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Film Career · Casting Director

Main Casting Director

Casting Director · Teamsters Local 399 (casting directors)

Union
Teamsters Local 399
Day rate
~$3,000–$6,000/wk
Experience
8–18+ yrs
How to join your union

What does a Main Casting Director do?

The main casting director is a leadership chair in the casting director department, responsible for crew, planning, and the department's delivery to the production.

On union productions the position falls under Teamsters Local 399 (casting directors), which sets the rates, hours, and conditions the role works within. The role is engaged show by show, and careers in casting director are built on the department heads and crews who hire the same trusted people back.

What does a Main Casting Director make?

  • This is a department-head chair, toward the top of its department's range.
  • Casting directors are paid per feature or weekly: roughly $25K-$100K+ a project, $3,000-$6,000 a week, or roughly $80K-$250K a year (Teamsters Local 399 in the West).

Film work is gig based, so crew are paid a day or weekly rate rather than a salary. These are realistic 2024-2025 ranges grounded in union rate cards and industry data; actual pay swings with budget tier, market, overtime, and reputation.

Sources & how we estimate pay

Union scale is the floor; the ranges above also reflect market day rates above scale. They are grounded in the following 2024–2025 sources:

Government wage data

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the closest federal occupation.

You’ll like and be good at this job if:

Hard skills

  • You know talent and can negotiate deals

Soft skills

  • You make decisions calmly and own the results
  • You can lead a crew, hold a budget, and answer for the department

The ladder

Related chairs in this craft family, ordered from entry toward leadership:

  1. 1Assistant Casting Director
  2. 2Senior Casting Director
  3. 3Associate Casting Director
  4. 4Casting Director
  5. 5Main Casting Director (this role)
  6. 6Supervising Casting Director

Career progression

Within this craft family the recognized progression runs from assistant casting director toward supervising casting director, with each step earned through set time and the trust of the chairs above. Where this role sits on that ladder is less important than how the casting director department works: people move up when the department already believes they can do the next job.

A typical path, from entry to the top of the craft. Times are rough and vary by market, luck, and how steadily the work comes.

  1. Assistant Casting Director

    ~$50K–$250K/yr

  2. Senior Casting Director

    ~$80K–$250K/yr

  3. Associate Casting Director

    ~$50K–$250K/yr

  4. Casting Director

    ~$80K–$250K/yr

  5. Main Casting Directoryou are here

    ~$80K–$250K/yr

  6. Supervising Casting Director

    ~$50K–$250K/yr

How do you become a Main Casting Director?

Nobody is hired into this chair from outside: it is a promotion earned inside the casting director department, from the people who watched you hold the junior versions of the job. The route in starts at the department's entry positions and runs through years of trusted work.

On covered productions, rates, hours, and conditions for the role are set by Teamsters Local 399 (casting directors) contracts.

Covered by a union? The joining a film union guide explains how each one takes members.

More casting director roles

Local Casting DirectorOriginal Casting DirectorSenior Casting DirectorVoice Casting Director

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