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.
Reps and casting want the same thing: evidence.
Now you can make your own.
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.
This program is for you if...
√ You’re preparing to reach out to agents, managers, or casting—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 booking as often as you’d like—and you’re wondering whether the way you’re presenting yourself is part of the problem.
√ You know there are roles you know 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.
Casting directors, agents, and managers make decisions quickly. They’re not studying your materials looking for hidden potential. They’re looking for a clear answer to a simple question:
Does this actor belong in this story?
If your materials don’t answer that clearly—and show them what you can actually do—the right opportunities can pass you by.
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
And this framework doesn’t end with your new demo reel.
You’ll have lifetime access to the modules, so you can return to the process whenever you’re preparing an audition, building a role, or developing your next piece of demo reel material.
You develop and polish those scenes using a specific, repeatable framework for preparing and performing material at the highest level.
HERE’S HOW YOU’LL DO IT:
06 MODULES + 06 LIVE COACHING CALLS + 90 DAYS
Move through the material at your own pace between calls,
then bring your prototypes, scene choices, roadblocks, and performances
into our live sessions for personalized coaching and feedback from me.
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
✓ Access to the members-only Casting DNA™ GPT to help you explore prototypes, evaluate material choices, and continue applying the processes between coaching calls
✓ Lifetime access to the Casting DNA™ modules so you can return to the process whenever you’re preparing an audition, developing a role, or creating new material.
Not by reinventing yourself.
By finally showing the industry what was always true about you.
Live Call Schedule
DEFINING YOUR CASTING DNA
CURATING YOUR SIGNATURE SCENES
BUILDING THE BLUEPRINT
MAKING THE SCENE HAPPEN
BAIT & SWITCH
SHOOT DAY READY
Tuesday, September 29, 10 AM - 12 PM PT
Tuesday, October 13, 10 AM - 12 PM PT
Tuesday, October 27, 10 AM - 12 PM PT
Tuesday, November 10, 10 AM - 12 PM PT
*Wednesday, November 18, 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM PT
Tuesday, December 1, 10 AM - 12 PM PT
Can’t make a live call? No problem. Every session will be recorded, and you can submit questions or recorded work in advance to be addressed during the call. You’ll be able to watch the recording afterward and receive the same coaching and feedback on your submitted work.
* Note on November 18: Every other call is a Tuesday at 10 AM PT. This one's a Wednesday at 11:30 because the Tuesday before Thanksgiving is a lost cause and I'm not going to pretend otherwise!!!
What’s inside the 6 Modules:
FIRST — DEFINING YOUR CASTING DNA
Honing in on who you truly are and the archetypes you’re meant to play
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. In the room. On set. On tape.
SECOND — CURATING YOUR SIGNATURE SCENES
Two scenes that communicate your casting identity instantly
With your prototypes established, you will then source two contrasting scenes that clearly illustrate who you are and where you're headed — not a reflection of past credits, but a signal of your full potential.
These scenes work as demo reel material. They become your signature scenes. The material that shows who you are and what you can do. This requires a substantial amount of 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.
Actors build the inner architecture of each scene using:
Place
Relationship
Moment before
Conflict / Fight
Communication & Competition
This is 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 who casting can't look away from.
FIFTH — BAIT & SWITCH
The mischief that turns solid acting into riveting on-screen performance
This module is about nuance, contradiction, and magnetism.
You layer in the human complexity that makes performances impossible to ignore — opposites, mystery, secret, humor, resistance, mischief. The things that make an audience lean in and watch you.
This is what separates a good audition from a booking.
SIXTH — SHOOT DAY READY
Confident execution
You create a clear shoot-day plan and make smart, intentional choices about wardrobe, lighting, sound, eye-line, framing, props, and physical action — ensuring your performance translates clearly and powerfully on camera.
You leave with footage that 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.
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.
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 some of the industry’s most respected teachers, and later expanded her work behind the camera as writer, director, and producer of the award-winning film Pie. That combination—actor, writer, director, 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?
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 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:
Private Community
Connect with fellow actors as you explore prototypes, share scene discoveries, troubleshoot roadblocks, celebrate wins, and support one another. Your access continues after the 90-day program ends, so you can stay connected to the growing Casting DNA™ community as your work and career evolve.
Members-Only Casting DNA™ Custom GPT
Get lifetime access to Adria’s custom Casting DNA™ GPT, designed to help you continue using the methodology long after the program ends. Use it to explore prototype ideas, evaluate potential scenes, deepen script analysis, and apply the Casting DNA™ process whenever new roles, material, or career questions arise.
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.
Casting DNA™ Resource Library
Worksheets, templates, exercises, checklists, examples, and reference materials to support you throughout the Casting DNA™ process—and make it easier to use again on your own.
Training + Resource Library — Lifetime Access
Return to the Casting DNA™ training modules, worksheets, templates, exercises, checklists, examples, and reference materials whenever you need them. As your career evolves, you can revisit the process when developing new material, preparing auditions, or navigating a career shift.
Ready to uncover your
Casting DNA™ ?
Join the next 90-day Casting DNA™ program this fall 2026.
Uncover the roles you were born to play—then build and perform the scenes that prove it.
PAYMENT OPTIONS
PAY IN FULL:
$997
PAYMENT PLAN:
4 × $298 ($1192 total)
Choose your payment option at checkout.
√ 90-day guided Casting DNA™ program
√ 6 live interactive group coaching sessions with Adria on Zoom
√ Can’t attend live? Submit questions or recorded work in advance and receive personalized feedback during the session
√ Lifetime access to all coaching session recordings
√ Step-by-step Casting DNA™ training modules
√ Lifetime access to the Private Community
√ Lifetime access to the Training + Resource Library
√ Lifetime access to the Casting DNA™ Custom GPT
√ Private 1:1 coaching available for $75/hour throughout the 90-day program
Enrollment closes September 21 at 11:59 PM PT