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Meet senior casting producer Coco

Coco started out doing work experience and is now a senior TV casting producer.

1 minute 40 second watch

View transcript

My name is Coco. I am a senior casting producer and I work for Lifted Entertainment.

I remember I was watching television one day and I just thought to myself, I wonder how people make television. Like I didn't quite get how it was made and then on the screen what I was watching. So I thought I would do work experience.

So I did work experience at ITV and it gave me an insight in regards to how telly gets made, like what the language is that people were using that I wasn't familiar with. And then was lucky enough to be the casting runner for Love Island series one. And was able to navigate then my career once I'd got that foot through the door and got to experience what it was like making television.

One of the things that has led me quite well is being, you know, enjoying getting to know people. I really love, you know, some might say I'm nosy, you know, it's borderline between being nosy and just loving speaking to people, hearing people's stories. And finding out things about people really interests me. I really like speaking to people. And so I think being a people person is something that is a useful tool.

When I was more junior, you know, getting to do those calls to potential candidates, doing the interviews, you know, the face to face interviews or the Zoom interviews.

You know, when I started in television, I was in my late 20s. Everybody else, it felt like, was super younger than me. And it was intimidating cause I thought, oh, well, I just left a career to go into something. But I think when you start in a junior position, you get to see all the how everything else works. You get to ask questions. I think you just need to be interested in what you're doing.

How to get work experience

See how to get work experience at any age to develop your skills or learn more about a role, company or sector.

Speak to an adviser

Wherever you are with your decisions, you can contact us to get advice from a careers adviser.
Call 0800 100 900 or use webchat to talk online.