The EDI Group

(Equality, Diversity & Inclusion)

The EDI Group (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion) was started two years ago on an informal basis by several CDG members who wanted to find ways to be proactive in promoting these values within our profession, both within the Guild itself, and in our work.  Over the past few months we have formalised the group, assigning ‘leads / point people’ to different areas, and establishing a formal system of communication with the CDG committee.  Some of the bigger projects we have been working on include creating a paid casting internship for people who are currently underrepresented; professionally auditing audition spaces for accessibility; initiating a system of diversity data monitoring within the CDG; meet and greet events for D/deaf and disabled actors to meet Casting Directors; and upping representation in the CDG’s social media output.  We are also working alongside the committee to update the Guild’s Code of Conduct, and have working relationships with the PMA’s Diversity Group, and the Independent Commission for Race Equality launched by Equity.

The EDI Group can be contacted on edigroup@thecdg.co.uk

Heather Basten

Heather Basten is an English casting director based in London. She has been recognised as a Screen International ‘Star of Tomorrow’, a BAFTA Breakthrough Artist, and a CSA Artios Nominee.
Heather has most recently cast DREAMING WHILST BLACK: the first UK TV series from A24.
Other notable recent works include BIFA-winning stone age film THE ORIGIN; the sophomore feature from UK producer Oliver Kassman (Saint Maud), and US feature HOUSE OF SPOILS for Amazon Studios & Blumhouse.

Francesca Bradley

Fran has been working in casting since 2010, with her first job being on Captain America: The First Avenger, since then she worked across multiple genres in both film and television including sci-fi, action, horror, crime and mystery. Her credits include Logan, 6 Underground, Ford vs. Ferrari and Transformers: The Last Knight. More recently she worked on co-casting the third series of the critically-acclaimed Das Boot.

Ri McDaid-Wren

Ri McDaid-Wren has been Casting Associate to Andy Pryor since 2016.  Alongside that she occasionally works on her own projects as Casting Director.  She is an impassioned advocate for better representation in the industry both on and off screen, and has been an active member of the EDI Group since its inception.

Ri is Co-Casting Director on the second series of ‘Traces’, alongside Andy Pryor.  Credits as Associate to Andy include: ‘It’s A Sin’, ‘Years and Years’; ‘Gentleman Jack’ s1 + 2; ‘Doctor Who’ s10 – present; ‘The A Word’ s.2-3; ‘Traces s1’; ‘Summer of Rockets’; ‘Hard Sun’; ‘Cold Feet’ s8; ‘Stan & Ollie’.  Solo Casting Director credits include short films ‘Pork Scratchings’; ‘The Cost of Living’; ‘I Luv Mat Johnson’, as well as various theatre productions.

Verity Naughton

Verity Naughton, is a London based Casting Director. Verity’s recent work includes UK Casting on The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. As an Associate Casting Director credits include The Book of Clarence (Legendary) HALO (Paramount +), All the Old Knives (Amazon) The First Lady (Showtime,Lionsgate) Stephen (Hat Trick, ITV) Riviera (Archery Pictures), Berlin Station (Anonymous Content) & Fate: The Winx Saga (Netflix).

In theatre Verity has cast projects for The Globe, the Royal Court, Southwark Playhouse, Chichester Festival Theatre, and the Almeida theatre. Having originally specialised in young person casting, Verity has cast children in a wealth of West End shows and on screen including Enola Holmes (Netflix) The Pursuit of Love (BBC) Mrs Doubtfire The Musical (Shaftsbury Theatre) Frozen The Musical (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), Sound of Music (Chichester Festival Theatre) Leopoldstadt (Wyndham’s Theatre) Medea (Soho Palace Theate) Small Island (National Theatre) The Ferryman (Royal Court and Gielgud Theatre), School of Rock (UK & International Tour) & Beauty & The Beast (UK Tour).

Olissa Rogers

Olissa Rogers is a Casting Director working on a freelance basis. She began working in the industry back in Germany in 2008. She worked there until 2016 mainly on TV Series. In 2016 she met casting director, Jeremy Zimmermann, and went to be casting assistant for him on several films until 2018. She then moved on to become casting assistant to Kharmel Cochrane for commercials and TV/Film projects. In March 2019 Olissa was approached by Theo Park and was working on big TV projects (e.g Ted Lasso) as her associate where she was until October 2019. From November 2019 until February 2020 Olissa was one of the casting associates to Amy Hubbard. Olissa has also worked for Fiona Weir as one of her associates from June 2020 – April 2022.

Gabriella Shimeld-Fenn

Currently working at the BBC as a Casting Director, primarily on Doctors. Prior to this I was an Associate to Amy Hubbard, and was in-house at the BBC for nearly 5 years, mainly working on Casualty, as well as Father Brown, Shakespeare & Hathaway, and the Sister Boniface Mysteries. I also previously assisted Louise Cross with, amongst other things, Midsomer Murders S20 and Hidden S1, as well as taking the lead in casting fringe theatre productions and readings for venues such as The Hope Theatre, Park Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, and King’s Head Theatre. I have a degree in French & Italian from the University of Manchester, which now only really comes in useful when ordering at restaurants.