Coming To America

David Newman

Casting Director

David has worked in various aspects of the industry for the last 30 years, the last 18 years in casting, including 7 years working Christine King Casting. Having started his casting career with hundreds of commercial projects he then progressed to work on some of the biggest and most successful feature film & long-form drama projects to shoot in Australia.

Since joining forces with Tom McSweeney 4 years ago, forming McSweeney Newman Casting, among other projects they have gone on to cast the award winning series The Family Law (SBS/Matchbox – Australia’s first all Chinese/Australian cast) and feature film Australia Day (Foxtel/Hoodlum).

For the last two years they covered Australia and New Zealand for major US Network CBS. Dave has also worked on many international searches for companies including HBO, NBC, FOX, Left Bank and the BBC.

Currently Tom and Dave are casting Australia’s first Netflix Original Series – Tidelands.

Dave jokes that his degree in casting was as the Australian Casting Associate on ‘The Pacific’ (Stephen Spielberg, Tom Hanks, HBO), with Christine King, he scoured the country and personally conducted well over 3000 auditions on this project alone. ‘The Pacific’ won the 2010 Emmy award for Outstanding Casting for a Mini Series, Movie or Special.  

This year, Dave was appointed as Vice President of the Casting Guild of Australia.

Anthony Kidd

Founder & Director Benchmark Creative Management

The former actor trained with Trinity College London, NIDA and the Actors Centre with a focus in film, television and theatre.The Benchmark Director went on to graduate from The University of Queensland with majors in Drama/Theatre and Journalism, before moving to Sydney to pursue his career. Today Benchmark is 5 years going and Kidd has taken actors into lead roles in Feature Film and Television across the country. The agency now represents actors in Australia, Canada and the United States and Kidd has worked in all facets including acting, casting, agency and production. Kidd is also a former professional soccer player and to this day combines this drive and determination to the creative industry working alongside his actors to achieve their goals with an approachable, cutting edge and fiercely determined agency.

Joel Jackson

Actor

In 2014, Jackson auditioned for a single scene role in the mini-series Deadline Gallipoli but was later offered the lead part of Charles Bean alongside Sam Worthington, which aired on Foxtel‘s Showcase in April 2015. In September 2015, Jackson starred as Peter Allen in the 2-part -mini-series of his life titled Peter Allen : Not the Boy Next Door. In December 2015, at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, Jackson won best lead actor in a television drama for his role as Allen. In May 2016, at the 58th Annual Logie Awards, Jackson won Most Outstanding Newcomer for his role as Allen.

In February 2017, Jackson starred alongside Heidi Arena in the Melbourne Theatre Company‘s performance of Born Yesterday and can be seen in the upcoming feature film Jungle alongside Daniel Radcliffe

Alastair Osment

Actor

Alastair is a 2012 WAPPA graduate actor. He has recently appeared as Morgan in Jane Campion’s Top Of The Lake: China Girl, as well as Melvyn in Deadline Gallipoli and Home & Away. He is currently represented by Morrissey Management, with both local and stateside representation. Alastair brings a fresh insight into the process of LA and successful auditioning. He is also a long time member of The HubStudio community and a welcome professional to the panel discussion. 

Kat Hoyas

Actor

Kat is most known for her hilarious work on Channel 9’s Here Come The Habibs, with the hugely popular show airing its second season this year. The show was nominated for “Best International Comedy” at the Golden Nymph and the Berlin Rose d’OR Awards.  It was also nominated for “Best Drama”, and, Kat for “Best New Talent” in the TVweek Logie awards.

Kat filmed “Chasing Comets” this year with Isabel Lucas, Dan Ewing, Stan walker amongst many others with a release set for 2018 as well as the feature film “A Suburban Love Story”, co starring Luke Ford. Kat was part of the stellar cast of “The Road Home”, winning awards at The St Kilda Festival, The Mardi Gras Film Festival, Sarasota Festival, WOW Film Festival, and, also received an academy accredited Flickerfest nomination.

Kat’s stage credits include Jersey Boys the Musical (Francine and others) – Australian and NZ tour, Hairspray the Musical (u/s Dynamites) – Australian Tour, Bring it On the Musical (Danielle) – Australian Tour and Xanadu: The Musical (Erato) at Sydney’s acclaimed Hayes Theatre.

Kat has made TV appearances as a dancer in the MTV and Aria Awards, Mornings, The Australian Open Tennis final, The Helpmann Awards, Sunrise, Hey Hey its Saturday, Dancing with The Stars and sung on the nationally televised Carols by Candlelight in 2016.

 Kat has acquired a Bachelor of Creative Arts Degree: Performance (music and theatre) from the University of Wollongong, and a Cert IV in Dance from Brent St.