Henry Russell Bergstein

  Henry Russell Bergstein is an Emmy-nominated and Artios Award-winning bicoastal casting director. He proudly shares an Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with long time casting partner, Allison Estrin. He has taught acting, audition technique, and improv in NY, Los Angeles, Florida, and Chicago, and screenwriting at Northwestern University. 

  As an independent casting director, Bergstein worked on series including HBO Max’s The Other Two, HBO’s Succession, Netflix’s Inventing Anna, Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle, Netflx’s Black Mirror, and the pilot of Hulu’s Ramy.  Film credits include Mass (Sundance ’21), Black Bear (Sundance ’20), The Kindergarten Teacher (Sundance ’18), Saturday Church (Tribeca ‘17), Almost Love (Frameline ’19), It Felt Like Love (Sundance ’13), and Grandma (Sundance ’15). 

  During his career he’s had the privilege of working with filmmakers including Greta Gerwig, Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, M. Night Shyamalan, James Gray, Eliza Hittman, and Kenneth Lonergan.

  Bergstein has worked on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway specializing in new American plays and musicals. He has cast over 20 productions at New York’s Vineyard Theatre, as well as numerous productions at Ars Nova, LCT3, Signature, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and PS 122.  He's worked on new plays from such artists as Tarell Alvin McCraney, Brandon Jacobs Jenkins, Eboni Booth, Michael R. Jackson, Nicky Silver, Rachel Chavkin, Will Eno, Bess Wohl, John Kander, and David Malloy. Highlights include the world premiere productions of Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (Ars Nova), Octet (Signature Theatre), The Lyons (Vineyard & Broadway), KPOP (Ars Nova/Ma-Yi), Gloria (Vineyard and Goodman), Wig Out! (Vineyard) and the NY Off-Broadway premiere of Titanique the Musical (The Asylum/Daryl Roth Theater). Bergstein has worked on developmental theater readings, workshops, and festivals including five summers of the Sundance Theatre Institute Theatre Labs and two Lincoln Center Directors Labs.

  Bergstein is the former VP, Casting for HBO Max, TNT, TBS, and TruTV, and a former Manager of East Coast Casting for WBTV Studios.  He is an improviser and former house team member at UCB and the Magnet Theater in NY. He holds an M.F.A. in Film from Northwestern University and a B.A. in Theater with a minor in LGB Studies from Cornell University. Bergstein is a member of the Casting Society of America and a proud Teamster.