John Papsidera, CSA

John Papsidera with glasses and a mustache sits confidently at a wooden table in a warmly lit room, surrounded by elegant decor and a blurred monochrome photograph in the background.

John Papsidera started his professional career as a trained actor graduating from Florida State University with a BFA degree and attending post-Graduate studies at Circle in the Square in New York City.

Starting as a casting assistant at The Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, John moved into feature film casting and worked on such big budget action films as Clear and Present Danger, The Net, Anaconda and Cutthroat Island.

Starting in 1997, Papsidera embarked on forming his own casting company and over the past 25 years has been the Casting Director for over 200 films and television projects. His film credits include, the original Austin Powers, Boiler Room, Memento, Batman: Begins, The Longest Yard, The Prestige, Enchanted, The Dark Knight, Zombieland, Inception, The Grey, The Dark Knight Rises, Oz: The Great and Powerful, Gangster Squad, Men Women and Children, Interstellar, Independence Day: Resurgence, Venom Dunkirk, Tenet and Oppenheimer.

Television credits include, HBO's If These Walls Could Talk, Live from Baghdad, Carnivale, Lackawanna Blues, Prison Break, Showtime’s Ray Donovan, Hulu’s Casual, Netflix’s Lost In Space, HBO’s Westworld, HBO Max’s The Flight Attendant, Paramount’s Yellowstone, 1883, Lioness, Lessons in Chemistry and The Offer. His achievements in the field of casting include 22 nominations and five prestigious Artios Awards for outstanding casting and six nominations and two Emmys for his work in television. In 2025, John was awarded the Casting Society of America’s prestigious Hoyt Bowers Award for his body of work and contribution to the industry.

Papsidera formed his entertainment company, automatic sweat, in the fall of 2000. He opened with friend and Producer, Gavin Polone, a Hollywood restaurant, The Waffle in the Winter of 2007. An avid art collector, he owns and curates his own gallery, The Salon @ automatic sweat. John currently resides in Nashville, still casts feature films and television, is in the process of producing two films and is still looking forward to new horizons of opportunity.