Amazon MGM Studios Casting Head Donna Rosenstein Exits Amid Layoffs

Donna Rosenstein, the head of casting at Amazon MGM Studios, is exiting the studio amid broader layoffs at Amazon.

Amazon announced on Tuesday that 14,000 workers across a wide variety of its divisions globally would be impacted by the layoffs.

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Rosenstein has been the head of casting for Amazon since 2015 after having previously worked for the streaming arm of the e-commerce giant as a casting consultant in 2014. She built the casting department at the streamer and was the first casting executive to be hired by the studio.

During her tenure, she worked on hit shows like “Transparent,” “Bosch,” and “The Boys.” She also led the team that cast Rachel Brosnahan as the lead in the global hit “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” as well as Alan Ritchson as the lead in the popular Amazon series “Reacher,” based on the Lee Child novels featuring the character Jack Reacher.

Prior to her time at Amazon, Rosenstein was the casting director on shows like “Grimm” at NBC, “Castle” at ABC, and “The Ghost Whisperer” at CBS. She was also the head of casting at ABC at one time, working at the network from 1984-1999.

Amazon cited the rapid advancement of AI technology as a driving force behind the mass layoffs, with thousands more expected in the coming weeks and months.

“What we need to remember is that the world is changing quickly,” said Beth Galetti, SVP of people experience and technology at Amazon, in a memo to employees. “This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and altogether new ones). We’re convicted that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business.”

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