April Webster

April Webster, CSA, is an Emmy Award-winning Hollywood casting director whose company, April Webster Casting, worked on for director and producer J.J. Abrams. Webster had previously collaborated with Abrams on his first film, Mission: Impossible III, as well as the television series Alias, Lost, and Six Degrees. She cast the film in collaboration with Alyssa Weisberg, who was Webster's co-casting director on Lost and her casting associate on Mission: Impossible III.

Webster and Weisberg both won the Casting Society of America's 2009 Artios Award for their work on Star Trek. Webster and Weisberg also worked on the sequel  for J.J. Abrams and as of August 2011 already had a full casting team chosen. 

More recently, Webster and Weisberg started to cast actors through their company April Webster & Associates for the sequel  directed by Justin Lin. 

Early credits
Webster was responsible for the Los Angeles casting for the 1982 film Shoot the Moon, starring Peter Weller. In 1982, she became casting director on the popular NBC television series Knight Rider, where she worked until 1984. She moved on to another NBC series, Night Court, starring John Larroquette. She was also the casting director for the pilot of the CBS series Charles in Charge. Her first film as principal casting director was the 1983 drama Stacy's Knights.

She helped cast a pre-TNG Denise Crosby in the 1985 made-for-TV movie Stark and cast actor James B. Sikking and  performer Marc Alaimo in the 1987 telefilm Police Story: The Freeway Killings. She then cast the 1990 science fiction comedy Martians Go Home, working with Star Trek performers Lee Arenberg, Roy Brocksmith, Ronny Cox, and Bruce French. She also cast the pilot for the cult comic book-based series The Flash and the television movie Flash III: Deadly Nightshade, the latter of which featured a post-TNG Denise Crosby and a pre-Voyager Jeri Ryan.

Later projects
Webster was casting director for on the science fiction films Stargate (1994, starring Erick Avari and Leon Rippy), Godzilla (1998, featuring Clyde Kusatsu and Glenn Morshower), and The Day After Tomorrow (2004, featuring Aaron Lustig). She also helped cast DS9 star Rene Auberjonois in Emmerich's American Revolution action film The Patriot (2000, co-starring Leon Rippy).

From 1994 through 1999, Webster was a casting director on the hit situation comedy series The Nanny, starring TNG guest actor Daniel Davis. From 1996 through 2002, Webster frequently worked with fellow casting director David Bloch. Their first collaboration was the 1996 television movie Grand Avenue, which earned Webster her first Emmy Award nomination as well as her first Artios Award nomination from the Casting Society of America (CAS, of which Webster is a member). Their subsequent collaborations include the aforementioned Godzilla and The Patriot, the 1999 science fiction film The Thirteenth Floor (featuring Leon Rippy), and the pilot episode of Providence (1999, starring Concetta Tomei). She and Bloch shared Artios nominations for Providence and The Patriot.

In 2000, Webster cast the pilot for the hit CBS series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. She also cast several regular episode of that series between 2000 and 2006. She has been working on another CBS series, Criminal Minds, between 2005 and 2015, and its spin-off series Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior (2011). Webster is also one of the casting directors on the apocalyptic action-thriller 2012 (2009). Other projects include the action series Leverage (2008-2010, starring Jeri Ryan), the crime series Dark Blue (2009-2010, with Bertrand Roberson, Jr.), the crime series The Forgotten (2009-2010, starring Christian Slater) and the drama series Army Wives (2007-2013, starring Brian McNamara and Brigid Brannagh).

Webster cast the mystery series Bates Motel (2013-2014, with Mike Vogel) and 's science fiction film Tomorrowland (2014, produced and co-written by Damon Lindelof and with Paul McGillion). For Bates Motel, Webster received an Artios Award nomination in 2013 in the category Outstanding Achievement in Casting - Television Pilot - Drama, which she shared with Sara Isaacson, Jennifer Page, and Corinne Clark.

More recent projects include the television horror series The Strain (2014-2015, co-executive produced by Bradley Thompson) and the drama series Full Circle (2013-2015, starring Aaron Haedt and Terry O'Quinn). Announced is her participation in casting the pilot episode of Colony (2015, with Teebone MItchell) on which she is working with Erica L. Silverman.

Work with Abrams
Webster first worked with J.J. Abrams on his hit series Alias. Webster cast many episodes of this series from 2002 until its end in 2005 and received an Emmy Award nomination (her second) for this series in 2002 as well as three Artios nominations. For the twenty-second episode of Alias (entitled "Almost Thirty Years"), Webster worked not as a casting director but as an actress, making an uncredited appearance as Irina Derevko, the mother of the show's main character, since the role had not yet been cast.

While Alias was still in production, Webster began simultaneously working on Abrams' next series, Lost, co-created by Damon Lindelof. Among the actors she helped cast on this series were Terry O'Quinn (who also appeared on Alias) and Daniel Dae Kim. Webster won the 2005 Emmy Award in Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series for Lost and received an additional Emmy nomination the following year. In addition, Webster received three Artios nominations for Lost, winning one. She continues to work on Lost until 2010.

Abrams hired Webster to cast his first film, the 2006 Paramount Pictures release Mission: Impossible III, co-written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Among the performers Webster helped cast for this film was Simon Pegg (who was later cast as in Star Trek), one-time DS9 guest actress Tracy Middendorf, and the aforementioned Bruce French. Afterward, Webster cast the pilot for Abrams' short-lived series Six Degrees (2006) and Person of Interest (2011), the Abrams-directed HBO medical drama pilot Anatomy of Hope (2009) and the science fiction television series, Fringe (2008-2013), created by Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci.

On 1 November 2006, Abrams presented Webster with the Hoyt Bowers Award, a special achievement award given at the Artios Awards by the CSA. Former Star Trek casting director Junie Lowry-Johnson won her own Artios Award at that same event.

More recent projects with Abrams include the action sequel Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011, with Simon Pegg, producers Jeffrey Chernov, Bryan Burk, David Ellison, Tommy Harper, and Ben Rosenblatt), the crime series Alcatraz (2012, starring Leon Rippy), the science fiction series Revolution (2012-2014, starring Billy Burke and recurring guest stars Stephen Collins, Leslie Hope, and Steven Culp), and the science fiction series Almost Human (2013-2014, starring Karl Urban).

Most recently, Webster worked with Weisberg on the casting for the science fiction sequel Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), written, directed and produced by J.J. Abrams. Other Trek alumni include producers Bryan Burk, Tommy Gormley, Tommy Harper, Michelle Rejwan, and Ben Rosenblatt, cinematography by Daniel Mindel, editing by Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey, costume design by Michael Kaplan, sound design by Ben Burtt and Andy Nelson, casting associate Jessica F. Sherman, and stunts by Mike Massa.