Alessana is a Casting Director from London with a speciality in streetcasting. She studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins and Anthropology at University College London (UCL). She has worked in the film industry for 10 years.
Her early achievements include being named a 'Young Hotshot' by Broadcast Magazine, winning the Roundhouse Online Film Fund, writing and directing a BBC Radio 4 drama, and single-handedly street-casting series 1, 2 & 3 of the multi-award winning Channel 4 series, 'Ackley Bridge', filmed in West Yorkshire. Alessana was brought on to Ackley Bridge by the multi-award winning filmmaker, Penny Woolcock, to ensure the local community were included and integral to the production's research and casting. The pair have worked closely together on multiple projects over the years.
Alessana's work celebrates the voices, faces and stories of everyday people, as epitomised by her music video about acts of kindness, in which she streetcast all 50+ contributors from her community in Ladbroke Grove and was subsequently nominated at the Portobello Film Festival. The song was also a soundtrack on the documentary short by Emmy-nominated director, Matt Kay.
Her anthropological, research-led approach to casting, artistic eye and strong instincts have seen her find faces for Grammy, BAFTA-nominated directors and more recently multi-award winning filmmaker Daniel Wolfe who exec produced Louis McCourt's debut short, 'No Faces' which was shot by two-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer, Robbie Ryan. Alessana spent a month scouting the streets, boxing clubs and chicken shops of Greater Manchester to find the young breakthrough cast.
