Donna Rosenstein is leaving Amazon MGM Studios where she served as Head of Casting for the past 10 years, most recently focusing on TV series, sources tell Deadline.
Her departure comes as parent Amazon this morning confirmed 14,000 layoffs across the company, citing the advance of AI.
Amazon MGM Studios, including MGM Television, has been impacted, with sources indicating that executives in areas such as marketing and production are leaving.
Rosenstein, a respected veteran casting director and executive, was brought in a casting consultant at then-Amazon Studios in January 2014 to work on some of the streamer’s early scripted series, including the award-winning comedy Transparent and hit drama Bosch. She was appointed Worldwide Head of Casting in late 2015, making Amazon the first of the top streaming services to employ an in-house Head of Casting.
Others, such as Netflix, Apple TV and Hulu, followed suit in making such hires though some networks, most notably HBO, have opted not to have casting executives, instead relying on individual casting directors.
Originally working across both film and TV, Rosenstein has been oversaw casting for TV series since the departure of Jennifer Salke as Head of Amazon MGM Studios in March. It is unclear whether her position will be backfilled.
Some of the series Rosenstein worked closely on during her tenure include The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Reacher, which feature star-making performances by Rachel Brosnahan and Alan Ritchson, respectively, as well as The Boys.
Before joining Amazon, Rosenstein was the casting director on such series as ABC’s Castle, NBC’s Grimm, CBS’ Zoo and Ghost Whisperer and USA’s Necessary Roughness, having worked on them since the pilot stage. She served as head of casting at ABC where she worked from 1984 to 1999 before leaving to start her own company, Donna Rosenstein Casting. While at ABC, Rosenstein was involved in the casting of such series as The Practice, NYPD Blue, Twin Peaks and Roseanne.
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