| Tracy "Twinkie" Byrd |
Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd brings it. After having cast music videos for Fall Out Boy, Blink 182, Outkast, Madonna, Dwight Yoakum, Metallica, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Black Eyed Peas, Casting Director Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd has set her sights on Feature Films. And today, she is NOTORIOUS, bringing such talent as Jamal Woolard as Notorious B.I.G., Angela Basset, Derek Luke, Anthony Mackie to the Big Screen in the Fox Searchlight film “NOTORIOUS”. But if you ask Twinkie, she’ll tell you its ALL casting. Whether populating commercials, music videos, TV series or feature films, Twinkie is all about finding the right fit to every role.
And her passion for talent is only paralleled by her passion for life.
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From her first gig scouting dancers for Def Comedy Jam in New York, Twinkie “Just did it”. She went on to cast music videos for Brett Ratner and then hit Los Angeles to learn from commercial casting goddess Megan Foley. Without so much as a local phone, Twinkie found a way to book sessions using the payphone down the block from her brothers’ couch (where she crashed for her first three months in LA). Once she got her own place (with no heat, a borrowed mattress and a cooler for a fridge), she would continue the pager-payphone dance and only rent a car when she needed one to get to the casting sessions.
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Why she consistently delivers?? Easy!! “I can always tell the ones who are going to draw the director in. They are locking in on the camera and hypnotizing.” That goes for commercials, music videos, TV and Film!! “I’ve been telling dancers for a long time to get their acting chops together, Stop buying big cars and foolishness and put money into their craft”. That advice paid off for many actors who made it through the final cast list for “STOMP THE YARD”, the biopic of Brooklyn’s son “NOTORIOUS B.I.G”, “THE BLIND SIDE”, “STOMP THE YARD 2” and currently Sony Pictures “JUMPING THE BROOM”.
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While some may dismiss the value in projects like commercials and music videos, Twinkie has kept her energy focused on the truth: TALENT IS TALENT. Anyone who has watched Twinkie work knows true talent, passion, and bliss for life itself. It’s why she’s been on the casting scene for over a decade and is still going strong as the FIRST casting director to make the leap from casting music videos to casting principals in major motion pictures!!!
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