Legacy Honoree's Eye for Talent Pays Off
By Craig Kuhl -- Multichannel News, 3/25/2007 8:00:00 PM
The NAMIC Vision Awards this year is bestowing its most prestigious honors to a woman who, at a very early age, heeded her parents' counsel to follow her passion.
For Robi Reed, that passion — matching gifted actors with the right roles — earned her a reputation in the film industry as a go-to casting director and talented young producer. And now it has earned her this year's Legacy Award, presented to “a trailblazing individual who has made an indelible impact on the diversity landscape.”
Reed has more than 40 films to her credit, along with two Emmy Awards, a Trumpet Award for the Cable ACE Award-winning film Heatwave and a Casting Society of America Award for her work on in the Spike Lee film Malcolm X.
“I always knew I wanted to be a casting director,” Reed said. “I'm an avid reader and couldn't read a book without putting an actor in a role.”
Advancing the principles and causes of National Association of Multi-Ethnicity in Communications, and for African-Americans in general, has been a career highlight for Reed.
“Employing 100% African-Americans in front of the camera and 90% behind the camera, I felt we were making history,” she said. “And NAMIC's award is awesome. I've been available to speak on various panels and last year was an honorary chair for its awards event. I'm looking to see where I can be more involved with them.”
Among Reed's most recent credits is The Bible Experience, which united more than 200 actors and musicians, including Denzel Washington and Angela Bassett, to dramatically re-enact the entire text of The New and Old Testament. She is credited as casting director and an executive producer.
“I want to move into producing faith-based, healthy lifestyle stories and I'm developing some to sole produce,” Reed said. “I'm not entirely moving away from casting, but more to producing. I'm just being steered in that direction.”
Reed's career has been guided by a work ethic that she learned from her mentor, the late Peter Long. “I was part of the Quincy Jones workshop,” she said, “and he liked to tell me that I have to be ready whenever opportunity knocks and learn as much about my career as possible. It takes preparation and time.”
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