Editorial Standards: How Cast.biz Verifies and Updates Cast Lists

Last reviewed on April 28, 2026.

Cast.biz publishes reference pages about movies and television. The pages are useful only if they are accurate, and they only stay accurate if we maintain them. This page describes the standards we apply when writing a new cast page, the sources we treat as authoritative, the kinds of claims we will not make even when the temptation is there, and the process we follow when readers send us corrections.

What we publish

A Cast.biz page lists the principal cast of a movie or television series, the characters they play, and the key production credits that identify the people behind the camera. We sometimes add a brief description of what the title is about, and a short context section about the production for readers who arrive without prior knowledge. We do not publish reviews, ratings out of ten, or commentary that takes a strong editorial position on the work.

Which sources count as authoritative

For each title, we work from sources that come from the production itself or from organisations whose role it is to record what the production released. In rough order of priority:

  1. The opening titles, end credits, or both, of the work as released to the public.
  2. Press notes and electronic press kits issued by the studio, network, or streaming service for the title.
  3. Public-facing pages on the studio, network, or streaming service that present cast information.
  4. Industry trade publications that report on castings as they are confirmed by the production.
  5. Filings with guilds and unions that publish public-record cast information.

We do not treat fan wikis, social-media speculation, or unverified casting rumours as authoritative. They can be useful as starting points to identify a story we should look into, but they do not become a citation in their own right.

How we write a new page

When we add a new title, the workflow is:

  • Confirm the title's official name, format (film or series), genre, year, and production company from at least two of the sources above.
  • Pull the principal cast and characters from the credits in the released work, with cross-checking against the production's press notes for spelling and character names.
  • Write a short, neutral description of what the work is about. We avoid spoilers for late-season twists and major reveals.
  • Add the page to the relevant browse sections (Movies, TV Shows, network or franchise hubs) and to the sitemap.

How we keep pages current

Cast pages are reviewed periodically and whenever a new season, sequel, or significant cast change is reported. Each page carries a “last reviewed” date in the footer that reflects the most recent check. When we update a page in response to a confirmed change, we also update the date.

We do not retroactively rewrite pages to reflect rumours. If a casting is reported but not yet confirmed by the production, we wait until at least one authoritative source confirms it before changing what the page says.

What we will not include

Some kinds of content are off-limits, regardless of how widely they are repeated elsewhere:

  • Personal contact information, home addresses, or phone numbers for cast or crew.
  • Financial details such as salaries or contract terms, except where the production itself has chosen to publish those numbers.
  • Family details or relationships that are not part of an actor's professional public record.
  • Speculative or unverified medical, legal, or relationship reporting.
  • Quotes, statistics, or awards that we cannot trace to a primary source.

If a fact is widely repeated but cannot be traced to one of the sources listed above, we leave it out rather than reproduce it.

Corrections

Cast information changes. New seasons promote actors, recasts happen, and we sometimes simply make mistakes. The fastest way to fix something is to email contact@cast.biz with the page URL, the specific name or character at issue, and what the correct information is. The contact page describes what to include in more detail.

When we receive a correction, we check it against the same authoritative sources we used when the page was written. If the correction holds, we update the page and the “last reviewed” date the same day where possible. If the correction does not hold, we reply to explain why.

Editorial independence

Cast.biz is not affiliated with any studio, network, streaming service, or talent agency. We do not accept payment in exchange for inclusion on the site, for placement in lists, or for favourable framing of a title. Display advertising on the site is supplied by third-party networks and is clearly distinguishable from editorial content. Our privacy policy and cookie policy describe how advertising is handled and what choices readers have.

Working with the community

Many of our best corrections come from readers who notice a problem on a single page. We treat those reports the same way we treat any other source: we verify and act. We try to thank correspondents who help us improve a page, although the volume of email we receive means we cannot always reply individually.

Where this fits on the site

If you want context on the kinds of pages these standards apply to, the about page describes the site's scope and the audience it is built for. If you want examples of the structures the standards produce in practice, see How TV Show Casts Are Built, How TV Casts Evolve Across Seasons, and Understanding Billing Order.