WARNER BROS. TELEVISION CASTING'S MEG SIMON TO RETIRE; FINDLEY DAVIDSON TO SERVE AS WBTV'S HEAD OF NEW YORK CASTING

June 03, 2019

New York, New York - Warner Bros. Television's highly respected New York casting Vice President Meg Simon has retired after nearly two decades with the Studio and a highly accomplished career of more than 40 years as a renowned casting director and executive in television, theatre and motion pictures

WBTV casting Vice President Findley Davidson - who has worked closely with Simon for 12 years at the Studio - will now serve as WBTV's new head of New York casting

Tom Burke, WBTV Executive Vice President and Head of Casting, said: We are incredibly fortunate at Warner Bros. Television to have been associated with Meg for almost 20 years. She has a true love of actors, immense respect for writers and producers, and the impeccable taste to marry the right performer with the right material. Meg has been instrumental in helping to assemble dynamic and diverse casts for our television series, and we cannot thank her enough for her contributions to the Studio.

Burke continued: With Meg's retirement, we are extremely pleased that Findley will become our new head of New York casting and will continue to represent the company to the creative community in NYC. Findley has collaborated with Meg at WBTV for more than a decade and has played an important role in our success. We cannot wait for her to begin this new position.

Simon and Davidson have been instrumental in discovering New York-based performers for the Studio's scripted television series, working in conjunction with WBTV's Burbank-based lead casting executives. Select highlights of actors cast in WBTV series out of the New York office include:

Elizabeth Lail as Guinevere Beck on You

Camila Mendes as Veronica, Ashleigh Murray as Josie, and Casey Cott as Kevin on Riverdale

Aria Shahghasemi as Landon Kirby on Legacies

Chella Man as Jericho in season two of Titans; Chella is the first deaf, Asian, trans actor to be cast in a superhero series

Nicole Kang as Mary Hamilton and Camrus Johnson as Luke Fox on Batwoman

Tala Ashe as Zari Tomaz on DC's Legends of Tomorrow

Gugu Mbatha-Raw in her first on-camera role in the U.S., for the Bad Robot action-drama series Undercovers

Additionally, Simon and Davidson played a significant part in the casting of pilots for series such as Gotham and the upcoming Prodigal Son for FOX, Queen Sugar for OWN, Blindspot for NBC, Claws for TNT, What/If for Netflix and more. They have collaborated closely with executive producers such as Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Ava DuVernay, David Nutter and Lee Toland Krieger, among many others.

Simon is one of the most highly regarded casting executives in all of entertainment. During her career, she won five Artios Awards for excellence in casting, from a total of 13 nominations. Simon joined WBTV in 2002 after a five-year stint as Director, East Coast Casting, at FOX Broadcasting Company while simultaneously serving as Casting Director of the Sundance Theatre Lab. Before that, Simon had worked as an independent casting director for theatre (Broadway and Off Broadway), TV and film since 1976.

Simon maintained a long and successful association with Yale Repertory Theatre artistic director Lloyd Richards and playwright August Wilson, which resulted in her assembling casts for numerous Broadway productions of Wilson's acclaimed Pittsburgh Cycle of plays, including Fences, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, Joe Turner's Come and Gone and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, all directed by Richards.

Her Broadway credits also include several of the most significant plays in U.S. theatre history, including Tony Kushner's Angels in America, for director George C. Wolfe; David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly, for director John Dexter; Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues, for director Gene Saks; the revival of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, for director Jose Quintero; and David Rabe's Hurlyburly, for director Mike Nichols, among many others. She began her career as casting director for the Broadway production of Trevor Griffiths' Comedians, also directed by Mike Nichols.

Davidson joined WBTV's New York casting department as Manager in 2007, was named Director in 2012 and promoted to Vice President in 2017. She worked with Simon as Casting Director for the Sundance Theatre Lab in 2008 and 2009. Before WBTV, Davidson worked in casting at Nickelodeon and for Bernard Telsey Casting. She began her career in production on HBO's Sex and the City and also worked for nearly two years in creative services at HBO.

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