Indefinable Beauty

Client briefs often require the kinds of international talent you would expect to find on the streets of Berlin, New York, Paris or London.

It turns out one will also find them in Cape Town!

These people defy stereotypes and celebrate their own individuality. They form a "diverse range of diversity"!

(This is a mouthful, but take a peek at the portfolio below to understand what we're talking about.)

These beautifully interesting people fall outside of traditional and conventional casting types. In fact, they fall into a completely unique category in itself. They offer international, borderless appeal, or - indefinable beauty.

Undefined by gender, ethnicity, nationality, education, lifestyle, creed and so much more. Instead, defined by fluidity and eclecticism.

No matter the brief, rest assured we have international-looking talent available in South Africa. And very often, the talent might well even be from abroad, but have settled in South Africa!

Looking for talent with particular skills? Look no further.

Imagine being asked to find an Asian person who can create origami with their non dominant hand? Believe it or not, we have been tasked with this project, and we succeeded.

In the last 24 years, we've cast 1000s of international and local commercials that require talent with a broad (and often unique) range of skills. We often see leading telecommunication, beverage and sport brands return to cast in South Africa ahead of major international sporting and World Cup events. This is because in South Africa, we’re deemed the rainbow nation for a reason - we have exceptionally skilled individuals and teams who come from all walks of life.

Because our country has such a diverse pool of talent, we can find people who practice specialised sports or professions with passion and commitment – at a social, professional, or Olympic level. Whether that’s a martial arts expert, stunt performer, high diver, circus performer, figure gamer, card gamer, board gamer, professional actors, model, characterful person, adorable child, real-life family – the list goes on (and on).

Where it can be challenging is to find people who practice a sport or activity that is specific to a certain country (for example, a Japanese Sumo Wrestler or an American Footballer). However, as always, we’re ready to meet the challenge. For example, to find an American Footballer, we had to be creative and collaborate with the relevant sporting bodies to find sportsmen who have the ball skills and the physique of American Football players. 

---

skills in action

Here are commercials we’ve cast that show our skilled actors in action.

Samsung Defiance

The brief was to find a range of inspiring, competitive sportspeople, each with a physical disability, and prosthetic leg or arm – fast (the project landed on a Friday afternoon, and was shot the following Thursday).

We extended the search for the sportspeople countrywide, and reached out to sports clubs, swimmers, and runners, among others. We asked each individual to send us a self-tape footage. It sounded like a tall order, but with the amazing collaboration of all sorts of people within the sporting world, we did it!

We sent a brief out on the Friday afternoon and followed up with various sports bodies and contacts. We collated all footage we received on the Monday and presented it to our clients. By Tuesday we had confirmed the cast and flights were being booked!

This commercial also required a charismatic young boy dancing in the street near his home. We received more than 100 self-tapes of talented, exuberant boys dancing over that weekend and presented them to our clients. The boy selected for the shoot danced with joy and rhythm, both in his self-tape and on set.

Producer: Peter Sherlock

Production company: Farm Film

Surya Pro Mild - The Chase

This commercial, with the feel of an action film’s high-speed chase, not only required talent with very specific skills, but also required them to have a Pan Asian and Hispanic look. We needed to find a talented skateboarder, drone flyer and parkour artist.

We opened the search countrywide. We also had to take a creative casting approach on this, since not everyone could get to the casting studio. So, we also worked virtually with talent, via self-tapes of each artist doing the relevant skilled activity.

Director: Dick Buckley

Producer: Nadia Boshoff

Production company: Navigator Films

Müllerlight Greek-style

We cast for a series of Müller yoghurt ads that showcased world champion, Olympic, British athletes. Our job was to find the supporting cast and athletes that looked athletically competitive (placed on the same field as the celebrity sportspeople), to create the feel of a real sports event with real competitors for the record-setting lead athletes.

In this commercial, Katerina Johnson-Thompson is seen in an ancient Greek style arena, and the comedy plays off around her with a powerfully built discus thrower and comedic actors. We scouted through sports clubs, sports agents and a broad range of contacts to find the powerfully built discus thrower seen in this story. The audience and king were also Cape Town based actors.

Director: Russell Bates

Producer: Skip Margetts and Candice McKay

Production company: Farm Film

#WhatIReallyReallyWant​ | Global Goals

An update of the Spice Girls’ Wannabe music video, this commercial showcases women from around the world, highlighting common issues that affect women in different countries.

We were tasked with finding dancers who could represent women from Africa and other countries, to create a unity in this vision that what “we really really want” is a world where all women are safe and empowered.

Producer: Kate Murray and Kabelo Seane

Production company: Farm Film

ŻYWIEC : EQUITY

We cast for stunt performers happy to sit on top of a moving car, piano-playing men and deep-sea divers. Luckily Cape Town has it all, and we were able to cast for all roles in the same city as the shoot location.

Director: Kuba Michalczuk

Producer: Marchant Bellingan

Service Production Company: Smokin’ Gun Productions

Looking for talent with a specific skill? Contact us – we cover almost anything requested.

Cast South Africa, Cast the World!

South Africa has a diverse pool of talent, which means we can find amazing faces for commercials flighting in many territories and markets globally.

As Casting Directors, we find the talent (actors) to match the story. Research on the advertising target audience influences the story of each commercial. We find talent who are relatable to the audience so they can identify with the talent and the story.

Diversity is about viewing individuals as unique. No matter our race, age, ethnicity, or gender identification. Diversity is about encouraging everyone to be their authentic selves. No matter our socio-economic status, political views, religious beliefs, or ideologies.

With diversity as a huge asset in our Rainbow Nation, we have access to talent from all walks of life. This means that within SA we’ll usually find someone that any specific audience can relate to. That's why Kayos believes that by casting in South Africa, we can cast for the whole world.

Brands use extensive market research to profile the ideal customer for their products. The research determines the age, ethnicity, gender, financial status etc of their audience. The results inform the company about which talent they should use to for their ads to be successful.

Where products and services are for “everyone”, the advertising campaign requires more diversity (like this commercial for pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly - a milestone international casting job of ours). Where products target a specific audience, you’ll often notice more specific talent in the ad (like this Amazon Alexa commercial we cast for).

No matter what a company is looking for, we find talent to meet briefs. They can either be very specific or diverse in ethnicities and looks. Thats’ why we love casting from the South African talent pool! We are lucky to have a diverse breadth of talent on our doorstep, for all casting requirements

---

Diversity in action

Here are commercials we’ve cast where diversity is represented in various ways:

Bring Back the Wow

Garden products are often associated with suburban families, middle aged parents, and neat gardens. On this project, the director tasked us with the opposite. We were to find the full range of people who could be using the product to make the commercial, and therefore the product, relevant to a wider audience. Various ethnicities, ages and looks are represented by the talent in the commercial, to create a universal reach. It was on-trend and reached a younger consumer, including individuals who might not previously have related to the brand.

---

GE: Ecomagination

This project required talent who had a sense of rhythm, could line dance and be choreographed, represent people from around the world. The cast and dancers include men and women of a range of ages and ethnicities, all of whom fit the bill!

---

Levi’s: Use Your Vote!

We were briefed to find amazing talent from diverse walks of life to show both the enduring legacy of Levi’s, and remind everyone that we have things in common, however different we might seem. In this case, the common cause was our right to vote. We found actors who represented a range of ethnicities, physical abilities, ages, religions, and socio-economic groups. In short, we captured different senses of identity based on all kinds of factors.

---

Our talent

PDF’s of South African talent by ethnic look.

A peak at some of the talent we have available in our Rainbow Nation.

We’re are fortunate to operate in SA because of the thriving film service industry here. Commercials shot in SA flight worldwide, in all territories around the globe. That’s in part because of the diverse local talent, who can capture any brand’s story. South Africa is a great example of the expression melting pot. There is someone for every commercial in our country!

Below are some presentations of talent who could work for various territories around the world.

↓ African American looking talent

↓ Indian looking talent

↓ Middle Eastern looking talent

↓ Pan Asian looking talent

↓ Northern European looking talent

↓ Pan African looking talent

↓ Ethnically Ambiguous looking talent

↓ Southern European looking talent