WELCOME TO YR CASTING
Yvette has an extensive knowledge of local acting talent and a broad network of contacts within the industry, as well as the tools to search beyond represented talent to find award-winning performances from non-actors within various communities.
Brand new talent discovered by Yvette includes: Wayne Hapi who played Ariki in The Dark Horse, opposite Cliff Curtis and James Rolleston, earning a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 2014 MOA awards. She was also responsible for the casting of The Eastern Knights (the children in The Dark horse) from various Kura across Tāmaki Makaurau. The three lead children in multi-award winning short film Lambs were all cast exculsively from schools in Porirua and Wainuiomata. And after a successful viral campaign, 2000+ applications and over 330 auditions nationwide, Gloria Popata from South Auckland earned her role as the lead actress in Jackie Van Beek’s Feature The Inland Road -in which Yvette also cast Logie winner Chelsie Preston Crayford and Scotland’s 2015 BAFTA winner David Elliot.
Yvette’s credits include Feature film Waru in which eight female Māori directors each contributed a ten minute vignette, presented as a continuous shot in real time, that unfolds around the tangi of a small boy. The vignettes also feature eight female Māori lead characters and a largely Māori cast, it’s packed with powerful performances. The standout performance being Acacia Hapi, who was actually one of the many talented girls discovered by Yvette on her nationwide Casting trip a couple years prior for The Inland Road.
Early 2020 saw the release of two more Features for Yr Casting; Action-comedy The Legend of Baron Toa which was well received among enthusiastic Pacific audiences and Guns Akimbo starring Daniel Radcliffe that unfortunately released within days of Covid-19 lockdowns and is deserving of a much bigger action loving audience.
The NZ Gang drama Savage is available on NEON now. It is Sam Kelly’s debut feature, starring Jake Ryan, John Tui, Lotima Pome’e and Olly Presling, as well as an array of memorable non-actors in supporting roles from extensive community casting (2000+ auditons) nationwide.
Yvette completed the epic gibberish casting of New Zealand-Australian co-op film Nude Tuesday, Directed by Armagan Ballantyne and starring Jermaine Clement. A hilarious, absurd comedy which shot primarily in the picturesque Queenstown-Lakes District of the Otago region. Nude Tuesday will be showing in cinemas nationwide from June 16th 2022.
Yvette cast the TVNZ television series The Panthers, based on true events – a primarily Pacific Island cast, a mixture of both professional actors and talented members from the community.
Filming is complete for Princess of Chaos, which emerged from last year’s Asian and Pacific People’s Feature-Length development initiative. It is a telefeature adaption of Bevan Chuang’s true life story centered around her role in a political scandal.
Of note so far in 2022, Yvette has cast the second season of Good Grief as well as Feature film Kāinga, which following Waru and Vai is the third anthology film from BSAG. Written and/or directed by Kiwi-Asian women spanning heritage from Indigenous Aotearoa, China, India, Iran, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, Kāinga explores different facets of Asian immigrant women’s experience navigating the thorny terrain of making and being at home in Aotearoa New Zealand.
With a passion for championing emerging, unknown and established actors alike, Yvette is fully committed to finding the right talent for any given casting brief. She is able to offer a casting plan for any size budget, and the energy to search up and down the country beyond the obvious routes.
Yvette’s approachable personality, endless patience and experienced feedback has been highly praised by the Producers and Directors she has worked with. Due to a severe allergy for schmoozing all work to date has been generated exclusively by repeat business, word of mouth and from the recommendations of past collaborators.
CREDITS
Below is a selection of Yvette’s previous casting work.
These are just a few of the many successful castings
she has completed over the last 5 years.
Nude Tuesday
Savage
The Panthers
The Legend of Baron Toa
Guns Akimbo
The Dark Horse
Pork Pie
Waru
The Inland Road
Gary of the Pacific
Good Grief – TVNZ
KFC
Ko Tātou This Is Us
One Man Army
Symbio Yoghurt
Lambs
Chorus – Everyday Genius
The December Shipment
Introducing Yvette
“The best part of my job is seeing something special
in someone that they don’t yet see in themselves.”
Yvette Reid -Ngāti Porou
Graduated from Toi Whakaari NZ Drama School in 2006 and began as a freelance Casting Assistant the following year. She became an independent Casting Director in 2011 and quickly built an exciting and varied resume working with emerging and established Directors, specialising in film, commercials, community casting and working with children.
Yvette has quickly established a reputation for her ability to cast difficult and unique dramatic roles. She prides herself on scouring the country and across the globe to cast the perfect person for every role.
Yvette has worked on Blockbuster films such as Avatar, The Hobbit and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 2 . And also worked as an Acting Coach for kids, teens and non-actors for films: Run, Lambs, The Dark Horse, Orphans and Kingdoms, Savage plus various TVCs. Yvette is based in central Auckland and holds studio auditions regulary in Kingsland.
Yvette has a strong interest in Psychology and NLP which feeds into her direction techniques. Her highest value is authenticity. She enjoys painting, youtube yoga and is a keen amateur fisherwoman. She also moonlights as a Marriage Celebrant through summer and one day dreams of sailing around the world. Mother to a beautiful 4 year old boy and recently self-published a popular storybook for weaning toddlers called “Booby Moon”. She has a cat, Dexter – and yes, he is named after the serial killer.
TESTIMONIALS
“She innately understood what I was looking for in each character. We cast in schools, in the community and through actor’s agencies. Yvette left no stone unturned in her quest to find the right cast for our film.”
“Yvette worked through 2000 applications for our teenage lead role, and tirelessly toured small communities to audition 330 girls in person. When I joined her to audition our shortlisted applicants, I was impressed with her energetic approach and her ability to connect with each girl to discover their potential.”
“It was fantastic to have her transition from Casting Director to on-set Acting Coach, the continuity making the journey easier for the kids. Her ability to elicit honest performances was a large reason for the film’s success. I look forward to working with her again on my upcoming Feature.”
“Yvette is a fantastic, sensitive and committed casting director. We were fortunate to have her support for the challenge of casting a family of 3 children from the Chinese community in Auckland as well as finding our extraordinary adult-lead Katlyn Wong; all on a short film budget. We felt very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with her.”
“Just a quick note to say thank you very much for all of your amazing work on our film!
You absolutely blew it out of the park. Wayne is a star, and our kids are extremely lovable.”
“Glad you’re on board, that was the most supportive audition I’ve ever been to!”
CONTACT YR CASTING
I'd be happy to hear from you!
Yvette Reid
Phone: +64 21 622 418
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