CASTING DNA™
A 90-Day Craft & Casting Strategy Program for Actors
YOU KNOW
YOU CAN ACT.
Now let’s make sure
everyone else knows it too.
Before anyone gives you an audition, they look at your casting profile for evidence that you can act.
Now you can create that evidence yourself.
Over 90 days, you’ll define your casting identity, build and polish two strategic and contrasting scenes, and learn a repeatable acting framework you can use long after the program ends.
Join any time and dive right in. The modules are self-paced, and there’s a live call every other week.
This program is for you if...
√ You’re about to reach out to agents or managers (or you’re already mid-campaign), and you know your current materials aren’t showing your best work.
√ You have demo footage, but it doesn’t really represent what you’re capable of. Or you don’t have the right footage yet and you’re not sure what you should be creating.
√ You’re getting auditions, but not for the roles you know you’d be best in.
√ You know there are roles you could absolutely crush—but when you look at your headshots, clips, and reel, you don’t see the evidence yet.
That’s not a talent problem. It’s a clarity problem.
Agents decide who to submit. Casting decides who gets auditions. Both choices get made from your materials, before you ever read a line.
Nobody hires an actor to do something they’ve never seen that actor do.
That’s what auditions are for, but first you have to get chosen for one. And if there’s something you’re capable of that isn’t on your profile, as far as the industry knows, you can’t do it.
Casting DNA™ is designed to change that.
THE CASTING DNA™ PROCESS HAS THREE PHASES:
01
DEFINE YOUR CASTING DNA™
You get clear on who you actually are on screen—not who you wish you were or who you’ve been told to be. We identify the qualities your presence naturally carries, the roles your energy supports, and where your power lives in a story.
02
CHOOSE THE SCENES THAT PROVE IT
You strategically choose two contrasting scenes that show casting who you are and what you’re capable of—not simply the material you happened to book in the past. Material chosen on purpose.
03
BUILD THE WORK
You develop and polish those scenes using a specific, repeatable framework for preparing and performing material, until they show what you can actually do. Craft, not branding.
And the framework doesn’t end when your scenes are done.
You’ll have lifetime access to the modules, so you can come back to the process whenever you’re preparing an audition, building a role, or developing your next piece of demo reel material.
06 MODULES + 06 LIVE COACHING CALLS + 90 DAYS
HERE’S HOW YOU’LL DO IT:
Work through the modules at your own pace, then bring your work to the live calls. That’s where we run your scenes, strengthen the acting, and you get personal coaching and feedback from me.
LIVE COACHING CALLS
We meet every other Tuesday, 10 AM–12 PM PT, on Zoom.
Your enrollment includes six live calls, starting with the first call after you join.
The calls aren’t tied to modules. You bring whatever you’re working on that week: prototypes, scene choices, roadblocks, performances. Everyone gets coached on every call. When it’s your turn in the hot seat, we work your scene through the lens of your Casting DNA™, so every note serves who you are in story. And you’ll learn as much from watching the actors a few steps ahead of you as you will from your own turn.
Can’t make a live call? No problem. Every session is recorded, and you can submit questions or recorded work in advance to be addressed during the call. You’ll get the same coaching and feedback on your submitted work.
When a call lands on a holiday week, we’ll move it, and you’ll always know way ahead of time. (I’m not going to pretend anyone’s doing scene work the week of Thanksgiving.)
BY THE END OF 90 DAYS, YOU’LL HAVE:
√ A clearly defined Casting DNA™, including 3–5 actor prototypes that help you understand where you fit in the storytelling landscape
√ An assessment of your existing casting materials so you know what’s working, what’s missing, and what needs to change
√ Two strategically chosen, fully developed scenes polished and ready to shoot
√ A shoot-day plan designed to make sure the finished footage actually captures what you can do
√ A repeatable acting framework you can use to prepare auditions and roles going forward
Not by reinventing yourself.
By finally showing the industry what was always true about you.
Not sure yet? Book a free 15-minute call →
What’s inside the 6 Modules:
FIRST — DEFINING YOUR CASTING DNA™
Honing in on who you truly are and the archetypes you naturally carry.
You’ll identify 3–5 actor prototypes that reflect how you naturally read on screen — the qualities your presence carries, the emotional function you serve in a story, and where you genuinely belong in the industry.
This becomes the compass for every creative choice that follows. On tape. On set. On your reel.
SECOND — CURATING YOUR SIGNATURE SCENES
Two scenes that communicate your casting identity instantly
With your prototypes established, you’ll source two contrasting scenes that clearly illustrate who you are and where you're headed — not a reflection of past credits, but evidence of what you can do now.
These become your signature scenes, your demo reel material. Finding them takes real research and patience, so plan your schedule and expectations accordingly and get ready to DIG IN!
THIRD — BUILD THE BLUEPRINT
Creating the foundation for your scene
This is where the technical and craft work begins. You build the inner architecture of each scene: the specific, concrete framework that gives your instincts structure to play freely within.
It’s a repeatable system. Once you learn it, you can apply it to every scene you prep for the rest of your career, especially your auditions.
FOURTH — MAKE IT HAPPEN
Real-time alchemy: breathing life, heart, and truth into your scene
This module is about presence and immediacy. Letting the scene actually happen moment by moment — not performing it, not indicating it, but genuinely living inside it.
This is the difference between an actor who is technically correct and an actor you can't look away from.
FIFTH — BUT & ALSO
The mischief that turns solid acting into riveting on-screen performance
This module is about nuance, contradiction, and magnetism.
People are rarely one thing at a time. We laugh at funerals. We pick fights with the people we love most. You learn to let opposing truths live in the same moment, the human complexity that makes a performance impossible to ignore.
This kind of nuance is what makes casting lean in.
SIXTH — SHOOT DAY READY
Confident execution
You create a clear shoot-day plan and make smart, intentional choices about wardrobe, lighting, sound, eyeline, framing, props, and physical action — ensuring your performance translates clearly and powerfully on camera.
So when you shoot, the footage finally shows the industry what you can actually do.
Why I built this…
Early in my career, I kept getting called in for the same kinds of procedural roles—often victim-driven.
On paper, they made sense. I could play them. The work was solid.
But I wasn’t booking them.
Eventually I realized the problem wasn’t that I couldn’t play a victim.
It’s that I don’t wear victim well.
My essence reads survivor. Fighter. Winner. Regal queen. That’s how I function in story.
So I stopped trying to play “woe is me” and started playing those same characters through my actual casting essence.
Something shifted.
The choices got braver. The reads got clearer. And I started booking the victim roles. Not because I finally learned how to be more victim-like.
Because a regal queen who has been victimized is a hell of a lot more interesting than someone simply playing “victim.”
That shift didn’t come from acting harder. It came from understanding who I already was on screen—and refusing to abandon that just because the role seemed to require something else.
Casting DNA™ exists so you don’t have to spend years figuring that out the hard way, and so you can build the material that proves it.
My student Lisa Su and I used the Casting DNA™
process to develop two strategic demo reel scenes from the ground up.
Want to see this process in action?
The goal: Create footage that immediately communicates who Lisa is on screen—and gives her stronger material for an agent campaign.
We chose two deliberately contrasting scenes: one grounded dramatic piece and one sitcom comedy. Different worlds, different tones—but both rooted in Lisa’s Casting DNA™.
(Once the scenes were polished and ready, Lisa chose to take the additional step of having them professionally filmed through my separate demo reel production service.)
The results?
“These scenes are very different, but both very me.” –Lisa Su
When Lisa shared the new material with a prospective agent, his reaction was so strong she texted me about it:
This is what Casting DNA™ is designed to create: material that is unmistakably you.
From inside Casting DNA™
“Before the program, I was actually very interested in being ‘castable’ and having someone help me understand how I was being perceived, what my casting might be, and how I could use that information strategically. I went into the program wanting some clarity and direction around that. And I got it! … What I valued most was having your perspective and being given the space to really examine these questions. I genuinely enjoyed getting to know you and appreciated how generous you were with your time and feedback.”
–– Francesca L., Casting DNA™ graduate, Spring 2026
Meet your guide
ADRIA TENNOR…
is a working actor, writer, and filmmaker whose career has been built on understanding how performers function in story — and how quickly those signals are read by the industry.
From her breakthrough film debut playing against type in Hal Hartley’s Amateur, which premiered at Cannes, to scene-stealing television work as Joyce Darling on Mad Men, to a role in the Oscar-winning film The Artist, Adria has spent decades playing characters who appear one way, only to reveal something else entirely.
She trained at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and with teachers including Larry Moss and Fred Karemen, and later expanded her work behind the camera as writer, director, and producer of the award-winning film Pie. That combination of actor, writer, director and teacher gave her a perspective from both sides of the camera: not simply Can this actor play the role? but What does this actor naturally bring to the story?
She’s still auditioning, still working, and still doing the work herself. She ran her own rep campaigns to sign with her managers and, this year, her new agent, so she knows firsthand what materials have to prove. And she’s coached actors into their first bookings and their first agents and managers.
Casting DNA™ grew out of Adria’s lived experience as an actor and filmmaker, and years of helping actors recognize the patterns in how they’re perceived, what they naturally bring to a story, and where their real power lives on screen.
"It is truly a pleasure to manage Adria. Her positivity, gumption, intuitiveness and empathy always bring grounded and authentic performances. She is also a talented storyteller, who brings interesting and nuanced points of view to her narratives and characters. Her wonderful qualities as an actor, person, and creator all blend together making her a great coach as well, that we are proud to represent."
— Alan Mills and Lauren Kaplan, Mills Kaplan Entertainment
What’s it like studying
with Adria?
“Within about five seconds of meeting me, she completely read me, pinpointed what I needed to work on, and what she suggested I shift in my work and in my mindset. Her comments really hit home for me. I was truly inspired.”
~Rebecca Rapoport-Cole
“Working with Adria on my audition prep completely shifted things. Her script analysis and pacing tools gave me the confidence to walk into the room grounded, present, and truly performing — not just reciting words.”
~Elena Schick
“I have been in Hollywood for a very very long time and I have been through a million acting classes and had a million coaches, and I have to tell you, Adria Tennor, in my opinion, is one of the best …”
~Jesse Henecke
“Adria is a Swiss Army Knife of an instructor.”
~Richard Huynh
“Adria has super strong intuition and empathy when it comes to coaching. She really makes you think deeply, and she can read you like a book, which is super helpful with whatever you’re struggling with because she can point you in the right direction and that is a skill that not many people have.”
~Sam Collins
“She knows exactly what you need to hear, when you need to hear it, to move in the right direction.”
~Lisa Su
“Adria set the tone for such a supportive class that I left feeling motivated again, like I could really do this.”
~Tatyana Mack
You’ll also get:
Preferred 1:1 Coaching Rate
Need a little extra individual support? Casting DNA™ members can book private one-on-one coaching with Adria for $75/hour (regularly $100/hour) throughout the 90-day program. Use these sessions whenever you want additional help with your Casting DNA™ work, scene development, audition preparation, or anything else that would benefit from focused, individual coaching.
Training + Resource Library — Lifetime Access
Worksheets, templates, exercises, checklists, examples and reference materials to support you through the Casting DNA™ process, plus lifetime access to the training modules. As your career evolves, come back whenever you’re developing new material, preparing auditions, or navigating a career shift.
Private Community
A members-only space to connect with fellow Casting DNA™ actors: swap prototype ideas, share scene discoveries, and troubleshoot roadblocks together. Your access continues after your 90 days end.
Members-Only Casting DNA™ Custom GPT
An optional tool built on the Casting DNA™ method. Use it to explore prototype ideas, evaluate potential scenes and deepen your script analysis between calls and after the program ends.
Ready to uncover your
Casting DNA™ ?
Uncover who you are in story—then build and perform the scenes that prove it.
PAYMENT OPTIONS
PAY IN FULL: $997
Or choose a payment plan option at check out.
√ 90-day guided Casting DNA™ program
√ 6 live interactive group coaching sessions with Adria on Zoom, within your 90 days
√ Can’t attend live? Submit questions or recorded work in advance and receive personalized feedback during the session
√ Every session recording, yours to download and keep
√ Step-by-step Casting DNA™ training modules
√ Lifetime access to the Private Community
√ Lifetime access to the Training + Resource Library
√ Private 1:1 coaching for $75/hour (regularly $100) throughout the 90-day program
√ Access to the optional Casting DNA™ Custom GPT