Desperately Seeking Diversity: Challenges and Breakthroughs in the Casting of Netflix’s Zero

Following the introduction of incremental mandatory national investment quota , Netflix’s investment in Italian productions has been significantly growing. In line with Netflix’s creative strategy “Made in Italy, Watched by the World” , storylines and settings have started to display greater attention to socio-cultural and identity issues that could appeal to the company’s elective target of young, transnational audiences. Among these, Zero (2021) has been praised as “Italy’s first TV show with a majority black cast” (Povoledo 2021). Although it eventually encountered mixed reviews and was not renewed for a second season, both viewers and critics welcomed Zero’s casting of second-generation afro-Italian actors as a long-awaited, fresh take on Italian society (Armelli 2021; Francesca 2019). However, according to Zero’s casting co-director Cristina Proserpio, the selection was made challenging by the stark underrepresentation of non-white actors in national film schools and talent agencies. Drawing on interviews with Proserpio, this paper focuses on the theme of so-called “diversity casting” in the Netflix original series Zero from a production studies perspective. In doing so, it illustrates how Italian casting professionals are adapting their practices to cater for the increasing demand of more diverse onscreen representations coming from SVOD players. This includes Netflix’s current mandate to the Unione Italiana Casting Directors to elaborate a nation-wide mapping of non-white, non-binary, non-cisgender and non-able bodied Italian actors, in order to support future productions (Proserpio 2021).