Seasoned casting director Cesar Rocha recently joined Netflix’s newly formed in-house casting department.
As the first series casting director, Los Angeles-based Rocha is part of a new executive trio that will focus on recruiting talent for content for the world’s largest streamer. The other two directors are Brittany Grooms in film and Rich Leist in unscripted projects.
The recent announcement, penned by the three new casting directors, highlights a global talent search. “The next breakout stars can come from anywhere – and we want to find them.”
Netflix may be the world’s largest streamer, global production and distribution powerhouse that keeps reshaping Hollywood and international TV and film, but it never had its own casting department. Although first expanding into the content-production business with its first series House of Cards in 2013. Since then it has produced hundreds of scripted series in the U.S. and abroad, with many more in production and development, many in Spanish and other languages.
That means Rocha could potentially get very busy. “So excited for this next chapter at Netflix,” he posted on his LinkedIn page after Netflix made the announcement earlier this July.
The Miami native is not new to Netflix. He was working for the streamer as an outside casting director for non-English series and films, according to a company press release, though no credit titles are listed. His LinkedIn page says he served as a Netflix casting manager for “local language originals” for nearly two-and-a-half years until April of 2021 when he reportedly assumed his new post.
Before joining Netflix, Rocha worked as director of casting at CBS Corporation for a little over a year and. Before that, he was also a casting director for more than eight years with the New York-based Telsey + Company. There he worked in various projects like Cirque Du Soleil’s Paramour, The Bridges Of Madison County The Musical National Tour, Pump Boys and Dinettes and West Side Story at Paper Mill Playhouse, Wicked, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Into The Woods with Meryl Streep and Smash on NBC, according to his bio on the website for Broadway Artists Intensive, a training project that listed him as a faculty member.
The Miami native is an alumnus of the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music in the theatre design and production program concentrating in stage management.
Netflix’s creation of its dedicated casting department comes at a critical moment when the platform is increasing its portfolio of film productions as other media companies have launched their own streaming platforms, from NBC’s Peacock to Disney+ to HBO Max, in addition to established streamers like Hulu and Amazon Prime Video.
While Netflix has a long list of TV series offerings, the company has only recently entered film production. Netflix has only produced a handful of completed films, like the full features A Classic Horror Story, Kitty Love: An Homage to Cats and Kane Chronicles and the short doc Injustice System, all dated 2021. But many more are in the pipeline. Netflix is also currently producing another ten films with about 18 more in development, the latter including Atlas, starring and produced by Jennifer Lopez.
Furthermore, the streamer is betting on video gaming. Netflix is reportedly planning to extend its intellectual property in this field and harvest data to figure out what users want. And there is hope that Nextflix games could spawn Netflix films or series.
That means Rocha and casting colleagues might have their work would be cut out for for them.
“Casting is a crucial part of the creative process,” says Rocha. In a joint statement Rocha, Grooms and Leist also said in a joint statement. “It’s about casting the widest net possible and finding the perfect person for a role. At Netflix, we’re always thrilled to champion new talent from around the world to introduce to our global audience, from Orange Is the New Black to The Old Guard and Bridgerton.” Adding, “We want to discover new and authentic voices from underrepresented communities, and help our existing talent find their next great opportunity with us.”
In their statement, they also highlight some Latino and African talent and projects. “Our new casting department means that we will have more time and resources dedicated to identifying these kinds of opportunities – finding breakouts like Alejandro Speitzer, who has worked on three of our Mexican local language series, El Club, Dark Desire and Someone Has to Die and Pearl Thusi, who’s gone from our South African series Queen Sono to our upcoming film Wu Assassins: Fists of Vengeance.”
Other highlights include Mexico’s Diego Boneta of Luis Miguel: The Series and Andres Baida of Who Killed Sara? and Brazil’s Larissa Manoela of Airplane Mode and Leandro Hassum of Just Another Christmas.
Featured Photos: Cesar Rocha, Netflix series casting director / Netflix logo (Credit: Netflix)