Laura Adler Dies: Emmy-Nominated Casting Director & Former Casting Society Exec Was 65

Laura Adler, an Emmy-nominated casting director and former administrator of Casting Society, died Thursday in Los Angeles following a brief illness. She was 65.

A Casting Society rep confirmed the news to Deadline.

Adler was set to receive the Casting Society’s Rosalie Joseph Humanitarian Award at the 41st Artios Awards next month.

She earned an Emmy nominations for casting the 2000s NBC drama American Dreams and also was casting director for such series Better off Ted, Dream On and The Goode Family, among others.

Born on July 1, 1960, in New York City, Adler got her start in the early 1980s as a technician on The Pee-wee Herman Show, a West Hollywood stage show in which Paul Reubens showcased his nerdy, bowtied character years before Pee-wee’s Playhouse debuted. She also was a production assistant on the 1981 ABC telefilm a long way home, starring Timothy Hutton, Brenda Vaccaro and Rosanna Arquette.

Later that decade, she pivoted to film and TV casting, working on an associate to such acclaimed casting directors as Mark Saks, Barbara Claman and Ted Hann. Her credits in that job ranges from the early-’90s features Defending Your Life and Prelude to a Kiss to the HBO comedy Dream On and TBS sitcom My Boys. She also was a casting associate on American Dreams in 2002-03 before being upped to casting director and sharing her 2003 Emmy nom.

In 2005, Adler became an original member of the steering committee that fought to secure pension and health benefits for casting professionals — an achievement that reshaped the industry. In 2014, she was hired as Casting Society’s Administrator, a position in which she would spend the next decade serving and supporting the global casting community with dedication and compassion. She retired from the role in 2024.

Her father was Jerry Adler, a veteran actor known for playing Hesh Rabkin on The Sopranos, Fire Chief Sidney Feinberg on Rescue Me and Howard Lyman on The Good Wife. He died in August at 96.

Laura Adler is survived by her sisters Alisa Adler, a talent agent at Paradigm; Emily Adler, a writer; and Amy Adler; and her nephew Joe Adler.