Today we’d like to introduce you to Soph Abitbol (They/Them/Theirs).
Hi Soph, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up in New York, surrounded by and motivated by art, and I knew it was all I ever wanted to be a part of. Over the years of my life, I learned performance arts, visual arts, culinary arts, etc. I tried anything that I could get my hands on and understand the basics of! I tried and quit on many musical instruments and dance styles, but I never would get tired of trying new things, even if I didn’t stick to them. There was something that kept me going in all of these passions. I was always enraptured by watching those around me. I wanted to share their successes even just as a voyeur to their talent. The niche that has stayed with me through all of my trials and errors has been the performing arts. From my Casting Director community and Filmmaker colleagues who work tirelessly, to my childhood dreams of being on big stages, I’ve never lost my love for Drama. In my hometown, I was lucky enough to be involved in classes and performances with The Dance Space Ltd for over 5 years (run by the dynamite duo, Lauren Quaranta and Toni Carlo Matrecano), JCC community theater shows as a child and eventually attend a public high school that valued and supported a four-year Theater Course Track (led by the one and only, Dawn DeMaio) so that I could get a head-start studying for what I love so deeply. When I was starting to put my own live and pre-recorded performance projects together, I could suddenly see my future far ahead of me. I had a real knack for organizing this work and putting love into it. I found that creating performing art pieces gave me so much joy and fulfillment
With these foundations, I moved to Georgia after high school to attend SCAD (the first person from my high school to attend and graduate at SCAD). I spent a year in Savannah, a summer in Lacoste, France and finally landed here in Atlanta. Wanting to be an actor or producer turned into something more specific and real when I became acquainted with Actor/Professor Adam Fristoe and Professor Alpha Tyler. Tyler is a long-time Casting Director and legendary woman who teaches a Casting course at SCAD that changed my entire mindset. I no longer wanted to spend my life finding where I fit. This was it. I wanted to organize, uplift, and pour my soul into actors and their projects. It was like a light switched on in my brain and I finally had that future ahead of me coming closer and clearer. And then, two years of online school and a dark film industry later, I could finally begin just as I entered my final college year. When school moved back on ground and projects were coming alive, I kicked off and tagged myself onto any independent project that needed actors. A dear friend, Granville Davis, reconnected with me on campus and when he needed helping Casting a friend’s project, he took me under his wing.
Pretty soon, I had accounts on CastingNetworks and BreakdownExpress and Backstage all bookmarked on my Google tabs like the finest shimmering tool belt. From then on, I focused my time on finishing school by the Spring and casting, casting, and more casting! From the jump, it has been like magic to me. After my year of working small and honing my skill, I was recruited to assist with Mark Fincannon, CSA at F+A Casting here in Atlanta. It means more than anything to find yourself in a future that you worked for. Mark and his team have gone above and beyond to make me feel motivated and respected to be a part of this wonderful world of Casting that I was only dreaming of just a year ago. There is still so much to do but I keep up with my connections through all of these wonderful opportunities and even when industry demand for work is on the downtrend, I focus my love and time on any projects that come my way. Bringing new directors and new actors together to create professional camaraderie and relationships to last a lifetime!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As someone born mere days after Y2K, my world has always been digital, modern, and competitive. There have always been so many outlets to see people and things that are “better than me” at every turn. And, when I suffer, I can always be reminded of what or who “has it worse” as inspiration to pick myself back up and keep going. Needless to say, not a great cycle of self-doubts and imposter syndrome. As a child, I always felt a pressure early on to establish myself. I wanted people around me to know that I was loud and unapologetic and unafraid. This was just as confident as it was overcompensation. Because truly, I was fighting a lot internally. I could never keep up with certain academic studies and I would struggle with accepting help for it, even when I was offered by family and friends. Like most people who do not fit in the binary or academia, I thought that being stubborn and uncaring would convince everyone to leave me alone and follow my own path… But, then again, nobody listens to children! And instead of being seen as different, I was just viewed as difficult. Accepting that you are as complicated as you are confident never comes easy. I’ve spent a lot of time in my life feeling unseen and under-appreciated by myself and others.
After I’ve grown, I still spend a lot of time-fighting loudly and being stubborn. But, these days, I’m not arguing with my teachers & parents over bad grades or fighting to go to rehearsals even though I didn’t finish my homework. Nowadays I am a fierce advocate for my LGBT+ community, Jewish community, and the worldwide community of performing artists and filmmakers that I work with. What I learned after the long road of accepting myself is that I ALWAYS fit in even where I can’t stand out. Nobody deserves to feel the pressure that I put on myself when I couldn’t do it all. These days, I see a therapist weekly to ensure that my motivation to keep going does not come from doubt or self-hate but from recognizing myself and the people that have always stood beside me. When I find myself feeling complicated or too difficult to deal with, I look inward and seek the strength from young Soph and the way that they have always fought just as hard for themself as they fight for others.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
From Production to Casting to Agency work, I’ve has always had a passion for serving Performing Artists and believing in their community’s ability to connect deeply with their audiences. Before graduating SCAD ATL in June 2022, I spent my valuable resources and time there as an actor, Casting Director, artist, and filmmaker on multiple SCAD LIVE/Film/TV/Web-series projects. I also run an Instagram for custom logos and 3-D or digital visual arts pieces that has been open to commissions since December 2018. My visual arts style is a complete opposite of my casting style. I like messy, spontaneous, wild art that captures big feelings and explosions of patterns and color. Visual art is a core part of self-expression and I’m so lucky to have support for that. After graduating SCAD, I was recruited by a fellow student for a full-time Casting Assistant position at F+A Casting (Fincannon and Associates) here in Atlanta, GA. With Fincannon, I earned immensely valuable industry experience and communicated with higher-ups, agents, managers, and colleagues on a daily basis. I was lucky enough to work directly with Mark Fincannon, CSA, assisting him at a time where he had recurring seasons of shows like The Resident and The Wonder Years making their return to, as well as completely new on-ground concepts. His wisdom and mentorship has given my journey every push that it needed.
For almost a year, I sat in on meetings, auditions and kept paperwork running smoothly. Something I was trained on early on was trusting the legal language and deadlines at my disposal. Keeping a cool head when things move quickly so that I could focus on what needed to be done remotely and efficiently versus what needed more careful consideration and teamwork. Before this formal Casting job, I had been doing the whole process on my own or with maybe fellow amateur Producers and Directors only. And, having been working non-union, I hadn’t been privy to knowing how casting works in the higher SAG/AFTRA ranks. Something that made my first round with Fincannon so special was their respect and belief in me from the start. They saw every ounce of passion in me and Mark and Lisa Mae took me under their wing and taught me to fly. The entire team at Fincannon continually inspires what I do every day. Right now, as the industry is on a downtrend and supporting the WGA Strike, I am so lucky to continue my relationship with F+A through events, everyone I have met in the last year, and our upcoming premieres!
In my time at F+A, I continued independently Casting for multimedia projects spanning between photoshoots, musical-theater, short films, and web-series works. Because one thing I do differently at this stage in my life is remain OPEN to possibilities. I will cast anything from LEADS to EXTRAS/BG talent. I can be quick and impulsive where it’s needed, but I will also take my time and give great consideration to projects and the talent that I hope to attach to them. My DREAM in this field is to Cast my first feature film and eventually become a Casting Director specifically for voiceover projects like cartoons, video games, VR, etc. Right now, I still cast any projects that come my way and have recently completed a training period with a Talent agency that taught me even more about this great Casting process. Agents are an extremely integral part of the greater film industry and to get to work alongside and with them is a high privilege that I do not take for granted. I find myself, in a pause, just wanting to reach out and try any part of this wonderful work. Every person in creative work is on a grand journey. I am ecstatic to see where mine takes me next and I hope to work more with F+A and other casting companies again very soon!
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
As stated in some of my other blurbs, the COVID-19 pandemic crisis taught me so much about taking pause with myself and considering my next moves. At the moment of state quarantines I had only lived my life in the very monotonous and dictated routine of being a child and student. I even though I was legally over 18 years old, my brain was still very much maturing and learning how to live alone in an apartment in a new city. I had lived in a dorm in Savannah with three roommates for a year and studied abroad with four housemates for a Summer and now, six months into my Atlanta stay, I was forced into complete physical and social isolation. My parents offered a plane-ride home but something told me to stay put, even if that something was complete and utter solitude. I turned 20 years old in Quarantine and then 21 years old. Birthdays that are meant for jubilation and celebration were spent on video calls and sleeping in. I studied Film school from my laptop and eventually set up a second monitor. The lack of ‘hands-on experiences’ promised to myself and my peers drove me to near-dropping out many times. I had started my college career wanting to be an actor or producer but I found those careers were still being taught to me while being completely halted to practice or pursue. For the good of public health and safety, of course I understood it and accepted it.
And then, in all of that isolation and bleakness, I have looked back and remember a lot of moments of complete self-acceptance. I curated a 69k Follower TikTok account. Because, when I accepted that my world of making things with others was GONE, I could always make something out of nothing. I had the app already and had been browsing it since Summer 2019, but people were starting to really attach themselves to it and brand themselves and even make human connections! I just went on and posted about me. I went back to my roots and my identity in wanting to connect with fellow LGBT people and Jewish people and artists/filmmakers. I want to make clear that I have since moved on from TikTok and so it’s not a big part of my life currently. Except for the few connections I made and the confidence that that era instilled in me as a creator and just as someone who loves myself. Now and during the height of the crisis, the world has been inundated with unnecessary conflict and hateful rhetoric that shapes harmful stereotypes and fear-mongers what we see on our screens and listen to everyday. That trend of hate has made me step away from social media over the years but being on TikTok and being a part of such a monumental movement as it was, that was really fun. The experience, the moments of real self-care, and all the time spent making art and content alone pushed me into knowing that the second the world was back in the light and my school was back on the ground, I would get going and get going fast! Whatever I wanted, I could do it. I also realized that I needed someone in case something like this ever happened again, and I went and adopted my first cat, Porpa!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mx.soph/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soph-abitbol
- Other: https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=rKVhxOKmc1g
Image Credits
Rou Marcellus, SCAD TV Fest
