Backstage

Literally any other casting site is better than Backstage. Actor's Access is amazing and so is Casting Networks- they have legitimate projects, they check who's posting beforehand and their customer service is truly helpful. Backstage allows projects that have not been checked yet to publicly post. I've had so many unprofessional experiences and interactions on Backstage and since sharing this with more people, have been told by those more experienced than me, that Backstage is a total waste of time. I think it used to be good back in the day, but now it's associated with non-professional postings and roles. They also automatically enroll you in a following year after signing up, just like a really bad gym membership, whereas after each year, Actor's Access does not charge you, they contact you to let you know your year is ending and to see if you would like to renew. You can find the same postings and better on AA and CN.

As a producer rather than an actor, this website used to be amazing until recently.

Customer service WILL NOT respond to you. If they send you an email asking something, they'll pretend that they never saw your response. It seems like a big mess, where multiple people are sending you emails, but they never go back and read the whole conversation.

If you're someone looking to cast people for a job, Backstage is not the site to use.

Although the people posting jobs are legit, the actual company itself has terrible customer service. I signed up for one year in order to take advantage of the discount instead of paying a monthly rate. The customer service was terrible, they do everything by email and don't call you back, which is extremely unprofessional. So I decided I did not want to renew my subscription for another year. They charged my card with out asking for my permission, I found out about it on my bank statement at the end of the month and when I called to cancel and get a refund they said I only had 5 days after they charged my card to cancel. If they had sent a receipt like they are supposed to I could then have cancelled in the 5 days following. Save your time and money and use a more professional services like Actors Access, I know I will be.

Backstage was good because it made casting easy.
I was able to work with actors and find the perfect team.
But, I had to wait for my project to be reviewed which takes forever.
Then, I had to pay a 10.00 fee to message actors.
I can't keep spending money this way,
So I think Backstage is money-sucking even though it's good.

To make a long story short. The platform has major issues. You submit to a project with resume attached. The platform asks you to add photos and videos to each submission.
The photos and videos and already in the resume.
Not a friendly site needs updating.

They are highly professional and respond quickly to clients! Website is very intuitive and easy to navigate. The secure system they have also allows clients to pay you directly (and quickly) through their partner site!

I highly recommend!

Backstage has furnished a plethora of VO jobs, but their range of jobs offered is too wide. I'm an 86-year old man, and my voice can pass for 45 years up, but I get constant calls for women, children etc. I spend at least an hour a day searching through leads that simply do not fit my voice. Then Backstage shows me a disclaimer saying my age range (45-86) does not meet the requirement of the VO submitted. They should apply the parameters more closely to mine.

Great site, defiantly worth using for castings if you are are in the US. Unfortunately I am not, so I requested to cancel my membership. Expecting difficulty (which is usually the case with cancellations) I got a friendly and understanding response from the team and full refund.
Will carry on using the free subscription but gutted I can't utilise it's full membership cause of being UK based.

For the second time in a week I needed to clarify something on one of my backstage applications. It was a very important question regarding whether or not one If my invites for an audition was fraudulent. Stephanie my backstage customer service representative spent a long time searching the title and producer and found it even though I kept giving her the wrong spellings. She gave me spot on advice of what to do. She saved me a three hour trip, a lot of money and what would've been a horrible experience if I went on the audition. Very good customer service at Backstage.

The Backstage site was brilliant - I was able to refine the search for jobs near me, which is important as a young person in full time education. It was easy to apply to roles, and I was notified whenever casting directors had shown interest in my profile. However, I had problems uploading videos to my account, so was never able to showcase footage of me performing online. I would say that though the emails I received were tailored to my playing ability, some were not completely suitable based on the information I entered into my account, and the emails were far too frequent, flooding my inbox with sometimes 4 or 5 a day. Had I had time, I'm sure I would have made the most of the information, but it was too much to sift through every day, and many potential opportunities probably slipped my notice as a result.