StarNow Reviews 

You can pre-screen all you want but if there is no helpdesk available and no customer service, your videos are not going to be uploaded in time for a deadline. Happened one too many times. This site is now a liability for all subscribers. I had a long term association with starnow. It is disappointing to see the site just not performing, literally, like it used to back in the early 2000s. They also don't respond to feedback either. I cancelled. But I am open to review this review if they refund the last 6 months of wasted time.

Avoid ! Scamers

It's a total and utter scam. I have been going almost four years paying for my images to be posted and my information. I had my time being wasted by some idiot being carny and spiteful. I was asked to email myself being naked without nothing on and he said if I can't then big deal he asked me to travel without pay for 4 hours.

I have been an SA for over 14 years and this Agency is the worst for payment.
Last payment 13 weeks and outstanding up to 9 weeks.......no other agency takes so long or lies to you when you chase up.
Do the production companies pay and they hold on to the money?
They need looking in to......urgently.

Back in 2005 use to be very good easy to get around and not so focused on money - casting process is a fraud you don’t even get applicants and you have to pay to get noticed. It’s a disgusting site and not worth the monthly fee STAR NOW sucks

Mixed reviews about this site. I have had one or two nice jobs from starnow quite recently so I cannot complain about that.

However, since it’s backstage takeover the site doesn’t function properly! I tick the box to keep me logged in, it logs me out! The search facility doesn’t work. I am a model but searches keep bringing up jobs for voiceovers, presenters, actors and staff/ crew despite me leaving those boxes unchecked when I search! Also I’m female but jobs for male models keep popping up despite me selecting that I only want to search for jobs for females! Then you have to actually click on the listing to see the criteria for the job (which takes aaaagesssss to load) just to find you’ve wasted your time when you realise the pay is rubbish or you are the wrong ethnicity. There is also no way of knowing if you have been shortlisted for a job like there was on the old starnow. The site is definitely not user friendly like it once used to be.

A lot of the jobs are now extremely low pay - some are even below the national minimum wage!! A lot paying less than £100 when they know they will be making a huge profit from the sales that they used your face/ skills to advertise their business with! No usage/ buyout fee offered on most jobs nowadays!

I am sick of being asked to do a ‘pre screen audition’ for nearly every role I apply for! Why not just leave it to the casting director to contact me if they wish to see a self tape! I do not have the time to do endless self tapes for almost every job I apply for! It is becoming tedious and I now ignore these ridiculous pre screening requests.

I am absolutely sick of seeing listings for UGC content posted by companies who since Covid cannot be bothered to search for a proper team of creatives and would rather use mediocre content created by ‘real’ people from their own home which then means the model/ actor/ presenter etc has to do all the work in creating the content… for what? A measly £50? This also puts models and actors out of work so I feel those sort of listings should be banned.

I am also sick and tired of seeing daily listings wanting ‘REAL families’ and ‘REAL couples’ and ‘REAL friends’! Guys we are not in lockdown anymore, we do not need bubbles - they are soooo 2020!!! And again this is putting the proper models and actors out of work! There is nothing wrong with putting a male and female model and a couple of child models together to create a family - like the good old days. Most models are experienced enough to create a rapport with a complete stranger - it was the done thing before Covid and we only needed REAL this and REAL that during lockdown when people weren’t allowed to mix families! Again these listings should be banned to give the professional models a chance to get back on their feet since Covid!

Also - why do companies now need REAL business owners or REAL chefs or REAL doctors etc for photo shoots and acting roles? Why just why? This REAL dynamic is seriously killing off the industry!

Virtually impossible to cast talent for a project. Posted a casting notice and got barely any applicants. Messaged some suitable talent asking if they'd like to be involved (they did), and was chastised by Starnow for messaging talent.

I received a reminder that my renewal date was 1st June, so a week or so before this date I logged into the website and cancelled the option for the auto renew. I happened to check my credit card activity yesterday and noticed a payment of £71 paid to starnow on 1st June.

If backstage has taken over the why do they you tomorrow for this site and back stage and never anything going for kids age as a young teen

Appalling customer service from starnow out and backstage they never respond to your emails or reset your password as requested I have an account that I can not log into I have asked them to reset my password multiple times to be ignored multiple times by your email this is the pollen and this is not the way they should treat your customers please delete my account and refund me my money

is allowing NMW on actor website actors can not work fom a minimum national wage , as theit job is saltuary and also need preparation , so is it not just a day you turn up, that is why most of now days production doing rubish job!! underpaid evem crew . when managing directors or people in th pannel get the real salary !! i am ending in food bank despite work and refusing job doesnt even paid then traveling !!! is a shame!!!

Backstage has killed casting opportunities!

I'm not sure what the plan was with amalgamating all 3 websites and companies, but the outcome is an industry ruining and opportunity killing platform that isn't helping anyone.

Low/No pay and sub EVEN MINIMUM WAGE jobs being posted. No safety or support for performers using these platforms at all.

AVOID AVOID AVOID.

They charge you to post a casting call but delete the ones they don't want but still take your money. Scam!

1 star only because I can't give zero!
I keep having £30 subscription taken from my account, but when I try to cancel in my account it says I have no subscription - how can they do this?
Customer care / communication is non existent - no reply and no access so still taking my money...
CON! CON! CON! CON!

I don't like this method, in my opinion it's unethical to push people to engage in a subscription and upgrade in order to access application choice.
When do you ever have to pay to "maybe" get a job?
Investment goes in travelling for interviews or gigs if one must and it's a compromise, but paying to apply for a job/gig is a different thing.

Do yourself a favor and join one of the many serious professional agencies which don't require you to pay and have a personalised approach with their members.
Agencies work on commission basis depending on how much work they do and only "if you get the part".
With Starnow and similar websites is like gambling, they don't do much but to provide a platform and uncountable emails get sent automatically, it doesn't justify the price.

Glorifying cancel culture. Shame on them!!

Dreadful after backstage took over. Was a great, user friendly site, but not now by a long shot! I sent them an email last year, telling them how disappointed I was (and still am), but no reply.
I must say I wasn't just disappointed, I was devastated with the changes they made including: wiping all of my followers! I had spent 9 years building up my community of followers and star now deleted them all.
And there's more: as others mentioned, quality of jobs gone right down, search engine doesn't work and so our careers have taken a nose dive.
Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish!

If I could give ot less than 1 star I would.

When Mandy seperate from Casting Call Pro and Voices Pro, it was fine.

When Mandy took over Casting Call Pro and Voices Pro, it was still fine.

When Backstage (Starnow) took over Mandy everything went to sh!t.

After being Premium Member for many years, I refuse to give Backstage/Starnow (its no longer Mandy) any money for an increasingly p!ss poor service.

Beyond disappointing what Starnow has become. Since its take over (from Backstage) the site has rapidly deteriorated.

It is now a withering husk of what it once was. As a result I have cancelled my membership sadly, after 10 years of wonderful opportunities.

Some of the key reasons being;

Terrible quality of opportunities.
Awful customer service.
Utter dismantling of sense of community.

R.I.P Starnow
Thank you for all the wonderful castings you brought us, before you suffered from terminal stage 4 Backstageitus.

I joke, to not weep. It is undeniably poor of Backstage to destroy 2 high quality platforms of opportunity (Mandy aswell). Thanks for making a tough industry to crack even tougher, Backstage.

Awful, terrible company.