While she has almost two decades worth of industry experience, when you ask Karen Goora how often she sees actors with disabilities at casting sessions, she replies with “Hardly ever, actually never.”
“In order for me to have access to kids with disabilities and to give them opportunities they rightly deserve and are capable of doing, I think that agents have to start representing kids with disabilities and not see them as disabled,” she says.
“[A kid with a disability] can act, can be a cartoon character, can be a commercial voiceover, can be a spokesperson.”
As the Creative Director at Vapor Music, Goora is all too familiar with the audio world and that’s why she loaned her experience to this year’s Dear Everybody campaign.
Along with her team, Goora helped produce the audio for Dear Everybody’s spot piece, offering up the studio space, recording session, direction, and edits to the best takes.
“I think it’s really important that opportunities exist for all kids. Kids with disabilities should be included in creative endeavours, whether that’s in front of the camera or in front of the microphone,” she says.
“Everybody’s creative and can act and provide an interesting voice to a campaign.”