A seat filler who was a part of the 94th Academy Awards ceremony has exposed all the secrets one must know to become a seat filler for Oscars. Los Angeles is starting up to host the 97th Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday evening and hundreds of A-list Hollywood celebrities will descend on The Dolby Theatre for the annual film program.
The Brutalist, Wicked and Anora are among this year’s Best Picture nominees, while The Apprentice’s Jeremy Strong, Colman Domingo and Demi Moore are all set up for important performance gongs.
Unfortunately, this year’s Oscars are not open to the general public to attend. Instead, mere mortals in the UK will have to tune in from midnight on Mar 3 from the comfort of their homes. However, if someone wants to go to the ceremony itself, then they will have to be an active or a lifetime member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
“I dreamed of, like, being a seat filler at the Oscars. I never thought, oh, I’ll host the Oscars.”@ConanOBrien talks to @laraspencer about the pressure of hosting the #Oscars and what viewers can expect when they tune in on Sunday night pic.twitter.com/p0zj7WxRvV
— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 26, 2025
Nominees are even invited and are usually provided with one or two extra tickets to the gala in case they want to bring their loved one along. As well as the celebs themselves, media media members are often given press accreditation to cover the entire event.
While some media professionals are allowed inside the 3,300-capacity of the venue, most of them will be positioned outside on the red carpet or mostly situated behind the scenes of the various after-parties.
There is also another way to get inside the exclusive event though. One can become a seat filler. Basically, a seat filler is responsible for holding specific seats for a guest while they greet and schmooze with other guests, grab drinks at the bar or run to the washroom.
The idea of having a seat filler is to have a full and free of gaps venue, which makes it an overall astonishing experience for the TV audiences watching the event at their homes. As per Refinery29, in 2018 there were around 300 seat fillers employed each year.
In order to become a seat filler, one must have some kind of affiliation with ABC, which is a network the Oscars will be broadcasted on, or the Academy itself, before one fills out an application. For some, sitting right next to an A-list celebrity or an actor who is nominated for their movie may seem like a dream. But, it is not all fun and games.
In a review from Taiyler Simone Mitchell, who was a seat filler in 2022, she explained that she was required to arrive hours before the event even started. “The show doesn’t start until 5 p.m. but seat fillers have to be at the venue for check-in by 10:15 am,” she said to Business Insider.
This also meant that the seat filler was required to do her hair, have her makeup done, get dressed for the event and drive to the location early in the morning.
A Hollywood Event Planning Pro on How to Plan the Best Viewing Party for the Oscars and Beyond https://t.co/tkM6HkD1LV
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 24, 2025
Speaking of the event itself, Simone also claimed that her busiest moments came during the TV breaks, and that most of the crew did not remain seated in the place they began work in. There was a point, Simone was also asked to leave the venue for almost 30 minutes as there was an overflow of seat fillers.
She shared that she sadly missed the Megan Thee Stallion performance of ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ and Encanto because she was asked to exit.
As a seat filler she even revealed that Simone and others working at the 94th Academy Award were not ‘supposed to chat with celebrities’. Instead, they were asked to remain silent, and not speak unless they are spoken to. As a seat filler they could not exhibit any fan behavior, such as asking for autographs and pictures. Say one gets an opportunity to sit next to Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. How can they go without fangirling?
