Casting director, producer, director, actor, and teacher, Jeffery Passero has a successful feature film casting career of over 60 movies, including Poison Ivy with Drew Barrymore, Nick Cage’s Sonny with James Franco, Flypaper with Lucy Liu (which he co-produced), and The Sasquatch Gang with Justin Long for Kevin Spacey’s Trigger Street Films. Passero also produced Power 98 with Eric Roberts (HBO Movie) and Debating Robert Lee with Kaley Cuoco and Beau Bridges. He began his acting career at New York’s Roundabout Theatre (Pins and Needles, You Never Can Tell) before taking over the casting there for two seasons, casting actors such as Danny Glover, Kelsey Grammer, and Malcolm McDowell. Passero trained as an actor with Terry Schreiber and Larry Moss, studied at HB Studios (Uta Hagen, Ed Moorhouse). He began his undergraduate studies in Speech & Drama at Catholic University and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Journalism at The University of Connecticut. He and his wife Amy are co-producers of It Shoulda Been You, the new musical, directed by David Hyde Pierce (with Tyne Daly) recently on Broadway. The Passeros are also producing the new Lonny Price musical Kiki Baby (NY Musical Theatre Festival-Fall 2011 and winner of the New American Musical Award). Kiki Baby will premiere at NY’s York Theatre in 2018. Mr. Passero directed a production of Cabaret at Malibu Playhouse, produced by Dick Van Dyke, and Simon Gray’s Molly at The Victory Theatre Center.
Mr. Passero is casting and producing the film Butterfly in the Typewriter, the life story of “A Confederacy of Dunces” author John Kennedy Toole. The film stars Susan Sarandon and shoots this spring in New Orleans. Passero also wrote (and performs in) Casting Aspersions, his play about his life as a casting director.
Jeffrey Passero