our hand-picked TEACHING STAFF

Natalie Ballesteros

Casting Director Natalie Ballesteros recently joined her former colleagues, Alan Luna and Michelle Adams to form ABL Casting. Their partnership was launched with the intent of highlighting a variety of artists in the entertainment industry, focusing on authentic and inclusive representation in both film and television.

Natalie recently stepped down as Director of Talent and Casting for CBS Network TV where she covered series NCIS, NCIS LA, NCIS New Orleans, Blue Bloods, Bull, The Equalizer, Bob Hearts Abishola, United States of Al, B Positive, and Mom, amongst several other pilots and projects.

Prior to CBS, Natalie worked independently and on a number of notable projects, including the Academy Award-winning animated film Coco for Walt Disney Films/Pixar, Narcos: Mexico for Netflix, East Los High – The Movie and the series for Hulu, and Los Espookys and Icebox, both for HBO. Additionally, she cast the new series, Soldados o Zombies series for Amazon International.

Natalie teaches the Film/TV Audition Technique course.

Keli Daniels

Keli Daniels has been making her living as a professional actress in Los Angeles for over 20 years. She has worked in film and television and has booked over 200 commercials, including many radio spots and television voiceovers.
In television, Keli has appeared on many shows such as: Rake, Parks and Rec, Disneyʼs Dog with a Blog, Switched at Birth, Mixology, Scandal, Hung, Entourage, Scrubs, Chuck, The O.C., NBC’s The Weekend, and many others.

Keli has appeared in TV spots for corporate brands such as Hoover, Ford, Verizon, Cheerios, Orbit Gum, Cheer Detergent, Swiffer, Band-Aid, Pillsbury, Glade, Hallmark, Juicy Juice, Toys R Us, Progresso Soup, Sargento Cheese, and many others.

Keli wrote and starred in a one-woman show about her life as a mom and actress called Are We There Yet? She currently writes and performs around LA on a regular basis. She has been teaching and coaching both privately and in group settings for the past 15 years.

Keli co-teaches the Basics of Booking course.

Kim Kalish

Kim Kalish is a commercial session director, casting associate, storyteller, performer, writer, and comedian in Los Angeles. She’s worked with some of the busiest commercial casting offices in Los Angeles including RMB Casting, Lisa Fields Casting, Good People Casting, ASG Casting, Elevator Casting, Beth Holmes Casting, Joe Blake Casting, and more. She’s helped cast over 100 commercials and she’s looked at more headshots than she cares to think about.

A native New Yorker, Kim toured multiple musicals including You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Into the Woods, and Grease. Kim would go on to become a complete TV comedy history nerd. Do you want to talk about The Dick Van Dyke show and how it led directly to Cheers? She’s your gal. After graduating with a B.A. in theater from Dickinson College, she went on to study and perform with Upright Citizen’s Brigade (UCB), having toured under their umbrella at improv festivals around the country including the Del Close Marathon and the Chicago Improv Festival, making friends with other comedy nerds along the way. 

Kim will bring her solo storytelling show, The Funny Thing About Death, back to Los Angeles after an award-winning run at the Origins First Irish Theatre Festival. It premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to sold-out standing ovations. With over 30M views of her digital work and multiple awards including the Audience Choice for Best Show (1st Irish Festival 2023) and Femme First Award for Outstanding Achievement in Female Led Playwriting (1st Irish Festival 2023), Kim has multiple wins at The Moth Story Slam, top accolades at the LA Storytelling Fest, and contributions to storytelling powerhouse, Soul Pancake, now called Participant. As a sketch performer and writer, Kim has performed on Conan a dozen times and has appeared in College Humor sketches. Her original work has been featured on The Huffington Post, Cheek, and Indiewire, among other publications. 

Kim teaches our Specialty Auditions & Their Traps course.

Cyd Strittmatter

Cyd Strittmatter has been making her living as a professional actress for over 25 years. Her body of work has appeared on television sets, movie screens, video games, as well as radio.

In television, Cyd has guest-starred on such acclaimed shows as The Mentalist, American Horror Story, NCIS, Bones, Weeds, CSI, Monk, Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles, Nip Tuck, The shield, ER, The X-Files, True Blood, and most recently NCIS: New Orleans, as well as numerous other. Feature films credits include The Lost World: Jurassic Park, City of Angels, Lost Souls, Steel, Fear, and Gone Girl. Cyd has appeared in hundreds of commercials as well as award-winning spots for an H&R Block campaign, Got Milk, Sprint, and Sprite (directed by Spike Jonze).

She currently can be seen in ads for Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Google, Food Lion, DirecTV, & Crestor, and will also appear in the upcoming films The Curse of Sleeping Beauty as well as The Breakup Girl.

Cyd co-teaches our Basics of Booking course.

Irene White

Irene White is an actress and writer who hails from Texas where she graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. Hook ‘em Horns! She has studied at the Second City in Chicago, The Groundlings, iO West, UCB-LA and BGB Studio. At iO West, she was part of the long-running Harold Team “King Ten.” Her theatre credits include August: Osage County, In the Next Room, Blue Window and The Women.  Irene can be seen in loads of commercials and recurred for 6 seasons as the wicked Carol on the NBC show Superstore. You can also see her in episodes of Modern Family, The Middle, Gilmore Girls (2016), Major Crimes, Friends, plus Murdertown and Never Have I Ever on Netflix. 

Irene teaches our Improv for Auditions course.

Scott Wissner

Veteran Commercial Casting Associate Scott Wissner has over 20 years experience in commercial casting. Scott has directed thousands of commercial casting sessions and is known as an “actor’s director”, helping actors find their best performances.

Prior to working in casting Scott was the Creative Arts Director at Montessori of West L.A., creating the drama and fine arts programs designed to help his students find their creative sides and experience creative expression in a fun way.

Scott also earned his Master’s Degree as a Marriage and Family Therapist, giving him additional tools to work with young people through creative outlets. His experience in this field has proved invaluable working with actors as they delve into the audition experience, sometimes dealing with anxiety during performance.

He has taught commercial acting techniques for over 20 years in various settings. From working with commercial casting directors and also with the Screen Actor’s Guild summer workshops. He worked with SAG for over 10 years in these workshops. Additionally, he has taught at many commercial acting workshops throughout the country.

In addition to casting commercials, Scott spent several years as a casting director for ABC’s alternative programming division (a.k.a. reality television). There he cast reality shows such as Supernanny, Ultimate Love Test, and The Benefactor.  Since that time he has cast reality shows for other networks, including Master Blaster for the Syfy Network, Top Gear for Discovery Channel, as well as The Start Up for NBC and One Week To Save Your Marriage for TLC.  He was also instrumental in casting The Mole, Seasons 1, 2 and 3 and Spike TV's Joe Schmo, as well as numerous reality pilots. 

Scott enjoys teaching actors of all ages and watching them grow and experience success as they develop their audition techniques.

Scott teaches our Kids’ Commercial Workshop.