kahleen crawford grew up in glasgow. her childhood love of black and white films and the actors in them was the start of what led her graduate from glasgow university with a degree in film and television with theatre studies.

after graduation she moved to london to work in live television production but after several months of particularly ludicrous lectures from her boss (the highlight being a high-drama showdown regarding the apparently life threatening lack of decaffeinated earl grey tea in the production office) kahleen quit her job and drove back to glasgow.

a fortnight later, and back working at the bar she had worked at when she was a student, kahleen decided to try and get her ideal job in casting. she applied for a job as an agent's assistant, however, a lengthy telephone conversation led to the agent instead to tell kahleen about a new casting company, set up a few months earlier by gillian berrie of sigma films. kahleen started in casting the next day.

she thanks the agent for her time, advice, and for not hiring her, and gillian for hiring her. she will never yell at anyone about speciality tea.

kahleen has worked increasingly on solo projects since 2003, and in 2006 she and former business partner des hamilton decided to officially set up their own casting companies. kahleen’s solo credits include ae fond kiss (ken loach, 2004), feel the force (tristram shapeero, bbc tv, 2006), palme d’or winning film the wind that shakes the barley (ken loach, 2006), bafta award winning film red road (andrea arnold, 2006), it’s a free world (ken loach, 2007), and itv television drama rebus (stv, episodes 11-14, tx autumn 2007)