Vanessa Portillo
CEO/Casting Director
Vanessa's family involvement in the entertainment industry dates back to Hollywood's Golden Era. Vanessa started her career at an Extras Booking Agency and immediately showed promise. Soon, she was recruited to Central/Cenex Casting, where she spent 4 years casting Television Shows, Feature Films, Commercials and Music Videos. Vanessa's passion and operational mastery was noted by Shannon K. Dunn, an executive Vanessa met at Cenex, and in 2000 Shannon asked Vanessa to join as Partner of her newly formed company, Creative Extras Casting. Riding high on CEC's success, Vanessa achieved a major milestone, becoming CEO of Creative Extras Casting in 2003. For a full list of her current credits, find her on IMDB.
Today, Creative Extras Casting is at the forefront of Extras Casting and the path to which many make their way into Hollywood. CEC has been extremely fortunate to work with many wonderfully talented Directors, Producers, Assistant Directors, and Actors.
Sasha Adkinson
Casting Director
Sasha Adkinson is a Casting Superstar. Born and raised in Illinois. She found her way to L.A in the mid 90's to pursue a career in the Health and Fitness world. Shortly after, she landed on a film set and was immediately immersed in the world of Production. On a strange day she found herself working at Cenex Casting, where she was immediately Promoted to Casting Director and spent the next 5.5 years casting Background Actors for major Television and Film projects. She decided to take the jump and go Independent. She’s cast both Background and Principal Actors and everything in-between. Just look her up on IMDB for her current running resume.
Currently she’s teamed up with Vanessa Portillo and her Company Creative Extras Casting. They became fast friends while working at Cenex back in the 90’s and
throughout the years Sasha and Vanessa have been teaming up on projects.
Sasha's love for her work and tremendous attention to even the smallest of details make her one of the best in the industry and we are thrilled to have Sasha on board as a valuable member of our team!