerance for actors who do boring auditions, have a bad work ethic, lack commitment and are unprepared.

She attends showcases and monologue festivals to scout new talent and listens to demos when casting to find a person’s range, accents, tone, comedic timing and cadence. Ivy offers insights on what “natural, not cartoony” means in audition specs from interpreting it with engaging, emotional connection based on what it’s for, the platform, network and time slot. Follow on Twitter @IvyIsenberg

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