Daisy Hicks
Daisy Hicks’ work as a casting director and casting associate spans stage and screen productions, including Rash (Fervour), Tough (Pink Moon Films), It’s Fine, I’m Fine (SBS), & Juliet (Michael Cassel Group), Seasons 1–3 of Bump (Stan), Joe vs. Carole (NBC Peacock & Stan), The Dismissal (Squabbalogic), Frayed Season 2 (ABC), Way Out Assistance (Bus Stop Films), the Australian premiere of The Wolves (Belvoir Theatre & Red Line Productions), The Funny Ones (ABC/Unko), Dreamweaver (Conti Bros. Films), and Miracle City (Luckiest Productions).
In 2021, she was recognised with the Casting Guild of Australia Award for Best Casting in a Short Film forTough, and was awarded the Mike Walsh Fellowship in 2023. Hicks has also been invited multiple times to share her expertise as a panellist for the MEAA’s Equity Foundation “In Conversation With” series.
In late 2024, she started her own company, Daisy Hicks Casting, which works​ across projects of all sizes and mediums.
Sarah Price
Sarah Price is the founder of the Northern Territory’s first casting agency, Castaway NT, which focuses on the creation of opportunities for First Nations emerging talent in regional and remote communities.
Since founding the agency in 2018, Price has completed extras casting on Barrumbi Kids, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, upcoming Amazon Series Top End Bub, and the Netflix series Territory. She also works extensively across commercial casting both in Queensland and the Northern Territory, contributing to over 40 commercials and collecting the Best Casting in a TVC – Community at the 2024 Australian Casting Guild Awards.
She is a Master’s Graduate of AFTRS Screen Business and also recently produced the short film Bear, which screened at SXSW Sydney.
Rhys Velasquez
Rhys Velasquez founded Evolution Casting in 2021, having started in the industry as a performer and choreographer.
Their casting credits include stage productions Flat Earthers: The Musical (Griffin Theatre Company/Hayes Theatre Co.), In the Heights, Little Women, and Joshua Robson Productions’ City of Angels and Bonnie & Clyde.
Velasquez is a two-time CGA Award winner, awarded Best Casting in a Theatre Production for Choir Boy (NTofP) in 2023 and Best Casting in a Short Film for Black Trans Miracle (Dandy Films) last year.
They joined Malthouse Theatre as the Casting Manager in April 2024 and are a founding board member of Stage A Change, an organisation designed to create and sustain opportunities for artists of colour in Australia’s cultural sector.
