Date: April 10th
Location: Actors' Guild Hub at Spotlight, 7 Leicester Place, London, WC2H 7RJ
Time: 18.00 - 21.00

Ben Cogan is a freelance Casting Director who has a huge wealth of experience casting for screen - Ben is currently casting two feature films. Ben's classes get brilliant feedback and offer a real insight into the casting process.

In his workshop, Ben will explain how the casting process works and the most common pitfalls that actors fall into. He will also discuss how to approach and prepare for an audition, perform within it and essentially how to embrace and enjoy it!

Ben Cogan has worked in casting for 17 years. He began as a Casting Assistant for many shows (including EastEnders, Holby City and Waking the Dead) before becoming the Casting Director for Doctors in 2002. 380 episodes later, Ben moved to Casualty, and, in his time there, 6 episodes that he worked on were recognised with BAFTA nominations. During this period he also worked on the Afternoon Play series, Kiss of Death and various short films - one of which (Wish 143) was nominated for an Oscar.

Ben is now a freelance Casting Director having cast feature film Just Charlie (Winner of the Edinburgh Film Festival Audience Award), Trendy and Amaryllis (both about to be released) as well as award winning short films. He has just finished work on his first children's drama; Apple Tree House for CBeebies.

Ben will be sent your Spotlight CV before the workshop so that he can cast participants appropriately. Sides will be provided on the day – each actor will have two scenes to work on and perform, with Ben offering both direction and scene dissection.

The workshop will end with a Q&A session.