Pat Golden

Starting her career directing off-Broadway theater, Pat Golden has made a name for herself as a casting director of high-profile Hollywood films. During her early years as a Theater major at the University of Pittsburgh, Golden founded her own theater company before moving on to study directing at Carnegie-Mellon University. Branching out from theater to feature films in 1984, Golden earned her first credit as a casting director on the urban drama "Beat Street," followed by the acclaimed "The Killing Fields," for which she cast previously unknown Cambodian actor Haing S. Ngor, who would win an Academy Award for his performance. Suddenly one of the hottest casting directors in the business, Golden next worked on the films "Krush Groove," "My Little Girl," and "Blue Velvet," and in 1986 would win a coveted Artios Award for Best Casting for Feature Drama for her work on Oliver Stone's "Platoon." In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Golden cast such features as "The Handmaid's Tale" and "New Jack City," while also taking on the role of Associate Producer on such varied projects as hip-hop duo Kid n' Play's 1991 sequel "House Party 2" and Kihachi Okamoto's 1995 samurai Western "East Meets West." The multi-faceted Golden has also made her mark in the world of television, casting series such as "American Playhouse" and the 1998 Showtime series "Linc's."