Hollywood's largest casting agency for background actors and extras — supplies crowd work, drivers, stand-ins for studio productions. Industry standard in LA.
Anyone shooting on a set in Los Angeles or on one of the major studio lots cannot avoid Central Casting. The agency provides the crowd — background, drivers, stand-ins, crowd extras for practically every major American production. It's not glamorous, but it's critical to the system. Without this pool of licensed, reliable extras, set logistics would collapse.
Founded in 1926, Central Casting has become Hollywood's de facto infrastructure. The agency maintains a massive database — cataloged by type, age, ethnicity, special skills (riding, driving, dancing). Productions book through an online system; Central Casting coordinates call times, costume sizes, parking. For the Production Manager, this is a huge administrative burden that is lifted. The extras receive SAG rates (if unionized) or scale payment, and Central Casting handles contracts, insurance, and compliance. This means productions don't have to deal with hundreds of contracts themselves.
Practically, this means on set: The Assistant Director calls in the morning and says, "Need 40 background for the train station, ethnically mixed, 20-60 years old," and they're there at 6 AM. Central Casting has pre-assigned the roles, taken measurements, and has the costumes ready. If an extra doesn't show up, the agency sends a replacement. This is buffer logistics — and it works because Central Casting has built decades of data and relationship structures.
The system also has its downsides. Many extras wait months for bookings, work for minimum wage, and are instrumentalized as "the crowd." But for productions, the reliability is priceless — they save time in the casting phase, focus on the principal actors, and the background runs like clockwork. Anyone working with union guidelines (SAG-AFTRA) must book through Central Casting or licensed agencies; that's the rulebook. For smaller independent productions outside the studio system, Central Casting is often too expensive — they use local crewing agencies or open calls.
In the workflow between Location Scout, Production Design, and Set Logistics, Central Casting is the invisible helper. You see the extras, not the infrastructure behind them.