Outstanding Contribution to Craft: Des Hamilton

Des Hamilton, the casting director known for his work on the likes of This is England and Top Boy, has had his award-winning work recognised with a BAFTA Scotland Special Award.

If there’s one thing you know for sure about Des Hamilton it’s that he would make an excellent dinner guest, regaling others with high tales from the casting room experienced across an exceptional career that has spanned hundreds of films, television series, shorts, music promos and commercials. Many of these eventful auditions are well-documented – there’s the time grime artist Kano hit him or when Jasmine Jobson flung a chair across the room, both riled up by Hamilton and his blunt request for greater authenticity during their auditions for Top Boy.

Such Hamilton anecdotes, almost certainly enlivened with a colourful array of choice native Glaswegian tongue, are not just for entertaining dinner guests. This is how the casting director plies his trade, drawing out the best in people who perhaps don’t know they can or even want to act, along the way spotting some of the UK’s brightest new talents.

It’s the reason why his company, Des Hamilton Casting, is in high demand from some of the world’s best, including the likes of Lynne Ramsay (Morvern Callar), Shane Meadows (This is England), Taika Waititi (JoJo Rabbit), Claire Denis (High Life), Andrea Arnold (Red Road), Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson), Lars von Trier (Melancholia), Gaspar Noé (Enter the Void), Chris Morris (Four Lions)… the list goes on. He’s also helped launch the careers of Thomas Turgoose, Kathleen McDermott, Letitia Wright, Luke Fraser, Tom Sweet and much of the Top Boy cast.

Des Hamilton Casting’s talent for, well, spotting talent was recognised by BAFTA in 2020 and 2023. Hamilton won and was nominated respectively for Top Boy, although with the Casting categories only introduced in 2019 it’s not beyond the realms of possibility he may have earned considerably more since discovering his choice career in his late 30s.

Indeed, Hamilton’s journey to becoming one of the UK’s most solicited casting directors is one of serendipity. A chance encounter with fellow Scot and filmmaker Lynne Ramsay led to him being asked to lean on his own experiences as an actor to scour the streets of Glasgow, looking for unknowns who would fit her film Morvern Callar (2002). One such find was McDermott, who was working as a hairdresser and karaoke singer at the time, and would go on to win a BAFTA Scotland New Talent award for her stellar performance.

Hamilton has since become renowned for his expertise in street casting – finding talent by approaching likely people on the street and asking them to come in for an audition. Hamilton and his team also cast through more traditional means, including casting calls and drama schools – the final season of Top Boy, for instance, saw 3,000 submissions entered for just one part. And, just as Ramsay took a chance on Hamilton 20 years ago, so too has he returned the favour ever since, providing many others with their breakthrough moment and setting them on a new path.

About receiving this BAFTA Scotland special award, Hamilton says: “Ultimately, I’m flattered. It’s not natural for me to think about stuff like this. I’m proud that the work myself and my team do is being recognised by BAFTA and BAFTA Scotland, and that the work I’ve done has made my mum very happy.”

A BAFTA Special Award is one of the academy’s highest honours recognising an outstanding contribution to film, games or TV. You can see more recipients in our Awards database.

For more inspiring stories from the world of film, games and TV, explore our BAFTA Award Stories section.