History of Mad Dog Casting

Mad Dog Casting is a leading extras casting agency in the UK. The company takes pride in finding the best faces for every job and ensuring that the supporting artists on the Mad Dogs books are the most reliable and easiest to work with.

Mad Dog was started in 1999 by Ilenka Jelowicki and Sumie Macalpine-Downie. The girls established the company at the tender ages of 25 and 28, with some small savings and a couple of maxed out credit cards.

They set up in a small and cramped office above a cheap shoe seller in Camden and spent the first 6 months signing people to the agency. This was closely followed by the company's first project, a television show for ITV called The Hunt.
Mad Dog went from strength to strength and after a move to a small office in Soho they finally moved to a large converted warehouse space in Kentish Town, which housed four fulltime staff and a plethora of mad pet dogs from 2004 until 2009.  

In 2005, the company expanded further afield, opening an office in Bath to provide the same high quality service as the London office, for the Mid/ West region. In response to the exciting developments in the Welsh film industry, this office has recently relocated and been relaunched in Cardiff, though it still has many active artists in the Bath and Bristol region, which it continues to service.

In 2009, Maziar Yazdanian and James Bulmer, two young, dynamic entrepreneurs who own a number of management companies, bought Mad Dog. Their intention was to build on the foundations laid by Ilenka and take the company to the next level. That same year, they moved all of their companies into the impressive Holborn Town Hall. A vibrant team, combining old and new dogs, is bringing a new energy to this growing company.

Despite its continuing growth, the company still holds true to its core beliefs: that every client is special, no matter whether they are looking for 5 or 5,000 supporting artists. We are true to our name, not mad, but as dogs: loyal, hard working and friendly.