Julie Alter

Julie has worked as a casting director for more than 20 years, casting projects for Martin Scorsese, Arthur Penn, Ed Zwick, Abel Ferrar, Robert Rodriguez, William Friedkin, Allan Arkush, John Milius, Joe Dante, John Landis and others. Her film credits include Scorsese’s *The Last Temptation of Christ*, *Tokyo Pop*, and she served as a Los Angeles consultant for Abel Ferrar on *Invasion of the Body Snatchers* and *King of New York*. Television work includes *thirtysomething*, HBO’s *Dream On*, two series for Norman Lear, TNT’s *Rough Riders*, and Showtime’s *Rebel Highway* (a ten‑film homage to Roger Corman). While casting *Rebel Highway*, she cast actors who later achieved notable careers such as Jared Leto, Rene Zellweger, John Hawkes, Julie Bowen, Adrien Brody, Giovanni Ribisi, Anne Heche, Salma Hayek, David Arquette, Patricia Arquette, Brad Pitt, Alicia Silverstone, Jake Busey and Paul Rudd. She also casts thesis films for AFI, UCLA, CSUN and USC. After a career pause to raise her children, she returned in 2011 to cast Alberto Belli’s short *The Case of the Missing Garden Gnome* (selected for the 2012 Funny or Die Short Film Festival). Current projects include the independent feature *Long Live the Squirrels!* written and directed by Allan Katz, and *Creditors* by August Strindberg, directed by David Trainer at The Odyssey Theatre. Early in her career in New York she assisted Lynn Kressel on *Law & Order* and worked with Broadway casting directors Geoff Johnson and Vinnie Liff on productions such as *Les Misérables*, *Cats*, *Dreamgirls*, *Phantom of the Opera*, *Les Liaisons Dangereuses*, *Miss Saigon*, *Guys & Dolls*, *The Producers*, *Amadeus*, *Chess* and *The Elephant Man*. As casting director for Manhattan Theatre Club she cast plays for Arthur Penn, Lynne Meadow, John Patrick Shanley, Beth Henley and David Trainer. Julie also provides audition preparation, helping actors develop character choices from limited material. She studied directing and acting at Northwestern University with Frank Galati, Wallace Bacon and David Downs, and completed the two‑year professional workshop at Circle in the Square Theatre School in Manhattan, where she was mentored by Larry Moss, Ed Berkeley, Ada Brown Mather and Nikos Psacharopoulos, founding artistic director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival. After a decade in New York theatre she moved to Los Angeles to cast the series *thirtysomething*.