How to Manage Your Online Availability Calendar

Your Central Casting online profile is filled with many features to help you get booked and on set of your favorite movies and TV shows. One of these helpful tools is your availability calendar, which is a great way to help Casting Directors find you when you're available for background work.

What is an availability calendar?

The online availability calendar allows you to indicate when you are available and unavailable for work through Central Casting. This helps Casting Directors search our casting platform for background who are available on a given date. For example, if a Casting Director is booking a two-day shoot, they can search for Background Actors who have indicated they are available for both of those specific dates.

The availability calendar is a separate tool from the booking schedule feature. Your booking schedule helps you keep track of messages you have received and responded to and can be accessed by clicking the "View full booking schedule" link under your profile photo.

Where can I access my calendar?

When you are logged in to your online profile, you can access your availability calendar by choosing the "profiles" option in the main menu, then selecting your name/photo. On desktop, the calendar will appear in your profile on the right of the screen, underneath your picture. On mobile, click the "calendar" button below your photo to expand the view.

How do I use the availability calendar?

Updating your availability is easy. Just tap on a date to turn it green for available and tap it again to turn red for unavailable. You can also update multiple days at once by clicking on the "Update calendar availability" button. On your end, that's all you need to do to manage your calendar. Don't forget to update your availability as time goes on and as it changes.

Keep in mind, indicating available days on your calendar does not lock you in to work opportunities, it's simply an additional booking tool for Casting Directors to find you when searching for Background Actors with date availability. You will still receive an availability inquiry with information about a role, which you can respond as available or unavailable. You may also receive availability inquiries or booking requests contrary to the availability indicated in your calendar.

You may notice updates to your calendar as you reply to messages from Casting Directors. If you respond that you are available for a certain date, that date may turn yellow. When this happens, don't worry, other Casting Directors can still see you in searches and send you messages. A yellow box on your calendar in no way prevents you from being sent messages or booked by another Casting Director on a different project.

The online availability calendar is a tool to help you get booked, not a way for you to change responses to messages or cancel bookings, which must be done by calling your Central Casting office. As always, if you are on first avail and your availability changes or you are offered another booking, you must call Central Casting to update your Casting Director. You can learn more about what first avail means in your location in our article, First Avail: Everything You Need to Know.

When you are hired by Central Casting, the date for which you are booked may turn blue on your availability calendar. This does not stop you from becoming double booked, which is why we recommend keeping track of work dates and first avail dates on a personal calendar or by regularly checking the booking schedule in your online profile. If you do become double booked, call Central Casting as soon as possible to resolve.

To learn more about optimizing your online profile to find background work with Central Casting, read our articles Why Updating Your Sizes is Essential for Background Actors and The Ultimate Photo Guide for Your Online Profile.