ABOUT BARBARA BERSELL
Barbara Bersell Casting specializes in TV and Print advertising. Barbara has the creative vision to link celebrity talent, models and real people with any type of high-end brand or product.
Barbara Bersell has an enormous range of contacts in the entertainment industry with agents, talent managers, publicists, and record labels with whom she has negotiated numerous talent commitments to advertising projects. She also works as a creative consultant along with the advertising agencies on the concepts and ideas of their campaigns.
What makes Barbara Bersell so unique is the diversity of her casting abilities. She started out as an editor at Vogue in New York City and then became a world-renowned fashion photographer. Upon her move to Los Angeles in 1990, she became a casting director where she easily incorporated her experiences as an editor and photographer. Her background as a photographer gave her a keen eye, and her experience at Vogue in a specialized department gave her the vision of who and what was going to be the “next big thing”. It gave her the foresight to see and use talent in campaigns before they broke out big, such as Kristen Stewart and Chris Pine for Gap, Kellan Lutz for Levi’s, Kate Hudson for Tommy Hilfiger and Patrick Dempsey for J Crew. Barbara negotiated Madonna’s first ever TV commercial, which she did for Gap in 2003 and Cate Blanchett’s first ever Print campaign, which she did for Donna Karan in 2003. Barbara also cast Steven Spielberg in his first ever advertising/charity endorsement for Gap Red in 2006.
Barbara’s keen insight keeps her ahead of the trends and enables her to consistently provide her clients with the newest and most cutting edge ideas.
TYPES OF CASTING
CELEBRITY
Barbara Bersell is a vastly experienced and creative celebrity casting director and is a front runner in her field, having worked in the arena of celebrity endorsements and their participation in projects since 1992.
For any type of celebrity, from rock and film stars to authors and humanitarians, Barbara Bersell can get the top celebrity talent that best suits the needs of your client. She makes it her job to understand your client, your client’s audience and your client’s image, finding the most exciting talent that represent the image you’re looking for. Barbara has created some of the most innovative examples of celebrity casting with campaigns such as Gap, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, DKNY, Cadillac, Hummer, Coach, Tommy Hilfiger, Movado, and Zegna.
Also, Barbara has worked on huge charity campaigns such as Gap’s Product Red , Aldo’s Youth Aids, DKNY’s UNICEF, DKNY’s Rock The Vote, and DKNY’s ‘What’s My Anti-Drug?’ campaign.
She has done special advertising sections for Vanity Fair (Porsche, Lincoln, Harley Davidson, and Moet Chandon), Vogue (Zegna, Levi’s and Cartier), L’Uomo Vogue (Luxottica) and Hearst Magazines (Luxottica) as well as special fashion portfolios for Harper’s Bazaar.
Barbara has also negotiated and coordinated for well-known composers and musicians, i.e. A.R. Rahman, Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge, Etta James, Cat Power, Ziggy Marley, Keith Urban, John Legend, and Macy Gray to compose soundtracks and record for commercials.
ATHLETES
Barbara has done specialized castings for specific sports for Nike, Adidas, Ralph Lauren Polo Sport, and Nautica. She also maintains extensive knowledge of sports and sporting events, from classic sports such as sailing to new extreme sports like sky surfing.
REAL PEOPLE
Regarding real people castings, Barbara has cast huge and difficult projects and campaigns– everything from Levi’s Jeans (Richard Avedon’s last photo campaign), which included real-life professionals such as furniture designers, chefs, pilots, pool players, florists, vintners, miners, oil-riggers, journalists, etc. to a real bronc rider in Madonna’s music video, “Don’t Tell Me”.
STREET CASTING
Barbara Bersell has the uncanny ability to do successful street casting and real people casting along with model casting. She looks for new faces for campaigns. She has done talent searches for Ralph Lauren, Abercrombie & Fitch, J Crew, Banana Republic, Gap, Calvin Klein and Nike.
DIRECTORS & PHOTOGRAPHERS
Barbara has worked with numerous renowned film directors including
Joel and Ethan Coen, Dayton / Faris, Cameron Crowe, Joe Carnahan, Peyton Reed and David Lynch. She has also worked with world-famous photographers, Bruce Weber, Annie Leibovitz, Herb Ritts, Mikael Jansson, Peter Lindbergh, Richard Avedon, Michael Thompson and many others. She makes a point of understanding the director’s and photographer’s style and finds talent that will adhere to their creative vision. This translates into a superior product for you and your client.