The Art of Finding Faces:Inside the World of Street Casting

Long before a camera rolls, a film begins with a face. The search for that face—the person who can embody a character and bring a story to life—has always been one of filmmaking's most important creative decisions. In 2026, the Academy Awards formally recognized that contribution by introducing Best Casting as a competitive category for the first time in 98 years. For many, it was a long-overdue acknowledgment of a craft that has always been central to filmmaking. As director Martin Scorsese once observed, "More than ninety percent of directing a picture is the right casting."

At the same time, street casting has become increasingly visible across both fashion and film. What began as a practice of discovering models on the street has evolved into a search for real people whose lives, experiences, and presence can bring authenticity to the screen. In recent years, filmmakers have increasingly blurred the line between actors and non-actors. In Sirât, nominated for Best International Feature Film and Best Sound, the principal cast included real ravers. For Marty Supreme, casting director Jennifer Venditti, who received an Oscar nomination for Best Casting in 2026, recruited many performers directly from New York's streets. Other films, including The Secret Agent and One Battle After Another, cast first-time performers ranging from seamstress Tânia Maria to retired Homeland Security Investigations special agent James Raterman. As professional actors increasingly share the screen with people drawn from everyday life, new textures, chemistries, and layers emerge. Often, street scouts are the first to discover these individuals, guiding them from a sidewalk, a social media profile, or a niche community into an audition room.

For this behind-the-scenes conversation, New Wave spoke with Zihan ("Z") Yang, a New York-based street scout and talent scout whose work spans feature films, television, music videos, and commercial campaigns. Collaborating with casting directors known for their expertise in real-people casting—including Damian Bao (Port Authority), Kate Antognini (The Drama), and Casting Double (Earth Mama)—Yang specializes in discovering authentic new talent from communities often overlooked by traditional casting methods. Moving through New York City's diverse neighborhoods, they search for distinctive faces and personalities that bring realism and specificity to the screen.

Yang holds a BFA in Film & Television from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and has scouted for projects including the upcoming A24 television series Superfakes, starring Lucy Liu; Ira Sachs' The Man I Love, which premiered in competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival; the HYBE × Ryan Tedder global boy group search; Grammy Award-winning artist Chappell Roan's music video The Subway; and Jack Harlow's music video Trade Places. Their commercial work includes scouting for major brands such as Adidas, SP5DER, Starbucks, HOKA, Nike, eBay, Arc'teryx, and Hinge. From discovering emerging Gen Z talent to uncovering the unique characters that define New York City, Yang's work sits at the intersection of casting, culture, and contemporary storytelling. As they put it, "There's always something new. You never know what you'll find on the street."

Yang first became fascinated with street scouting during a summer internship on Marty Supreme under Jennifer Venditti. "Going out on the street with some of the greatest street scouts in New York made me realize this was the coolest job in the world," they recall. In a city shaped by countless cultures, identities, and histories, being a street scout often feels like a continuous act of observing life itself. At its core, film street casting is about finding someone whose real-life presence genuinely resembles the character being written for the screen. In a city as diverse as New York, doing so requires a deep understanding of neighborhoods, communities, and social dynamics.

In their day-to-day work, Yang begins each project with extensive research before ever stepping onto the street. After breaking down a script, they seek to understand not only the character but also the cultural and historical context of the communities they belong to. They then identify the neighborhoods, events, and social spaces where those individuals might realistically be found, immersing themselves in those worlds to discover authentic talent. 

For A24 and Peacock's upcoming Chinatown-set crime drama Superfakes, starring Lucy Liu and executive produced by Josh and Benny Safdie, Yang searched through Asian diaspora and West African communities in Chinatown, Brooklyn's Eighth Avenue, Flushing, Harlem, and the Bronx. For Ira Sachs' The Man I Love, a film centered on New York's LGBTQ community, Yang spent months attending drag shows and queer nightlife events across the city in search of background performers with genuine ties to that world. Similarly, while working on Marty Supreme, Yang and a team of scouts spent an entire summer attending ping-pong tournaments and events throughout New York City, embedding themselves in the community in search of the right faces.

Scouting itself is an intensely social profession. It requires quickly reading a person's appearance, energy, and presence, then establishing trust within minutes to determine whether they may be right for a role. Promising candidates are filmed on the spot for interview questions closely related to the character and sometimes tape auditions on the spot where they are discovered, then presented to casting directors, but the process depends as much on instinct as it does on interpersonal skill.

"If I have a bad start to the day, I might miss the gems," Yang says. "It's an exchange of energy."

They recall spotting a teenager skateboarding home through Chinatown, his face partially hidden beneath a cap. "I could see him from across the street, and I just knew," Yang remembers. Drawn to his rebellious yet effortless charm, they approached him. That teenager, Preston Key, would later become the face of an Adidas × SP5DER campaign. Moments like these, where a split-second impression evolves into a successful casting discovery, define the art of street scouting.

Yet the work is not simply a matter of luck. Much of it involves persistence, patience, and an acceptance of uncertainty. "Sometimes you have the luck, sometimes you don't," Yang says. "And sometimes you put yourself in difficult or even dangerous situations."

While scouting in nightclubs in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for one project, Yang encountered racial harassment while approaching potential talent. "I tried not to take it personally, but it's hard because it's a real person saying it directly to you." To work on the street is to encounter people in their rawest and most unpredictable forms. Scouts navigate unfamiliar environments, uncomfortable interactions, and unexpected situations while using their own instincts and experiences as tools for observation. In many ways, the job becomes an ongoing study of human behavior. That subjectivity is also what makes street casting unique. Give the same project to several street casting directors or scouts of different ages, identities, and experiences, and each may discover an entirely different group of people. Those differences ultimately leave a personal imprint on the final work.

Toward the end of our conversation, Yang reflected on the responsibility that comes with the role. Since entering the industry, they have continually considered the relationship between themselves, the projects they work on, and the people they discover. What matters most, they explain, is thinking carefully about which faces are ultimately brought into an image and approaching people—whether online or on the street—with good intentions, respect, and care.

The people street scouts discover are often deeply connected to their own experiences and sensibilities. Their instincts shape the kinds of individuals they are drawn toward, and those instincts become part of how they interpret the world itself. That intimate connection between personal experience and the search for talent remains central to the understanding of casting. Whether in film, television, or a thirty-second commercial, whether a lead actor or someone who appears only briefly, these faces will eventually be seen, interpreted, and transformed into symbols. Over time, they return to reality and influence how audiences understand the era in which they live.

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