Profile

The Secret Gallery Inc. is a full-service casting agency. We work with international modeling and talent agencies and cast for worldwide print advertising, magazine editorials, runway shows, TV commercials, independent films and digital media.

The Secret Gallery Inc. also specializes in “street scouting”, finding unique and undiscovered talent for specific casting projects. We are considered a source for “real people” as well as new, and unconventional types. Many of our discoveries have been placed with top agencies around the world.

Contact

The Secret Gallery Inc.
206 West 23rd Street, Fifth Floor,
New York, New York 10011
646 688 4077 Office
casting@thesecretgalleryinc.com

Photography Clients

Magazines

Commercial Clients

Clients

DANIEL PEDDLE

DREW DASENT

Bios

Artist Daniel Peddle spent his childhood in rural North Carolina. He graduated with honors in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended graduate film school at New York University. While a student at NYU, Daniel cast his student films by “street scouting” undiscovered talent. This nontraditional means of casting soon evolved into a full-service casting company with an international clientele such as Comme des Garçons, Phillip Lim and Givenchy. His discoveries include Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence, who he discovered near Union Square when she was thirteen-years-old. Top image-makers continually seek Daniel’s intuition for new talent and artistic eye.

It was through street casting that Daniel first encountered the subjects of his debut feature documentary film The Aggressives (2005) about a world of butch lesbians of color passing as men. An influential work on modern gender identity, the film was awarded the Kinsey Honor from the Kinsey Institute and numerous “Best of” awards at documentary film festivals worldwide. Powerhouse Books published Daniel’s written exposé on the Aggressives’ subculture in the book Transculturalism © 2005. Trail Angels (2011), Daniel’s second documentary feature is also a portrait of a subculture. Here a community based on kindness emerges from the backwoods of America. The film follows four unsung heroes, who make it their quest to help the seasonal thru-hikers of the Appalachian Trail, a pilgrimage of five million footsteps. The film debuted on The Documentary Channel in 2011 as part of their series “Across America”.

Sunset Edge, Daniel’s first narrative feature uses a fresh cast of teenagers discovered by Daniel for the film. Mixing documentary techniques with painterly tableaus of rural life, Sunset Edge captures the vivid deconstruction of traditional meaning-systems in the American South. Sunset Edge premiered at Museum of The Moving Image in NY and was theatrically released in select U.S. cities including NYC and LA.

With partner Drew Dasent, The Secret Gallery was founded in 2000 and first opened in Redhook, Brooklyn. Before closing to the public in 2001, they exhibited artists Jamel Shabazz, Martina Hoogland-Ivanow, Melissa Auf der Maur and produced Carter Smith’s notorious “Squat” show, casting four young strangers to live under 24-hour surveillance for six-weeks in the gallery.

The Secret Gallery was incorporated in 2001 and relocated to New York City, where it now houses a casting office as well as Daniel’s art and film studio.

Drew Dasent was born in Sheffield, UK. He worked as an art director for a British sportswear company, before relocating to New York City in 2000. Stateside he began working as a wardrobe stylist and has extensive experience in both commercials and music videos. He has styled for Marc Anthony, Aaliyah, DMX, Rage Against The Machine, Bruce Springstein, and Nine Inch Nails among many others.

Drew met Daniel on a photo shoot and the two quickly bonded, sharing a similar aesthetic and political viewpoint. Their love for world culture and general disdain for over-industrialization has led them to many collaborative efforts including WHENTHEWORLDWASFLAT, an on-going limited series of elaborate drawings and esoteric writings on fabric, hand-embroidered by Drew.

At The Secret Gallery, armed with a resolute professionalism and astute critical eye, Drew is the operating director of casting services. He manages relationships with model agencies spanning the globe and directs castings for many international companies. From in-store and online marketing, runway and backstage production, print campaigns to catalogues, look-books, events, magazine editorials and special projects in film and multi-media, Drew has years of casting experience and over-sees many long-term client accounts.

Along with Daniel, the two have become industry leaders in promoting diversity in casting, while creating a distinctive and consistent casting vision for a wide range of brands.