Bess Fifer Casts Her Way to Hollywood Success

By Brett Buckner

Bess Fifer (née Van Leuven) could be a spokesperson for aptitude tests. The two-time Emmy-nominated casting director and former member of the Jax State Marching Southerners found her life’s calling in the standardized test designed to be a North Star for those seeking career direction. 

In late 2003, Fifer had recently graduated from Jax State with a degree in exercise science and wellness. “My original thought was, even though I had always been a creative person and a performer, I needed to get a real, serious job,” Fifer said. “So, I’m thinking, I'm going to be a physical therapist. I'll get my undergrad in exercise science, and then I'll go to PT school, and then ideally, I will find a way to work with actors or dancers.” 

Her dream job was to work as a physical therapist for a dance company. However, spending $150,000 on grad school was overwhelming, and Fifer knew she didn’t want to move back home to Marietta, Ga., to live with her parents. She opted for grad school. 

"I was making a pivot," she remembered. "But I didn't know what I wanted to do with myself. The panic stopped when I realized that I needed to stay in the arts." While taking graduate classes, Fifer worked as an office assistant for a commercial real estate developer in Anniston. "It was not enjoyable," she said, laughing. "I was kind of spinning my wheels." 

Confused and frustrated, Fifer decided to take an aptitude test. She spent a couple of hours hoping the 750-question test would provide insight into her career options. In addition to being a stage director and park ranger, the results suggested Fifer might have a future as a casting director. “To be honest,” Fifer said, “I didn't know what the job was.” 

She would soon learn. “As a casting director, essentially, I populate the world that someone has created,” she said. “Every job is a little different and has different needs. The main goal of a casting director - I do principal casting, which means that I find every single person who says something - so if they are on screen and speaking, then they came through the casting director. They came through me.” 

Over the next 20 years, Fifer steadily built her reputation and her resume. She’s earned two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Casting in a Drama Series for her work on the Apple+ series, Severance. “It does absolutely change your life,” she said of the nominations. “It's the best thing you could ever have on your resume, other than having a win.” 

Though Fifer did not win, two cast members of the critically acclaimed show were awarded 2025 Emmys. Britt Lower was named Best Lead Actress in a Drama, and Tramell Tillman was named Best Supporting Actor in a Drama. “It’s like my children winning an Emmy,” she said. “I have a great amount of pride for what they’ve accomplished.” Fifer was on a flight when the winners were announced. “When I heard that both Trammell and Britt had won, I was absolutely crying on an airplane,” she said. “I am so happy for them. What I love about my job is seeing people succeed that I’ve helped put into a part and watching their careers soar.” 

Fifer has earned the respect of her peers, having twice won the Artios Award, which honors the best in originality, creativity and contribution of casting professionals, most recently for the 2022 film The Tender Bar, starring George Clooney. 

Success in the entertainment industry is a matter of perspective. “While I was excited and thrilled to get the second [Emmy] nomination because it helped me get additional meetings, I would trade it in to have had consistent work for the last 12 months,” she said. “It’s the same with actors, too. You have to find a way to view success other than what my bank account looks like, but do I currently have a job?” 

Fifer is an independent casting director based out of New York City.

‘No time to waste’

Fifer was four years old when her family moved from New York to Marietta, Ga. Once she and her sister entered high school, they happened to be in a school district that was “very, very, big in the marching band arts,” Fifer remembers. Both Fifer and her sister, Claire, were involved in their high school’s marching band and color guard, the latter of which was one of the best in the nation. That put them on the radar of Dr. Ken Bodiford, director of the Marching Southerners. “Jacksonville State actually pursued me,” Fifer said, “which is kinda weird.” 

Dr. Bodiford and Rodney Bailey, who, in addition to being an English professor, was also the coordinator for the color guard, were working on improving the color guard. They offered Fifer a scholarship, but there was some competition for her talents. Fifer had also been accepted to the University of Georgia. But the choice was relatively simple. “Obviously, if I was going to choose bands,” she said, “I was like, ‘Oh, I'm going to be a Marching Southerner before I'm going to be in the UGA band.’” 

Fifer enrolled in Jax State in the fall of 1997. “My first year of college was a learning experience,” Fifer said, laughing. “At first, it was like, 'What do I do with all of this free time because nobody's making me do anything?’ I was definitely that person who had to go home and explain to her parents why out of 12 credit hours, I was only getting six. I had a lot to figure out.” 

Unbeknownst to Fifer, her future husband, Mark Fifer, had already been hired by the same person who recruited her. Before coming to Jax State, Mark was working in LA as a location manager when Ken Bodiford called offering him a job writing and arranging music for the Marching Southerners, which would allow him to earn his master’s degree for free. Mark had been writing marching band music arrangements since he was in high school and was friends with Dr. Bodiford before the respected director came to Jax State. “He kind of thought he was going to Jacksonville, Florida, but he ended up in Alabama,” Fifer said. “A few years later, I showed up as an 18-year-old, and another few years down the line, we were excellent friends who fell in love.” 

Fifer spent a couple of years in the color guard and the drum corps. An injury while marching with the color guard forced her to move to the Ballerinas in 2000. “I got a little aggressive in the rifle action,” she said. “I basically hyperextended my thumb until all the ligaments were completely stretched out, and I cracked a bone. That was the end of that. I had to retire from color guard.” Fifer worked her way up to head ballerina and served as choreographer until 2003. Fifer also became involved with Jax State’s Theater Department, where she performed in a production of West Side Story. 

Fifer graduated from Jax State in 2003, and by August of 2004, she and Mark decided it was time for a change. “We packed up a truck and our dog and our cat,” she said. “We had our first and last month’s rent paid and $200 in our pocket and moved to New York City.” Fifer got a job as a bartender down the street from the couple’s apartment. Mark was working in the theater department at Pace University, which ensured they had health insurance. But after a few months, Fifer was fired. “That was really when I was like, ‘Alright, let's jump in,’” she said. “No time to waste.” 

She and Mark were married in 2004. Her big break came from an internship with legendary casting director Bernie Telsey. She remained with him for five years, working her way up from office manager to casting assistant, then associate. In 2010, Fifer started freelancing with various LA casting directors to learn the business. She assisted with casting on the pilot episode for what would become Stranger Things. She landed a job with casting director Rachel Tenner, who introduced her to Hollywood scion Ben Stiller. They would work on several projects together, including Escape at Dannemora and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, both of which Stiller directed. 

In late 2019, Tenner called Fifer and said that there was a new show Stiller was directing. It was shooting in New York, and Tenner recommended Fifer for the local casting. The show was Severance. “I read the scripts and was like, ‘This is fantastic,’” she said. “This is so wonderful on the page. How are we going to pull this off?” The earliest stages of production began before the COVID-19 pandemic. “We basically had our table read, which is when you get all your actors together and sit down and read through the first script,” she said. “This is essentially right before you're about to start shooting. Well, we had our table read on March 15th, 2020.” A few days later, the world shut down – Hollywood included. 

Severance survived the pandemic. Its first two seasons would become a cultural phenomenon, inspired, in part, by casting the right actors in the right roles. The finished product is nothing short of brilliant, but a singular success doesn’t always guarantee another. “I love what I do,” Fifer said. “It's really the only thing I've ever done, and I can't imagine doing anything else. At this point, even with the ups and downs of the industry, this is it. The test told me to go in this direction. So, I went. All I know is to just keep going.”