BEHIND EVERY SUCCESSFUL FILM OR TV SHOW IS A CASTING DIRECTOR, AS CARRIE LYELL FINDS OUT

KELLY HENDRY

If you’re not one of those people who stays in the cinema until the lights come up, revealing a sticky popcorn mess, or someone who watches the TV credits to the bitter end, you probably don’t know who this woman is. But you’ve almost certainly seen a film or TV show she’s worked on. From blockbuster films like Slumdog Millionaire and Lord of the Rings to TV diamonds Broadchurch and Lip Service, if you watched it, chances are Kelly Hendry had a hand in casting it.

Born in Elgin in Scotland, later moving to St Andrews to study English Language and Literature, Kelly says she always loved theatre and saw herself working in the arts one day, but admits she “fell into casting”. “I had thought about it at uni, but when I went to the careers advice centre I was handed a booklet on construction. One day I found myself without a job and a famous casting agency needed an assistant the next day, so that was it. Casting it was. Of actors, not concrete.”

Hendry now lives in east London with “my very clever architect wife and two cats that aren’t ours” and runs her own casting company, KVH Casting. “No day is ever the same,” she says. “On an average day I probably have about six arguments with agents or producers. It is all part of it. I’m in the middle of everything. Money, hotels, billing, transport, flights. Men’s beards. I’m telling you - many a weekend has been ruined by the inability of a beard not being allowed to be cut.”