“I only graded 4 stars because I have not used premium yet. I get plenty of emails but hardly any for what I am looking for, when I do go on the site and see something I like I do put my name forward but as yet no-one has contacted me, is this because I am not a premium member?
It is very easy to use and there always seems to be jobs all the time, maybe one day I will get lucky.”
“First the good.
I'm an industry professional of 7 years - a jobbing actor as it were - and I can thank Mandy (or really, Casting Call Pro as it was before it was bought out) for helping me to establish my career. It was, for a long time, a brilliant platform on which to gain invaluable experience, and has led to contacts who I still work with 6-7 years down the line. It was a great pool for corporate work, short and student films and fringe theatre, with an intuitive and helpful interface, and a range of features that really gave me a sense of ownership over my career - it allowed me to track my applications, to see their status, and yielded really positive outcomes. The cost of an annual subscription was easily recouped.
The bad news is that Mandy has recently been bought out by Backstage. Since its takeover, Mandy has lost a lot of its useful features. The quality of the jobs on the site has diminished rapidly - for the most part it seems to be teaching, immersive experience for parties and shopping centres, and badly paid corporate work. It was always a real gripe of mine that Mandy never monitored the rates being offered - commercial and corporate jobs will often use the site to exploit actors trying to gain a footing, by offering insultingly low rates. I'd flagged this in the past to no avail, and sadly there is even less of a chance of any user concerns being addressed - the customer service department appears to have become automated, and a community of actors have, since the takeover, offered a stream of feedback on the changes, all for the negative, with no real response offered by Mandy.
It appears to be headed in the direction of Star Now, also a subsidiary of Backstage, by which they lure early-career actors to pay to access castings that really won't do much for the majority of users' careers.
I've been with Mandy for 8 years, and I am on the verge of leaving the platform for the first time. It has always had its critics and those in the industry who have advised against it, yet I have remained an advocate throughout. Until now. I would not recommend joining - there are other emerging platforms out there - and I have no doubt that usership will drop as a result of the unconsidered changes being made, and poor customer service being offered.”
“I absolutely love Mandy.com because it gives me opportunities to work in film across the world. I love the forums where persons from different areas of film can network and collaborate. It is one of the places where you can get legit jobs within film.”
“I have had many opportunities for audition and work thanks to Mandy. In fact all my roles so far have been through the site and while it is undergoing some changes and upgrading at the moment, it is still a great source of acting opportunities if you know what you are looking for.”
“Terribly disappointing, no longer fit for purpose. I'm so sad and disappointed that I have to give Mandy a 1 star review, as I had been a happy active, paying member as both an Actor and Voice Artist on the site for many years, since it was formally Casting Call Pro & Voices Pro. Unfortunately the company was recently taken over by Backstage.com and they really have ruined what was a wonderful resource for professional performers, since the take over the sites features have been steadily broken apart and services reduced, and more importantly the number and quality of jobs on offer has fallen through the floor, basically making it less than useless to professional performers looking for jobs paying minimum industry standard rates”
“Mandy is a great platform for film makers (especially) writers to engage work with people all over the world.
I have found some work with Mandy, apart from one individual who was a bit harsh and disrespectful, I have found Mandy one of the best platforms for film makers.”
“Mandy seems to be a very useful resource for jobseekers in the film and TV industry. Regular email alerts and good filtering options to improve relevancy.”
“I bumped into this site randomly and found this amazingly working platform for job seekers. I am a music professional and the kind of offers i have been getting looks very professional and satisfying. I look forward to upgrade and get my hands on one of these. Wish all the very best to the team of "Mandy"”
“Mandy has helped me find my dream job, the website is so easy to navigate and access and has great connections to companies I would never think would be possible to work for”
“This website is incredibly user friendly. It's design makes it easy to apply for opportunities and stay connected. It's simple to create profiles and update existing profiles and there are helpful guides for each step of the way!”
“Mandy is a great resource for aspiring and experienced film industry professionals alike. I can't recommend this site enough. It's incredibly useful! Go set up a profile today, you won't regret it!”
“I love Mandy! I’ve been able to find great paying acting jobs and have also been able to find acting jobs that are relative to the content I want to shoot!”
“A decent amount of gigs available in areas outside NYC/LA. However, their search features are getting increasingly more frustrating to use: Search in one state, see results for many others. See a job one minute, now it isn't reappearing when I try to search again. And many jobs are posted incorrectly, i.e. a job seeking a crewmember asks for a talent profile. If this gets fixed, it'll be a great resource!”
“With only 3 months after singing up on Mandy and without making any active efforts to look for roles, I booked my first professional acting gig in Canada! So happy that I found this website!”
