AJ is a casting director and a member of the Casting Society of America and The Television Academy. She loves the perfect balance of consistent change. Every day, hour by hour, the scenes and actors change, depending on what she is casting.

“I love everything about my job, particularly that every day is not the same. I have gone from doing a diaper commercial in the morning to seeing people scream at Frank Gallagher in a Shameless audition at noon to leading a Hamlet audition that evening. There’s an adventure every day in my creative life.”

The Chicago-based company she works for is well known for location casting, and AJ and her colleagues have cast for such well known movies and television series as The Trial of the Chicago 7, Widows, The Bear (FX), Shameless (SHOWTIME), Lovecraft Country (HBO, pilot), Shining Girls (Apple TV), 61st Street (AMC), and the fourth installment of Fargo (FX). AJ has been nominated for three prestigious Artios Awards for casting and won the award for Chicago 7 and Lovecraft Country.

AJ’s love for all things theater inspires her to teach acting on the weekends in actors classrooms around the city and surrounding area: Black Box, the Actors Training Center, Actors Studio Chicago, and Green Room Studio. She runs a camera, reads opposite the actors, and gives constructive feedback. It’s fuel-injected acting instruction. Casting and acting are her passions, and she loves what she does because it’s all about interacting with other people.

“I can’t help myself—if you’re my Lyft driver, God bless you because you’re not going to annoy me. I’m going to annoy you. I’m going to make you audition for me before I get out of the car.”