Hi, I'm Zivie Owens, and I am the host of this podcast. Moms don't have time to read books.

I am also a newly minted USA Today bestselling author of the novel, Blank.

I've created a whole community of book lovers around this podcast, a publishing company,

reading retreats, a bookstore and more.

Learn more at zivimedia.com or follow me on social at Zibby Owens or join the community at Zibby Readers.

Jen Rudin is the author of Confessions of the Casting Director.

Jen grew up in New York City and was a professional child actor from age 8 until 17. She's an award- the casting director. Jen grew up in New York City and was a professional child

actor from age eight until 17. She's an award-winning casting director who spent seven years as

a casting executive at the Walt Disney Company, casting such beloved movies as The Incredibles, Chicken

Little, and the Princess and the Frog, and overseeing the casting for the Broadway and touring

companies of the Lion King and Mary Poppins.

She is the proud author of Confessions of a casting director published by Harper Collins, which is also a podcast.

Jen has written for Newsweek USA Today, The Forward, Kveller, and Backstage, and is currently working on a memoir.

She's also a marathon runner and proud running coach for New York Roadrunners. For more info,

visit www.orgian.com and follow Jen on Instagram at Rudin J. Welcome, Jen. Thank you so much

for coming on Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books to discuss confessions of a casting director.

Congratulations. Thank you. I'm such a fan of the show, so it's such a, it's just, I'm so glad I reached out. It's so exciting to finally see you in first, and I feel like we have similar paths from growing up on the Upper East Side and would have been certainly friends in school if we've met way back. Absolutely. Well, I'm delighted to have you on. Okay, tell everybody about the book, life story, how you became a casting director, all of that.

Sure. So I grew up in New York City in the 80s and desperately wanted to be on the Brady Bunch. I was watching the reruns and syndication with my sister, not realizing that they were reruns. So I wrote a letter to Channel 5 way back when

and said, if you ever need to replace Cindy, Brady, call me. Here's where I live and here's my phone number.

And then after that, I wrote to Annie on Broadway and wrote, and I actually got a really nice letter back from the stage manager saying, you know, we will let you know when the auditions are. So I loved the love boat. Eight is enough. I just wanted to be acting. And thankfully,

because I grew in New York City, I had access. And so there was a friend of mine in third grade.

His father worked for an ad agency. He connected me with an agent, and I started auditioning at age eight and then really stepped it up at

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