Shift 20 Launch World-First Casting Channel on TikTok Making Talent with Disability Accessible

The Shift 20 Initiative, in partnership with founding partner TikTok, today unveils its new TikTok channel, Shift 20 Casting Call, @shift20castingcall via Special.

Designed to educate, empower, and enable brands, advertising agencies and casting directors to find incredible talent with disability, this further helps the Shift 20 Initiative’s efforts to increase disability representation on screen - whilst growing the talent pool and democratising the casting process for talent with disability.

Uniting the combined expertise of the Dylan Alcott Foundation, TikTok and inclusive acting and modelling agency Zebedee, Shift 20 Casting Call will provide a world-first casting channel for Australians with disability interested in a career path in the talent space. Providing not only a space for talent discovery, the channel will also offer invaluable resources for any person with disability considering getting in front of the camera.

The channel will feature educational content from talent with disability represented by Zebedee, one of the world's leading inclusive talent agencies, supporting countless talent with disabilities and visible differences. Content will include helpful guides on how to self-tape an audition, what to expect on a production set and how to fill out an access rider, empowering aspiring talent with the tools they need to succeed in the industry while also serving as a casting hub for brands and the wider advertising industry to cast from.

Dylan Alcott, AO, reflects on the progress the Shift 20 movement has made in a year and the road ahead, “This past year has been monumental; getting some of Australia’s biggest brands onboard and seeing them take representation seriously has been incredible. To continue this journey, and facilitate inclusion for people with disability we have to create safe spaces and employment pathways for people with disability who might fancy giving acting a crack. As a community we’ve spent so long thinking it's not a place for us or something we can consider as a career or even a hobby, but I’m here to tell you that this absolutely is - and we want to see, empower and open up opportunities for all of you who might want to give it a go.”

Adam Ferrie, creative director at Special, said “The appetite for brands to cast more inclusive of disability is growing, but the current talent pool is relatively small. In creating the Shift 20 Casting Call we’re opening the aperture, and access to incredible new talent.”

Peter Cvetkovski, creative director at Special, said “By turning TikTok into a platform for talent with disability, we’re breaking down barriers of the traditional casting process and ensuring these incredible talents are seen and more importantly cast by brands.”

In 2023 the Dylan Alcott Foundation set out to shift the needle on disability representation across Australia with the launch of the Shift 20 Initiative. The initiative aimed to bring the poor rates of  disability representation on-screen (1%) much closer to the 20% of Australians living with a disability.

The campaign launched with a collective of the country’s leading brands and has seen significant success with a rise of over 10% overall recall of disability representation in advertising post launch.

Whilst the Shift 20 Initiative showed significant demand for higher levels of disability representation, it also highlighted the limited pathways and lack of inclusive communities for potential talent looking for work in front of the camera, with many still not seeing roles in front of the camera as a viable career path. 

Addressing this gap is the next step for the Shift 20 Initiative.

Shift 20 Initiative partners, including Uber, ANZ, nib and Anytime Fitness, have committed to utilising the channel for future casting, creating new avenues for representation and tangible opportunities for people with disability in the industry.

“At TikTok, we're committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse community where everyone has the opportunity to be seen and heard. Partnering with the Shift 20 Initiative to launch this initiative has been a huge step in empowering Australians with disability to pursue their passions and break into the industry. We believe this channel will not only create career opportunities but also help normalise disability representation across media and beyond,” said Brett Armstrong, GM Global Business Solutions, TikTok AUNZ.

“As the leading global agency for disabled talent, we are over the moon to be working with the Shift 20 Initiative and TikTok on this project. We work tirelessly with the fashion, media and advertising industries to understand the ethical and business case for inclusive casting, and this platform is going to make it even more simple for talent and clients to connect,” said Laura Winston, director, Zebedee.

For more information on the Shift 20 Initiative and Shift 20 Casting Call channel, visit https://shift20.org/tiktok-casting-call/ or https://www.tiktok.com/@shift20castingcall.