Francine Maisler

Born 1961-05-08 · New York City, New York, USA

Francine Joyce Maisler (born May 8, 1961) is an American casting director who has built a reputation as one of the most influential casting professionals in contemporary cinema and television. She began her professional journey at Actors' Equity Association, the union, in New York before transitioning into casting. Maisler rose to prominence after her work on the film Reality Bites, and her breakthrough into major studio and director-led film work came when she was hired to cast the ensemble for The Usual Suspects. Over the span of her career, Maisler has cast more than seventy feature films and numerous television productions. She has collaborated with many of cinema's most lauded directors, including Alejandro González Iñárritu (films such as The Revenant and Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)), Terrence Malick (e.g., The Tree of Life), and Denis Villeneuve (including Dune and its sequel). She is a recipient of fifteen awards from the Casting Society of America (Artios Awards) and has received over fifty nominations. She has also won two Robert Altman Awards (from the Independent Spirit Awards) and two Primetime Emmy Awards; one in the category of Drama for her work on Succession and another in the category of Comedy for The Studio.