On most casting offices, the associate is the person actors actually meet first. The casting director sees the actors who make it to producer sessions; the associate sees everyone before that, and decides which tapes are worth a producer's time.
What the associate owns
Responsibilities shift with the office, but a working list for an associate on a feature looks like this:
- Running pre-read sessions: reading opposite actors, giving adjustments, and recording
- Reviewing agent submissions and self-tapes, then building "top picks" folders for each role
- Tracking availability against the shooting schedule, including holds and conflicts
- Casting under-five and day-player roles directly when the casting director hands them off
- Keeping the offers sheet: who was offered what, when the agent responded, what the counter was
- Supervising the casting assistant and the session schedule
On series television the associate often splits episodes with the casting director, taking the guest roles on one episode while the casting director handles recurring roles on the next.
A week in a series casting office
Episodic casting runs on the prep calendar. For an eight-day prep on Episode 104:
| Day | Associate's focus |
|---|---|
| Prep Day 1 | Read script, draft breakdown for 11 roles, send to casting director for notes |
| Prep Day 2 | Breakdown released; submissions start arriving |
| Prep Day 3 | Pre-reads for the four biggest guest roles; request self-tapes for the rest |
| Prep Day 4 | Review 200-plus tapes, narrow to three or four per role |
| Prep Day 5 | Producer session with the showrunner and episode director |
| Prep Day 6 | Offers out; chase availability on two actors with conflicts |
| Prep Day 7 | Close deals, send info to production for start paperwork |
| Prep Day 8 | Recast one role after an actor books another show; next episode's script arrives |
The associate is the one who notices that "NURSE #2" in Scene 31 appears again in Episode 106 and should be cast with that in mind.
Rates and overtime under the Teamsters agreement
The 2024 Casting Directors Agreement with Teamsters Locals 399 and 817 covers freelance associate casting directors and casting assistants hired in Los Angeles County or New York City for covered studio projects. Associates are engaged on an "on call" weekly basis:
| Classification | From 9/28/25 | From 10/4/26 |
|---|---|---|
| Associate casting director (AMPTP) | $2,298/week | $2,378/week |
| Associate (Local 399 independent chart) | $2,600/week | $2,680/week |
| Casting assistant (AMPTP) | $21.84/hour | $22.60/hour |
The weekly rate is prorated at one-fifth per day. An associate brought on for two days of a partial week at the 2025 AMPTP rate earns at least 2 x ($2,298 / 5) = $919.20.
Casting assistants are hourly. The agreement pays time and a half after 8 hours in a day or 40 in a week, double time after 12 work hours in a day, and triple time after 15 elapsed hours, with time and a half on the sixth day and double on the seventh. The Local 399 rate sheet shows what that means for a 60-hour week at $21.84:
- 40 straight hours: 40 x $21.84 = $873.60
- 20 overtime hours: 20 x $21.84 x 1.5 = $655.20
- Total: $1,528.80, matching the sheet's weekly figure
There's also a training rule worth knowing: if an hourly employee reports on a non-work day for required safety or harassment prevention training, they get a four-hour minimum, and a weekly on-call employee gets one-tenth of the weekly rate for that day.
Who they deal with
Inside the office: the casting director and assistants. Outside it: agents and managers all day, the director and producers in sessions, and production when deals close. The associate often coordinates with the 2nd AD about actor fittings and rehearsal availability, and passes actor contact details to the production office for the call sheet. When a scene needs a photo double, the office sometimes loops in the extras casting director.
Getting the job
Casting assistants move up to associate. Assistants learn by running the camera in sessions, handling sign-in, uploading tapes, and watching which choices the casting director makes and why. The associate jump usually happens when a casting director trusts someone to run a session alone and cast small parts without a second opinion.
Producers keep hiring associates with good taste and a long memory for actors. Reading well opposite performers helps too; a flat reader makes good actors look worse on tape.
Paperwork and tools
The associate maintains the casting breakdown, session schedules and sign-in sheets, the offers log, and availability checks against the day out of days. Storiara pulls characters from the script, so an associate can see the list of roles and assign an actor to each character once deals close.