As someone who’s booked over 50 national commercials and has spent the last decade deep in the trenches of commercial casting, it’s taken me a long time to learn one thing:
you are almost never the reason you don’t get a callback.

Most of the time it has nothing to do with you, your talent, or your tape.
It’s the chaos behind the curtain — the brand, the agency, the director, the client’s cousin, the storyboard artist, the budget, the weather, Mercury retrograde… all of it.

So today, I’m breaking down the 25 reasons you didn’t get a callback — even though your tape was absolute fire.

In this episode, host Catherine Donnelly sits down with Beth Fraser (Elizabeth Nicole Fraser), an actor and former broadcast journalist whose career spans commercials, television, and film. Originally from Douglas, Georgia, Beth grew up in Sarasota, Florida, and earned her degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Florida before beginning her on-camera career as a model for the Home Shopping Network in Tampa.

After moving to Los Angeles, Beth met her husband, filmmaker Johnny Fraser, in 2008, and together they have a daughter, Ondine. Her sister, Brinson, is a storyboard artist on the hit animated series Family Guy.

Beth has appeared in numerous national commercials—including a four-year run as the spokesperson for Nasacort—and in award-winning long-form projects for Apple. Her television and film credits include 9-1-1, Loot, and Baby Daddy. She also stars in the short film Code Red, currently making its way through the 2025–26 festival circuit, including a recent selection at the San Diego International Film Festival.

In this conversation, Catherine and Beth dive into the art of being a great co-star, the importance of having an opinion in the room, being strategic about casting workshops, and how to bring authenticity and confidence to every audition—from commercials to spokesperson roles.

@iambethfraser@slateitpod

In this episode, Catherine Donnelly unpacks the major shift at Casting Networks — namely, the new paid subscription model for all U.S.-based agents and managers, beginning January 1, 2026. We walk through exactly what the new tiered fees are, why Casting Networks says it’s doing this, and how actors who depend on CN for commercial auditions should plug the gaps. (Source: Casting Networks Support, “Talent Representatives: What Should I Know About the New Subscription Model”)

Then we zoom out and take a look at the big picture: how private equity ownership is impacting casting tech. In July 2022, RedBird Capital Partners, along with StepStone Group, acquired a majority stake in Talent Systems — the parent company behind Casting Networks, Casting Frontier, Spotlight, and more. (Source: Business Wire / RedBird press release, 2022)

Throughout the episode, we stay grounded in what you can do now: talking to your reps, updating your profiles, saving your media, and keeping your eyes open for alternate platforms like Casting.com. This is a moment of disruption — but also of opportunity for actors who stay informed.