Avy Kaufman


Avy Kaufman is an American casting director for film and television.

Early life

Kaufman is from Atlanta. She relocated to New York City in 1976 to study ballet.

Career

Kaufman originally worked in casting for advertising at Foote, Cone & Belding, often print ads, for six years, then transitioned to feature films.
Kaufman initially did not succeed at becoming a casting director for film and worked at casting extras. Eventually director John Sayles came across her doing location casting and hired her to cast his film Matewan. Jodie Foster then hired her to cast Little Man Tate. She later met director Ang Lee, which helped to further her career.
Kaufman has cast more than 150 film and television productions and worked with directors including Steven Spielberg and Wes Craven. Her casting credits include Brokeback Mountain, Mare of Easttown, Succession, Babygirl, Tár and The Sixth Sense.

Accolades

Kaufman received the 2005 Hollywood Casting Director of the Year award given by the Hollywood Film Festival.
She received a 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series for her work on Damages: Season 1 and in 2020 & 2022 for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series for Succession: Seasons 2-3. She had earlier been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special for her work on the romance drama television miniseries Empire Falls.
Kaufman has been nominated for eighteen Artios Awards, and has won three.

Filmography

DateTitleNotes
1989Miss Firecracker
1991Little Man Tate
1991The Super
1993Searching for Bobby Fischer
1995Home for the Holidays
1996Lone Star
1997The Ice Storm
1998Rounders
1999The Sixth Sense
2000State And Main
2001Save The Last Dance
2001Blow
2003Dogville
2004Garden State
2004Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events
2005Brokeback Mountain
2005Zathura: A Space Adventure
2006Bonneville
2007My Blueberry Nights
2007The Bourne Ultimatum
2007American Gangster
2008Sunshine Cleaning
2009Taking Woodstock
2009Solitary Man
2009Leaves of Grass
2009Public Enemies
2009Brothers
2010Salt
2010Let Me In
2011Scream 4
2011The Ledge
2011Shame
2012Prometheus
2012Life of Pi
2014Before I Disappear
2014A Walk Among the Tombstones
2014The Skeleton Twins
2015The Salvation
2017Our Souls at Night
2019Capone
2019Driveways
2020Let Him Go
2023Jules
2025Death of a Unicorn

Television

DateTitleNotes
2005Empire Falls
2007Gossip Girl
2008Damages Pilot
2016The Night Of
2016Billions
2019-2023Succession
2020High Fidelity
2021Mare of Easttown
2016The OA
2023A Murder at the End of the World
2025Dope Thief