Daily Inspiration: Meet Claire Cummings

Today we’d like to introduce you to Claire Cummings.

Hi Claire, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
In November of 2023, I had the honor of having an article published with Voyage LA – and since then a lot has changed. When contacted again to give an update on my story, I’m happy to talk about where I have landed and how I have grown in my career since then. Now in May of 2025, and close to my 27th birthday, I have a completely new set of skills, gained a full time position doing something I had always dreamed of doing, and accomplished something I was told by many wasn’t going to be possible.

Briefly to speak to my background – after graduating college in 2020, I moved from Cincinnati, Ohio to Los Angeles to pursue a career in entertainment. I wanted to experience it all – from writing, to producing, to working on a set, to being the talent in front of the camera, to working behind the scenes at a talent agency – I wanted to feel the pulse of this industry, and find my place. And that is exactly what I did.

I went from working at a production company as a screenwriter for a television show and commercial producer, to an assistant at Innovative Artist’s in the BTL department, to working as a production coordinator and manager on many sets including Vogue, to acting and modeling in my spare time.

Then, I left Los Angeles, but not completely as you will soon see. I didn’t leave because I didn’t love it, I just loved my family more. And I told everyone, I’m still pursuing a career in entertainment – and I can do that from Cincinnati. A lot of people thought that was a funny concept, or looked disappointed in my decision, telling me I’ll never be successful if I’m not in Los Angeles or New York. People did not believe me that I could live in Ohio and work in entertainment.

For all those that feel they want to work in this industry, but don’t want to make the sacrifice of moving far away and living in big city – I hope to show you that it IS possible.

Once I moved back, I hit the ground running with all of my new experience, connecting with all the Cincinnati based production companies. I worked with Lotus Shark to help run the OTR film festival and interviewed actors on the red carpet, I worked with a lovely local costume designer on commercial sets, I worked with Lightborne on numerous commercial shoots for P&G. But whose to say all Cincinnati shoots are commercial shoots? Because shortly after my article was published in November of 2023, I was lucky enough to be hired as the production coordinator for a Netflix shoot with Dave Chappelle and Morgan Freeman. It was a quick turnaround job and we pulled off logistical complexities and last minute location changes, and it was an extremely fulfilling experience to know we accomplished producing a Netflix trailer in such a quick and efficient manner.

I’d like to bring up a quote from my last article from 2023: “I also decided I wanted to do more work in front of the camera, and recently became repped by a talent agency for modeling and acting.”

Flash forward to summer of 2024, little did I know I would land my first role as a series regular in season 3 of a TV show produced in Cincinnati, and aired on Tubi.

After being told by a friend about Storybook Entertainment Group – a production company in Cincinnati, they happened to be running auditions for the 3rd season of a Tubi television show called Ace of Spades. I went to the audition – and was asked back a couple more times, until I was offered the role of “Detective Kelly” on a show about a Queenpin running an underground operation out of Miami that wreaks havoc in Cincinnati.

While a lot of scenes were shot on location around Cincinnati, part of the show was also shot at a studio in Detroit.

A dream of mine had always been “I just want lines in a TV show or movie” because I’d done a lot of background acting. And here I was realizing that dream. Since then, we’ve had a red carpet event and I’ve done several interviews ad podcasts speaking about my experience on the show. Season 3 should be dropping shortly on Tubi! 🙂

But to move into the present – to quote again a line from my last article, I wrote: “I’m also currently looking to get into the casting space, as I’ve dabbled in it, but it’s something I love to do and want to do more of. I’m constantly learning every day and always open to trying new things as I shape and mold what I want my future to look like.”

Since this statement I made about looking to dabble in casting – I am now super happy to say I am a full time Casting Director at a Los Angeles Studio and production company in the Influencer Marketing and Social Media ad space.

I saw something I wanted, chased it, and even from Cincinnati, Ohio, here I am, working fully remote for a Los Angeles studio. It’s not impossible to work in the entertainment industry from the comfort of your home town, right next to the ones you love the most. I am accomplishing what people told me was impossible – but I absolutely always believed that somehow I would find a way.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Landing this current Casting Director job was not a smooth road, but an interesting story! When I was working at Innovative Artists, I met a girl there named Mei – and we quickly became close friends. We car pooled to work everyday from our Hollywood apartments, and sang songs and talked about life, and quickly formed such a supportive bond. We are both high achievers that want to succeed, and when you put two of those people together – it’s a recipe for a powerful support system.

Mei started a podcast called “Pardon my Success,” where she dives into the creative process of all facets of the entertainment industry. She brings on guests that are professionals in a multitude of aspects of the industry and gets their take on how to be successful, and how to execute a dream. One of those guests on her podcast, would become my future coworker.

She was interviewing a casting director that works at this studio, and my ears perked up when I heard that she works fully remotely for a Los Angeles studio. I told Mei to please connect me with her, I absolutely want to do learn how she’s doing what she’s doing. Mei made the introduction, we connected and chatted, and that was that.

7 months later – I get an email from her – asking me if I’m available to do some freelance casting work for a couple months. From there, a couple months became a lot longer- I became a contractor at the company for almost a year, growing in my role, until I became a Casting Director a long side the rest of the casting team. Then in March of 2025, I was offered a full time position at the company – finally accomplishing the goal that I had set out to do – and it all started by taking a chance, and the support Mei and I had have for each other to succeed.

Flash forward to today, and I’m happily able to return the favor to Mei – I can pitch her for commercial shoots, and often am able to book her on acting jobs – which is such a fulfilling full circle moment. Advice you can take from this: your peers in the entertainment industry are the strongest connections you should make – because the day is slowly coming where me, and more and more of my peers are moving up the ladders and holding positions of leadership, where we are here to hold out a hand and pull each other up and help each other achieve our dreams.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a casting director in the influencer marketing and social media ad space, I am tasked everyday with finding the top talent for each client’s specific needs. Working with numerous clients in all different spaces such as cosmetics, hair, beauty, to clothing, bras, and shapewear, to detergents, cat litter, and dog food – it’s an exhilarating hunt everyday to find and pitch talent for an array of creative ad concepts.

I put out casting posts, do direct outreach on Instagram and Tiktok, to reach the talent we need. After looking through casting materials such as self tapes, location photos, the talent’s previous UGC experience, acting ability, or script reading efficiency – I compile my top choices into a pitch deck to present to the client or our creative team of strategists and producers, and from there we book our talent and we make the magic happen.

Suddenly I’m scrolling through TikTok and my company’s ad appears, and I see the talent I found perform, and it’s so fulfilling to see someone else succeed, and that I was able to help them get there.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Absolutely! As I had already mentioned, my friend Mei definitely deserves the credit for making the introduction that would land me my casting job.

And Karen Davis from Storybook Entertainment, the writer and producer from Ace of Spades – I have to thank her for seeing potential in me as an actor and giving me the opportunity to portray her character on screen.

I’ve also had a lot of cheerleaders, one being my dad. He has always believed in me that I would accomplish anything I set out to do, even if it seemed unlikely. When everyone doubted me that I could live in Cincinnati but work in Los Angeles and in this industry – he never did. He always told me “If anyone was going to do it, it would be you.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm12568524?ref_=hm_nv_usr_profile
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claire_marie15/?hl=en
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-cummings7
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/_t4H3nSlW04?feature=shared

Image Credits
Leah Klosterman
StoryBook Entertainment Group