Date: July 19th
Location: Actors' Guild Hub at Spotlight, 7 Leicester Place, London, WC2H 7RJ
Time: 18.00 - 21.00

A fantastic opportunity to work with Manuel Puro who has a wealth of experience to share. Manuel will start with a brief discussion about how casting directors get their jobs (to demonstrate that we are all in the same boat) and then how he goes about casting a project, including tips on self-taping as this is becoming an increasingly important step. Thereafter each participant will have the opportunity to 'read' for a film he has already cast. Scenes will be provided on the night - although these will all be about reactions rather than dialogue. He will offer honest feedback and the opportunity for a question and answer session.

After graduating from the London School of Economics Manuel Puro’s film career began in 1995 as an assistant to casting director Jeremy Zimmermann, working across film and television projects, with directors including Guillermo del Toro, Richard Attenborough and Nic Roeg.

In 2000 he was headhunted by Michael Foster, then co-chairman of Europe’s leading talent agency ICM, to assist with an A-list roster of clients including Hugh Grant, Rachel Weisz, Sean Bean, Michael Caine, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Kingsley, Julie Christie, and the presenters Chris Evans and Jonathan Ross.

From mid 2002 Manuel was head of development at Ska Films – Matthew Vaughn and Guy Ritchie’s production company - responsible for their full slate of film and television projects. Between 2004 to 2007 he also developed independent film projects with Stephen Frears, Working Title, the Film Consortium and the UK Film Council.

In January 2007 he founded Puro Casting, a full service casting company working across feature films, television, commercials and music videos. Manuel was the winner of Casting Call Pro’s Casting Director of the Year 2013 Award – voted by actors for the casting director they felt most comfortable with and who they thought got the best out of them.

IMDb CV