Sherry Thomas is one half of Bialy/Thomas & Associates, the casting powerhouse behind Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Walking Dead, The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments, Barry, The Righteous Gemstones, Dead to Me, Apple TV+'s Sugar, and Broadway's Jersey Boys. She and Sharon have earned multiple Emmy nominations together across their 25-plus year partnership. Their most recent Emmy nom is for Apple TV+'s Pluribus, which is Vince Gilligan's follow-up to Breaking Bad.
It's a full-circle moment: Sherry and her partner Sharon Bialy are the team who first brought Bryan Cranston to Gilligan's attention nearly two decades ago.
In this episode, we go all the way back to New Hampshire and Massachusetts, where a girl obsessed with Donny and Marie and Three's Company had no idea she'd end up building an empire in casting. She landed in LA not knowing a single person. She slept on couches for two years. She worked retail at the Gap. And then, through a chain of small moments (a charity basketball game, a fundraiser, a woman named Victoria Burroughs) she found her way into a casting office and never looked back.
We dive into:
- Her first job as a location casting assistant on Contact
- Meeting her business partner Sharon Bialy at a Starbucks and building a 25-plus year partnership without ever putting anything in writing
- What she wishes every producer understood about working with casting directors
- Her honest, unfiltered take on AI in casting and what it means for actors
- How becoming a mom to two teenage daughters changed the way she sees ambition and grit
Sherry is candid, funny, and doesn't hold back, whether she's talking about the gritty early days or the future of our industry. This is a primer for building a career (and a business) on relationships, resilience, and staying true to who you are.
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