Damian Bao
- Casting Director
- Producer
Damian Bao is a Vietnamese American filmmaker, casting director, producer, visual artist, poet, and human rights advocate from New Orleans, LA.
Inspired by his impoverished early childhood in a refugee camp in the Pacific Islands and his colorful adolescence in a diverse trailer park community on the outskirts of New Orleans, Damian seeks to tell authentic stories and give voice to humans and sentient beings who are voiceless and unseen in the world. As a former Buddhist monk, he believes in radical storytelling, visual troublemaking, and using empathy to tell human stories that bring people from polarizing sides together.
Damian started his film career as the casting associate on Andrea Arnold's AMERICAN HONEY and Ryan Gosling's LOST RIVER. He then started his own casting and production company and has since cast Sam de Jong's GOLDIE, a Vice Films Production, and Danielle Lessovitz's PORT AUTHORITY, which was executive produced by Martin Scorsese. In 2021, he started working with legendary rapper Nas's company Mass Appeal and Showtime on live pop up experiential spaces for Hip Hop 50, a 3-year multi-media program celebrating Hip Hop's 50th birthday. His casting work exploring Blackness, masculinity, abstraction, and the avant-garde for artist Adam Pendleton's "Who Is Queen?," dubbed one of the museum's most complex projects by The New York Times, is on display at The Marron Atrium of the Museum of Modern Art until January 30, 2022. He recently finished the casting of REMOTE, an experimental pandemic feature film, commissioned by the Tate Modern Museum, directed by critically acclaimed visual artist Mika Rottenberg and multidisciplinary storyteller Mahyad Tousi. For all of his casting works, Damian spearheads a hybrid casting strategy that combines professionally trained actors and artists with cinematic and dynamic street finds.
Known for his expertise in street scouting and real people casting, Damian's discovery of queer leads or color such as Slick Woods and Leyna Bloom, who became the first trans actor to lead a film at Cannes for her performance in PORT AUTHORITY, have added to authentic representation in queer filmmaking history. His presence and work in film, art, fashion, and advertising has undoubtedly for the past decade paved the way for more inclusion, diversity, and real change.
Inspired by his impoverished early childhood in a refugee camp in the Pacific Islands and his colorful adolescence in a diverse trailer park community on the outskirts of New Orleans, Damian seeks to tell authentic stories and give voice to humans and sentient beings who are voiceless and unseen in the world. As a former Buddhist monk, he believes in radical storytelling, visual troublemaking, and using empathy to tell human stories that bring people from polarizing sides together.
Damian started his film career as the casting associate on Andrea Arnold's AMERICAN HONEY and Ryan Gosling's LOST RIVER. He then started his own casting and production company and has since cast Sam de Jong's GOLDIE, a Vice Films Production, and Danielle Lessovitz's PORT AUTHORITY, which was executive produced by Martin Scorsese. In 2021, he started working with legendary rapper Nas's company Mass Appeal and Showtime on live pop up experiential spaces for Hip Hop 50, a 3-year multi-media program celebrating Hip Hop's 50th birthday. His casting work exploring Blackness, masculinity, abstraction, and the avant-garde for artist Adam Pendleton's "Who Is Queen?," dubbed one of the museum's most complex projects by The New York Times, is on display at The Marron Atrium of the Museum of Modern Art until January 30, 2022. He recently finished the casting of REMOTE, an experimental pandemic feature film, commissioned by the Tate Modern Museum, directed by critically acclaimed visual artist Mika Rottenberg and multidisciplinary storyteller Mahyad Tousi. For all of his casting works, Damian spearheads a hybrid casting strategy that combines professionally trained actors and artists with cinematic and dynamic street finds.
Known for his expertise in street scouting and real people casting, Damian's discovery of queer leads or color such as Slick Woods and Leyna Bloom, who became the first trans actor to lead a film at Cannes for her performance in PORT AUTHORITY, have added to authentic representation in queer filmmaking history. His presence and work in film, art, fashion, and advertising has undoubtedly for the past decade paved the way for more inclusion, diversity, and real change.