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Alyssa Weisberg, CSA, is an American film and television casting director and film producer. She was a Casting Director at Paramount Pictures from February 2007 through July 2011, during which time she worked on Star Trek along with April Webster. [1] Webster and Weisberg both won the Casting Society of America's 2009 Artios Award for their work on Star Trek. [2] Weisberg reunited with Webster for the casting of Star Trek Into Darkness.

More recently, Weisberg and Webster started casting actors through their company April Webster & Associates for Star Trek Beyond, directed by Justin Lin. [3]

Weisberg and Webster were also Casting Directors for Star Trek producer/director J.J. Abrams on the hit ABC series Lost, for which they shared the 2005 Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series for Lost. Weisberg and Webster again worked with Abrams on the Paramount motion picture Mission: Impossible III, with Weisberg credited as Casting Associate. Also, while working at Paramount, Weisberg was the sole Casting Director on the hit film Cloverfield (2008), which was produced by Abrams. More recently, Weisberg and Webster worked as casting directors on Abrams' Super 8 (2011) and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011).

As a casting associate under Ronnie Yeskel and Mary Vernieu, Weisberg worked on such films as Freeway (1996), The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996, featuring costumes designed by Michael Kaplan), Touch (1997, featuring Anthony Zerbe), Booty Call (1997), and U Turn (1997). Her credits as a casting director (often in collaboration with Vernieu) include Somebody Is Waiting (1996), Little City (1997), Aberration (1997), Telling You (1998), Hollywood Palms (2001), and The House of Usher (2006). Weisberg was also an associate producer on Telling You and co-produced The House of Usher. In addition, she helped Matt Winston get a lead role in the 2001 comedy Hollywood Palms, which Weisberg also co-produced.

Weisberg formed her own company, Alyssa Weisberg Casting, in January 1997, and has held sole proprietorship of the company since its inception. In addition to Star Trek, other films on which Weisberg was casting director include the independent thriller In My Sleep (2010, featuring Christopher Darga) and Play Dead (2009, featuring Richard Riehle). She was also Casting Director and Executive Producer of the romantic comedy Around June (2008). In addition, Weisberg cast and produced the short film Ollie Klublershturf vs the Nazis (2010), which was written by Star Trek producer Damon Lindelof and featured Star Trek actress Rachel Nichols and for which she received her second Artios Award from the Casting Society of America in the category Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Short Film.

Weisberg was the casting director on Piranha 3-D (2010), a remake of the 1978 Joe Dante horror comedy. Among those Weisberg cast in this film were Star Trek film performers Christopher Lloyd and Dina Meyer. Other projects include the comedy The Watch (2012), Fun Size (2012), the television series Workaholics (2011-2015), The Carrie Diaries (2013-2014), and Betas (2013-2014, with Ed Begley, Jr.), the musical Make Your Move (2013), and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013, with Robert Knepper, Derek Mears, and Ron Perlman). She also cast and produced the independent film Losing Control (2011), for which she brought in Star Trek: Enterprise regular John Billingsley for a supporting role.

In 2013, she received her third Artios Award nomination from the Casting Society of America in the category Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Big Budget Feature – Comedy for her work on The Watch. More recently, Weisberg served as casting director on Tomorrowland (2014, written and produced by Damon Lindelof and with Paul McGillion) and on the television comedy Dinner with Family with Brett Gelman and Brett Gelman's Family (2015). Also in 2015, Weisberg received her fourth Artios Award nomination and third win in the category Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Short Film for her work on the short comedy All's Fair (2014).

Weisberg worked with Webster on the casting for Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), written, directed and produced by J.J. Abrams. Other Trek alumni include producers Bryan Burk, Tommy Gormley, Tommy Harper, Michelle Rejwan, and Ben Rosenblatt, cinematography by Dan Mindel, editing by Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey, costume design by Michael Kaplan, sound design by Ben Burtt and Andy Nelson, casting associate Jessica F. Sherman, and stunts by Mike Massa.

References[]

  1. Alyssa Weisberg LinkedIn profile, [1] Accessed: 4 November 2009.
  2. Kilday, Gregg. "Casting group honors 'Star Trek,' 'Milk'." The Hollywood Reporter, [2]. Published: 3 November 2009. Accessed: 4 November 2009.

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