Kate Antognini is a New York-based casting director and street scout for feature films, TV shows and commercials.

As every single person on camera is critical to making an imagined world feel real, Kate helps productions hand-pick all elements of their casts, from leading roles to background. Depending on a project’s needs, the scope of her searches can span the globe or be localized to a city.

WORK

Kate has cast a number of feature films and series, including:

-Smoking Tigers, which will premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, and was the recipient of AT&T and Tribeca’s $1 million grant. Set in Los Angeles in the early 2000s, the film is a portrait of a lonely 16-year-old Korean American girl named Hayoung who is taken under the wings of three wealthy students she meets at an elite academic boot-camp.

-Palm Trees and Power Lines, which won the Best Director Award in the US Dramatic Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, and garnered Breakthrough Performance and Best Supporting Independent Spirit Award nominations for Lily McInerny and Jonathan Tucker, respectively.

-Port Authority, produced by Martin Scorsese, which made history as the first film starring a trans woman of color to premiere at Cannes. To cast the film, Kate spent an extended period of time within the vibrant underground kiki scene, attending community balls, meeting with hundreds of kids, and listening to their life stories to create an ensemble cast that felt organic.

-How To with John Wilson for HBO Max, produced by Nathan Fielder, an Emmy-nominated absurdist love letter to New York City and all its varied inhabitants.

PHILOSOPHY

Kate is dedicated to finding individuals with striking, expressive faces that convey rich inner lives.

Her unique process combines the casting of professional actors with "real people" (non-actors sought out to play narrative roles).

Kate's passion for championing untapped talent has left her with a track record of discovering exciting, untrained professionals, including Havana Rose Liu, whom she street scouted and helped develop, Lily McInerny, whom Kate found via social media and was cast as the lead in Palm Trees and Power Lines, and Leyna Bloom, whom she and her co-casting director discovered for the film Port Authority.

Kate equally values more traditional acting performances, and experienced actors are typically incorporated alongside real people in most projects.