Today we’d like to introduce you to Killian McHugh.
Hi Killian, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I got into commercial casting around 2002-ish as a lobby person, then assistant then camera person then onto official Casting Director. I started teaching because when I was a camera person my boss said I needed to start a class because I had a habit of “teaching” all the actors I was supposed to be auditioning. So I came up with a four weeks workshop, known as The Adult Workshop and I had ten actors the first month. About six of them booked right after the class so all the agents became interested and started sending me their new actors and it grew organically into the most successful four weeks workshop in LA. I can’t really explain what I do, I can just see you on screen as the actor, tweak it and make it better. It’s also all about the actor, and being completely bluntly honest with them.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Well if you mean teaching? Yes, the workshop grew very organically and mostly from word of mouth. I never measure success by the money I bring in, I measure it by bookings of the actors taking my class. Killian’s Workshop has the most bookings / success stories for almost 20 years now!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I started at the very bottom rung of the casting ladder and worked my way up. I worked as an assistant to every major commercial casting office in LA when I first started out. I then became a permanent session director for one of the top three offices in LA and was then promoted to casting director by that same office. I worked there for about a decade. Our speciality was comedy. I am most proud of two things: All the actor bookings after taking the class, and not just the bookings. Actor’s constantly message me and tell them the class helped them in other aspects of life. I have always tried to teach “big picture”. And also I am very proud of my segment on Conan O’Brien. His segments out and about town usually last between 4-6 minutes but my spot with him teaching him how to audition was a quarter of the show. The editors reached out to me and said they couldn’t cut anymore because it was all too funny. It was labeled an instant classic the next day by the Huffington Post. Oh wait, three things lol, I am the only acting coach ever to receive a front-page article in the LA times (Arts section) What sets me apart from others is I have no personal agenda when I teach. It is all about the actor and making sure they book the job!
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
You have to have a very thick skin to be an actor. It will be a formula of no no no, occasional yes, no no, occasional yes. What I wish I understood better when I first got into the industry is NOTHING IS PERSONAL!! It’s all just business. If you can’t separate the two concepts you will have a terrible terrible experience trying to pursue the art of acting.
Pricing:
- My classes are 300 $ for 4 weeks via zoom and some live at the moment. There are several different classes for different levels of your career
Contact Info:
- Website: killiansworkshop.com
- Instagram: Killiansworkshop
- Facebook: Killiansworkshop
- Twitter: Killiansworkshop
