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NE8 has designs on the North East's top talent

A Tyneside talent agency planning to take on London firms has recruited a North East design company to help it hit the big time.

NE8 Castings hopes to unearth the best performing and modelling talent in the region, and has hired Foundry 34 to create a ‘Northern’ look and feel for the new start-up.

Founded by Lisa Laidler, who comes from a performing arts background, NE8 Castings finds and provides models, actors and extras, presenters, dancers, voiceover artists, singers and speakers to all areas of the media industry, including for television, advertising and magazine shoots.

Lisa said: “We know there is a huge amount of talent in Newcastle, Gateshead and the whole of the North East region, which, in a lot of cases, goes to the big name London agencies. What we wanted to do was create a real credible alternative for this talent here in the North East.

Chris McIntyre, the managing director of Foundry 34, said: “It’s great to be working for a client making a real success in an industry that the North East hasn’t really been known for in the past. Companies are waking up to the fact that by using technology and good web development they can really compete on a national and even international stage.”

Foundry 34 is a member of Codeworks Connect, the trade association for the North East’s digital sector.

Codeworks Connect’s head of sector development Carri Cunliffe said: “One of the things we seek to do at Codeworks Connect is to retain the brightest creative and technical talent in the North East’s digital sector. So it’s great to see that NE8 are doing a similar thing for the entertainment industries, and that they’ve chosen one of our region’s many top agencies to produce their creative work.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .