Affirmative Action and Diversity

We champion your civil rights…

We educate…

We lobby those who can hire you…

We reach out to the community…

We support your committees…

We work tirelessly to advocate diverse hiring of underrepresented groups, including minorities, women and the disabled, in the entertainment industry.

We present career development programs, compile hiring statistics in our casting data reports and support of national committees for underrepresented groups…

Take a look at the many ways we strive to achieve our goal of “casting the American Scene.”

Programs

The Affirmative Action / Diversity Department serves the industry and the diverse SAG membership by providing the following free services:

• Career development programs such as panel discussions, career workshops, play readings with the WGA, cold readings with casting directors and talent showcases with CBS, NBC and ABC Television;
• Enforcement of non-discrimination and diversity contract provisions with respect to race/color, national origin, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, creed, religion, disability and age discrimination;
• Generation of casting lists for casting directors and producers using our Diversity, Special Skills and Talent Bank (now as part of your iActor profile)—a database of over 100,000 SAG actors, dancers, puppeteers, singers, stunt performers and voice-over professionals of all races/ethnicities, genders, ages, abilities/disabilities and language skills;
• Attendance, support and participation as speakers, advisors and/or sponsors in industry-related events, activities and initiatives that promote diversity in the industry;
• Diversity in Casting Incentives for projects that highlight the best in diversity casting, writing, and/or directing; and promote our Diversity in Casting Incentives for independent films;
• Employment statistics and analysis through our annual Casting Data Report;
• Studies and reports such as the African-American Television Report, Still Missing: Latinos In and Out of Hollywood and the most recent study, The Employment of Performers with Disabilities in the Entertainment Industry; and
• Committee support for the national Women’s, Senior Performers, Ethnic Employment Opportunities (EEO), Performers with Disabilities (PWD) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) committees; as well as the President’s American Indian National Task Force