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What is street casting?

Short answer

Street casting means looking for people who are not professional actors, away from agencies and drama schools, in the places where the story is set. Casting directors use it when a part needs someone authentic to a place or a world. Catherine Willis co-cast the first series of Top Boy this way, in playgrounds in Hackney and Homerton.

When is street casting the right choice?

When a script needs people an audience has never seen, who sound and move like the place the story comes from. Street casting is about finding something authentic.

How is it different from an open casting call?

In an open call people come to you: the casting is advertised and anyone who fits can apply. In street casting the casting team goes out and finds people who would never have applied.

What does it involve?

  • Time on the ground in the right neighbourhoods, schools and clubs.
  • Short, low-pressure first meetings, then workshops or auditions.
  • For under-18s, parents or guardians from the first conversation, and performance licences before any filming.

Which CW Casting productions used it?

Top Boy, series 1, which Catherine Willis co-cast. Related searches include two days of open auditions in Bolton for the Alma's Not Normal pilot and open auditions in Liverpool for The Gathering.

Last checked 9 October 2026. Answered by CW Casting. Tell us if something here is out of date.