JD DeWitt has spent time in front of the camera lens, appearing in a few TV commercials here, but she says she prefers to help other people try to become stars. Through her 18-month-old business, The View Talent Agency, she has found work for a number of would-be actors, actresses, and models.

"I love putting my 'talent' forward," she says.

Her agency, located at 1512 N. Monroe, in a 1,300-square-foot space she recently leased with professional photographers Jennifer Harvey and Josh Michel, now has 89 clients, whom she calls her "talent." DeWitt says she'd like to get that up to around 200 clients, which she estimates will take her another 18 months to achieve.

Last week, she and the photographers hired a part-time administrative assistant.

"It feels good to be able to provide a job for somebody," she says.

It took six months for her business to begin to turn a profit. DeWitt earns her money by charging a fee to production companies and advertising agencies when they hire one of her clients. She says she has never charged actors, actresses, or models fees to represent them, and never will.

To help secure work for her clients, DeWitt says she's working with a number of production companies and advertising agencies here, including North by Northwest Productions Inc., ILF Media Productions LLC, Corner Booth Media Productions Inc., and Kelly/Brady Advertising Inc.

She says she has helped several of her clients land supporting roles in motion pictures that are being produced now or have been produced recently, while securing jobs for others in TV commercials, infomercials, and print advertising.

DeWitt explains that her passion began to form several years ago when her son, Austin, the oldest of five boys, started to show an interest in acting. He wasn't interested in sports or music, but rather told her he wanted to be in the movies.

Being a supportive mother, she says she asked around, and decided to get Austin involved in the Spokane Civic Theatre.

"He blew me away," she recalls. "He was shy, and didn't like attention, but when I saw him acting, this whole new personality came out."

Next came a week-long competition in Los Angeles, where Austin made it to the top 10 percent of 1,500 would-be actors and actresses. Several agents asked him to come back to audition for television pilots and suggested he emancipate himself and move to Los Angeles.

That was not an option for their family, so to compensate Austin, his mother connected him with a talent agent in Spokane who started finding him local work. Before long, DeWitt started making other contacts, appearing in a few commercials herself, and then began securing more jobs for her son than he was getting through his agent.

That led to ideas about starting her own talent agency. She says she wanted to be upfront with her son's talent agent, so she mentioned the idea to her. The agent was positive, telling her that having more competition among talent agencies in Spokane would look good to movie producers considering Spokane for film projects.

In March 2008, DeWitt quit her part-time job in a local hospital's blood bank and opened a tiny office at 16823 E. Sprague, in Spokane Valley. Then, she began connecting people seeking work as actors, actresses, and models with advertising agencies and production companies seeking qualified men, women, and children to appear in advertisements or movies.

DeWitt started to put out feelers by having coffee with a casting director at North by Northwest Productions. The director called her back several days later, saying she needed a 5-foot-10-inch blonde female, size 2, to take a bit part in a movie with Christian Slater the following day. She needed someone by 5 p.m. that day.

"I'll find her," DeWitt promised the director. Then she hung up the phone and told her husband, "I'm blowing it! My first gig, and I'm blowing it!"

However, DeWitt remembered that Austin once had worked with a tall blonde. She started a frantic search through old e-mails—about 4,000 of them—and found the person she was looking for.

She made the phone call—"Katie, how tall are you?" The answer came back, "5-10." Then, "What size are you?" She was a size 2.

"So do you want to be in a movie with Christian Slater tomorrow?" DeWitt asked.

Katie Echterling screamed into the phone, and DeWitt's career as a talent agent took a flying leap forward. The movie, "Lies and Illusions," was released on DVD in September.

"The casting director loved her. I was just beyond excited," DeWitt says.

Now that The View Talent Agency has relocated from the Valley to the larger North Side space, DeWitt says she can prep her clients just before auditions at North by Northwest Productions, which is located three blocks away and produces about four feature-length films and 100 commercials annually. Also, the production company and advertising agencies are beginning to ask her to hold castings—group gatherings where many people audition at once. Now, she has the space for that, as well as for acting classes and other group sessions that allow for "teachable moments."

DeWitt says she is in a position to begin approaching agencies in Seattle to get work for her clients.

"Now, I'm big enough that I can handle any needs companies might have," she says. "In the beginning, I took whoever was interested. Now, I can be more selective. I'm just now this month beginning to pick and choose talent."

In a business that can be competitive to the point of cruelty, DeWitt says she named her business The View because "it's really my point of view." She says that if a person is not what she's looking for, she doesn't want her words to make or break their passion. When someone shows her a photo, "I just can't be mean, even if it's terrible," she says.

At the same time she's trying to be nice to newbies, she sometimes is getting yelled at by producers, she says. If an actor or actress she represents shows up three minutes late, or shows up with the wrong hair color, she gets an unhappy phone call.

"You have to be able to grit your teeth and not be defensive. It's just the business," she says.

DeWitt says that the actors, actresses, and models she works with have come to her mostly through word-of-mouth. Her husband, Joe, a computer analyst and information-technology specialist, designed her Web site and helps market her clients.

"He does so much for me. He's amazing. I wouldn't be doing this without his support," she says.

One person who found The View Talent Agency is Rachel Handler. The 27-year-old, six-foot-tall woman who wears a size 0 to size 2 dress came to DeWitt in the summer of 2008 asking for help. DeWitt says Handler had been trying to get into modeling for several years, but agencies kept turning her down, telling her she was too old to work for them.

She didn't really want to act, but DeWitt says she got Handler a job in a commercial within a week. Then Handler decided to do it again. Then she started taking some acting classes.

In September 2008, Handler landed a speaking role in the movie "Oy Vey! My Son is Gay!" which had a couple of premiers in October but has not yet been released to theaters.

"The director loved her," DeWitt says.

Handler came back after the experience and told her agent she was going to forget about modeling and concentrate on acting. She auditioned with movie director John Carpenter for another role, and didn't get the part, but Carpenter remembered her, and later cast her in "The Big Bang," starring Antonio Banderas, which currently is being filmed in Spokane.

"She wouldn't have been able to do that if I also told her, 'You're too old!'" DeWitt says.

She says she recently has found work for 16 local people in a swine flu infomercial for the Oregon state Department of Human Services. She placed four children and five adults from here in a Microsoft Corp. commercial that was produced three weeks ago.

Also, she says she "rounded up a bunch of boys" to appear as golfers in the movie "The Joneses," starring Demi Moore, which was partially filmed in Spokane last summer and is scheduled to be released next spring.

"I'm so happy for them," DeWitt says of the people who find work through her agency. "I love watching them want to get a movie part and get it. It feels good to support somebody else."