Tammara Billik | |
---|---|
Born | Palo Alto, California, U.S. | June 21, 1962
Education | University of California, Los Angeles (BA) [1] Loyola Marymount University (JD) [1] |
Occupation | Casting director |
Tammara M. "Tammy" Billik [2] (born June 21, 1962 [2] in Palo Alto, California) is an American Hollywood casting director who has cast hundreds of roles in television. Her best-known casting decision is when she and veteran casting director Marc Hirschfeld cast Ed O'Neill as Al Bundy for Fox Broadcasting's cult hit, Married... with Children .
In 1997, she also cast "The Puppy Episode" of the ABC series Ellen which saw Laura Dern, Emma Thompson, Sean Penn and many others as part of Ellen DeGeneres' history-making, coming-out experience.
Billik began her casting career working on movies including Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. As a casting assistant, she worked with top Casting Directors including Mike Fenton, Elisabeth Leustig, Mary Colquhoun and Judith Holstra/Marcia Ross. In 1987 she became the Casting Director of the Fox television series Married... with Children , and cast over 150 episodes of the series.
Billik received an Artios Award from the Casting Society of America in 1997 for her work on the Emmy winning series Ellen . Billik's casting of that series included bringing on series regulars Jeremy Piven and notable guest stars including, Emma Thompson, Jennifer Aniston, ZZ Top, Linda Ellerbee, Laura Dern. The "coming out" episode of Ellen The Puppy Episode was viewed by 27 million on ABC when it aired on April 30, 1997. [3]
Billik has also cast the long-running series, Unhappily Ever After , for the now-defunct WB, which starred, Kevin Connolly, Nikki Cox, Geoff Pierson, Stephanie Hodge, Kristanna Loken and Ant (comedian). She then went on to cast the pilot and first season of the ABC series Samantha Who which reunited her with Married... with Children star Christina Applegate. In 1997, Billik won the prestigious Artios award for excellence in casting. She has been nominated on three additional occasions (twice for Ellen, and once for Samantha Who). [4]
Billik is an executive producer on the short feature Boutonniere which is an official selection for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and as associate producer on the Sony Digital-produced webseries "Star-ving" starring David Faustino. In 2008, she launched AreUaStar for aspiring actors to connect with Casting Directors.
Billik is a 1983 graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles before she was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1992.
Billik has served on the board of directors of the largest national gay & lesbian organization, the Human Rights Campaign from 1998 to 2004. She has also been a longstanding member of the board of directors of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, which is the largest LGBT social services organization in the world. Billik has also served as a board member for the Casting Society of America.
Billik was honored with the Guardian of Justice award by Temple Kol Ami in 2000 and with an honorary Artios award from the Casting Society of America for her leadership in organizing Casting Directors into a collective bargaining unit – Teamsters Local 399.
Amanda Bearse is an American actress, comedian and director. She starred in the 1985 supernatural horror film Fright Night, and later starred as Marcy Rhoades D'Arcy in the Fox sitcom Married... with Children (1987–1997). Bearse later began working as television director, directing over 90 episodes of comedy series.
Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar is a retired British-American actress. After beginning her career in Shakespearean theatre she rose to fame for her performance in William Wyler's thriller The Collector (1965), which earned her a Golden Globe Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Portia Lee James DeGeneres, known professionally as Portia de Rossi, is an Australian-American former actress. She played Nelle Porter on the American drama series Ally McBeal (1998–2002), for which she won a Screen Actors Guild Award, Lindsay Bluth Fünke on the American television sitcom Arrested Development, and Elizabeth North on the American political thriller series Scandal (2014–2017). She is the founder and CEO of the art company General Public.
Roxann Dawson, also credited as Roxann Biggs and Roxann Biggs-Dawson, is an American actress and director. She is best known for her role as B'Elanna Torres on the television series Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001). In the 2000s, she transitioned to a career primarily as a director, and has directed numerous episodes of television series including Star Trek: Enterprise, Crossing Jordan, Cold Case, Heroes, The Closer, The Mentalist, The Good Wife, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Mercy Street, The Deuce and Foundation.
Jorja Fox is an American actress. She first came to prominence with a recurring role in the NBC medical drama ER as Dr. Maggie Doyle from 1996 to 1999. This was followed by another critical success in the recurring role of Secret Service Agent Gina Toscano in the NBC political drama The West Wing in 2000. She played Sara Sidle in the CBS police procedural crime-drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, both as a regular and recurring (2008–2010) cast member. She reprised the role in the sequel CSI: Vegas, which premiered on October 6, 2021.
Ellen is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from March 29, 1994, to July 22, 1998, consisting of 109 episodes. Ellen DeGeneres stars as the title character of Ellen Morgan, a neurotic bookstore owner in her thirties. The title of the series was These Friends of Mine for the first season, but it was subsequently changed to avoid confusion with the NBC series Friends, which premiered in September 1994.
In the performing arts industry such as theatre, film, or television, casting, or a casting call, is a pre-production process for selecting a certain type of actor, dancer, singer, or extra for a particular role or part in a script, screenplay, or teleplay. This process may be used for a motion picture, television program, documentary film, music video, play, or advertisement, intended for an audience.
Ellen Kathleen Pompeo is an American actress. One of the world's highest-paid actors since 2017, she has made multiple appearances on the Forbes’ year-end lists. Her accolades include a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination.
The Casting Society, formerly known as Casting Society of America (CSA), was founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1982 as a professional society of about 1,200 casting directors and associate casting directors for film, television, theatre, and commercials in Canada, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa, and the United States. The nonprofit organization announced the name change from Casting Society of America to Casting Society on February 10, 2022. The society is not to be confused with an industry union. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters represent most of the major casting directors and associate casting directors in Hollywood. Members use the post-nominal letters "CSA" when credited for their work.
Dichen Lachman is a Nepali Australian actress and model. She earned recognition starring as Katya Kinski in the soap opera Neighbours (2005–2007) and as Sierra in Joss Whedon's science fiction drama series Dollhouse (2009–2010).
Laura Elizabeth Dern is an American actress. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award, and five Golden Globe Awards.
Mali Finn, born Mary Alice Mann, was an American casting director and former English and drama teacher. She cast numerous actors in successful films, including Edward Furlong, Brad Renfro, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Russell Crowe.
"Pilot" is the first episode and the series premiere of the American comedy-drama series Ugly Betty. It first aired on September 28, 2006 on the ABC network in the United States. This is also the most watched episode of the season and the series with more than 16 million viewers.
Randy Stone was an American actor, producer, and casting director. He was a co-founder of The Trevor Project.
"The Puppy Episode" is a two-part episode of the American situation comedy television series Ellen. The episode details lead character Ellen Morgan's realization that she is a lesbian and her coming out. It was the 22nd and 23rd episode of the series's 4th season. The episode was written by series star Ellen DeGeneres with Mark Driscoll, Tracy Newman, Dava Savel and Jonathan Stark and directed by Gil Junger. It originally aired on ABC on April 30, 1997. The title was used as a code name for Ellen's coming out so as to keep the episode under wraps.
Susan "Sue" Rodham Sylvester is a fictional character of the Fox musical comedy-drama series, Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Jane Lynch, and appears in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009, through the show's final episode, last broadcast on March 20, 2015.
Caro Jones was a Canadian-American actress and casting director who was responsible for casting more than 1,000 films, theater productions and television shows over the course of more than forty years, including Rocky, The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres.
Debra Zane is a casting director, based in Los Angeles, California, known for her work in film and television. Zane has worked with some of the most successful directors in the world such as Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, and Steven Soderbergh.
April Webster is an American casting director, based in Los Angeles, California, known for her work in film and television. Webster has worked with some of the most successful directors, including several projects with J. J. Abrams.
Shayna Markowitz is an American casting director, who is the recipient of the inaugural BAFTA Award for Best Casting in 2020 in recognition of her work on the film Joker. She works across film and television, and casting director credits also include Dash & Lily (2020), The Best of Enemies (2019) and Ocean's 8 (2018), amongst others.