This Emmy-winning company has cast actors in literally hundreds of movies and TV shows since forming in the 1980s. Fincannon & Associates has had offices in Wilmington since 1986, and also has a location in Atlanta.
Craig Fincannon is the company’s president and his wife, Wilmington native Lisa Mae Fincannon, is a casting director. With Mark Fincannon, who is Craig’s brother and the company’s vice-president, they’ve worked on such projects as “Dawson’s Creek,” “The Conjuring” and, more recently, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and “Hightown.”
Known as the Wilmington film commissioner, Griffin is in some ways the face of Wilmington’s film industry and has been for more than 20 years. As film commissioner, Griffin helps bring work here by promoting the Wilmington area to film studios and production companies.
Once production companies are in town, the film commission often serves as a liason between them and the Wilmington area, linking them up with relevant government agencies, providing information on crew resources, and more.
Darla McGlamery
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees
Under the title of “business agent,” McGlamery heads Wilmington’s Local 491 chapter of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts labor union, or IATSE, which represents film crew members in North Carolina, South Carolina and the Savannah area of Georgia.
In the past, like in 2021 when IATSE members voted to go on strike (the union reached a deal with production companies before a strike was officially called), McGlamery has been a vocal advocate for workers’ rights. A large percentage of Wilmington’s film crew base are IATSE members, and McGlamery helps represent them.
Tim Palmer
UNCW Department of Film Studies
Palmer is the relatively new head of the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s film studies department. The department isn’t typically directly involved in the local film industry, but it does train students who go on to work in it and maintains ties to the film industry in various ways, including hosting experts at its shiny new building on campus.
Jonas Pate
Filmmaker
Wilmington resident Jonas Pate is, with his brother, Joshua Pate, a creator of Netflix smash hit “Outer Banks.” The series is mostly shot in South Carolina, but late last year the series shot some scenes in Wrightsville Beach, the first production work to be done in the Wilmington area since the strikes were settled.
The Pate brothers shot NBC show “Surface” here in the 2000s.
In 2022, Jonas Pate shot the pilot for a new show about a high school rock band trying to make it big in the Wilmington area . If the show is picked up, it’s possible the series could shoot in Wilmington.
Kimberly Stewart
Kimmie Stewart Casting
The go-to Wilmington casting agency for extras. Stewart has done extras casting for such locally shot projects as Paramount’s “Zoey 102,” Netflix’s “Echoes” and Fox TV’s “Our Kind of People,” as well as for South Carolina-shot Netflix hit “Outer Banks.”
Mary Toffolon
City of Wilmington film liason
If you’re filing a film permit in the city of Wilmington you have to do it through Toffolon , who works in the city’s Community Services Department and whose title is technically “special events supervisor.” When things get busy, she’s sending out information on multiple film permits each week to keep the public (and the press) informed.
Kirk Englebright
Dark Horse Studios
Lots of people have talked about starting a new film studio in Wilmington over the years, but so far, Kirk Englebright, founder and CEO of Wilmington’s independent Dark Horse Studios, is the only one to have done it.
Dark Horse has hosted such shows as Showtime’s Emmy-nominated country music mini-series “George & Tammy,” and last year announced a major expansion in anticipation of the film industry bouncing back from strikes by the writers’ and actors’ unions.
