Avy Kaufman

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Avy Kaufman
Master Classes by David Wonark, the Producer, Avy Kaufman, the American casting Director, Aiswarya Rajnikant, at the 43rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI-2012), in Panaji, Goa on November 23, 2012.jpg
Avy Kaufman (right), Aishwarya Rajinikanth (center), David Womark (left), at IFFI 2012
Nationality American
OccupationCasting director

Avy Kaufman is an American casting director for film and television.

Contents

Early life

Kaufman is from Atlanta. [1] She relocated to New York City in 1976 [1] to study ballet. [2]

Career

Kaufman originally worked in casting for advertising at Foote, Cone & Belding, [2] often print ads, [3] for six years, [2] then transitioned to feature films. [1]

Kaufman initially did not succeed at becoming a casting director for film and worked at casting extras. Eventually director John Sayles came across her doing location casting and hired her to cast his film Matewan . Jodie Foster then hired her to cast Little Man Tate . She later met director Ang Lee, which helped to further her career. [4]

Kaufman has cast more than 150 film and television productions [5] and worked with directors including Steven Spielberg [6] and Wes Craven. [4] Her casting credits include Brokeback Mountain , Mare of Easttown , Succession , Babygirl , [5] Tár and The Sixth Sense . [4]

Accolades

Kaufman received the 2005 Hollywood Casting Director of the Year award given by the Hollywood Film Festival. [7]

She received a 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series for her work on Damages: Season 1 and in 2020 & 2022 for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series for Succession: Seasons 2-3. [8] She had earlier been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special for her work on the romance drama television miniseries Empire Falls . [8]

Kaufman has been nominated for eighteen Artios Awards, and has won three. [9]

Filmography

DateTitleNotes
1989 Miss Firecracker
1991 Little Man Tate
1991 The Super
1993 Searching for Bobby Fischer
1995 Home for the Holidays
1996 Lone Star
1997 The Ice Storm
1998 Rounders
1999 The Sixth Sense
2000State And Main
2001 Save The Last Dance
2001 Blow
2003 Dogville
2004 Garden State
2004 Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events
2005 Brokeback Mountain
2005 Zathura: A Space Adventure
2006 Bonneville
2007 My Blueberry Nights
2007 The Bourne Ultimatum
2007 American Gangster
2008 Sunshine Cleaning
2009 Taking Woodstock
2009 Solitary Man
2009 Leaves of Grass
2009 Public Enemies
2009 Brothers
2010 Salt
2010 Let Me In
2011 Scream 4
2011 The Ledge
2011 Shame
2012 Prometheus
2012 Life of Pi
2014 Before I Disappear
2014 A Walk Among the Tombstones
2014 The Skeleton Twins
2015 The Salvation
2017 Our Souls at Night
2019 Capone
2019 Driveways
2020 Let Him Go
2023 Jules
2025 Death of a Unicorn

Television

Date Title Notes
2005 Empire Falls
2007 Gossip Girl
2008 Damages Pilot
2016 The Night Of
2016 Billions
2019-2023 Succession
2020 High Fidelity
2021 Mare of Easttown
2016 The OA
2023 A Murder at the End of the World
2025 Dope Thief

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Dundas Wood, Mark (November 4, 2019). "Avy Squad". Backstage . Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 Spelling, Ian (August 18, 2022). "Succession Casting Director Avy Kaufman on Trusting Her Gut and the Downside of Zoom Auditions". btlnews.com. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  3. ↑ Jacobs, Julie (October 8, 2018). "Maniac Casting Director Avy Kaufman on Matching Parts and Players" . Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 Nemiroff, Perri (August 25, 2023). "How Avy Kaufman Went from Casting Background Actors to Casting 'Succession'". Collider .
  5. 1 2 Cadenas, Kerensa (April 30, 2025). "Casting Director Avy Kaufman on Bringing 'Death of a Unicorn' to Life". Backstage.
  6. ↑ Backstage Staff (May 24, 2009). "Top 25 Power Casting Directors in Film and TV". Backstage.
  7. ↑ Press release (August 6, 2005). "Hollywood Fest Announces Craft Kudos Honorees –Reccipients To Be Feted at Hollywood Awards Gala" Archived November 24, 2010, at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved February 11, 2012.
  8. 1 2 Database (undated). "Award for Avy Kaufman". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
  9. ↑ Database (n.d.). "Artios Award Winners". Casting Society of America. Archived from the original on August 22, 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
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