Shasta Lutz

Shasta Lutz is a Casting Director and Founder of Jigsaw Casting Ltd. So, to what end could a 20-year investment in the commercial casting industry lead? Well, if you happen to be Shasta Lutz, to the development and independent ownership of the most successful commercial casting company in the country: Jigsaw Casting. Back in 1991, and with no casting-specific experience yet under her belt, Shasta took the plunge with her very first project for Molson Breweries. Met with wild success, Molson immediately came back for more. Word spread and the rest is history. After operating under her own name for those initial few years, Jigsaw Casting Ltd. was established and incorporated in 1994. As steadily as Jigsaw grew and prospered, equally so did Shasta's commitment to personally invest back into the casting community at large: a member of the CDC, co-chair of the Acting & Modeling Information Service (A.M.I.S.), recurring guest of ACTRA workshops, regular guest speaker for Centennial College's Film & Television program. Shasta has made several TV appearances over the years. Deservedly recognized as an archetype of the commercial casting community, Shasta continues to meet the demands of the most highly respected directors, producers and agencies in North America and beyond. With upwards of 4,000 commercials cast to date, a small selection of clients include; Bell, BMO, Chrysler-Daimler, Coca-Cola, Hasbro, IBM, Labatt Breweries, McDonalds, PepsiCo, Sprint and Trimark. True until the close of 2005, Jigsaw retained a principal focus on commercial casting, despite over a dozen non-commercial projects cast by Shasta herself; these include the hilarious TV comedy series, The Gavin Crawford Show, as well as Terrance Odette's Heater and Hubert Davis' Aruba, both of which were accepted into the Sundance Film Festival. Encouraged by the sheer volume of non-commercial projects presented to her for consideration, Shasta launched Jigsaw's long-format casting division at the start of 2006. With phones ringing off the hook, company expansion, a full-time staff of nine, and multiple daily cameramen and assistants, the company continues as one of the busiest casting shops around.