We hosted a Transformer Party for my son's 4th Birthday Party & hired Optimus Prime & Bumble Bee from Characters For Hire. Although they were expensive they did make the party special & very memorable. The 2 characters came with an organiser which I found very useful, so I could help to direct & switch up ativities through there communicater. The actors were extremely nice, well mannered & seemed like really well educated nice genuine guys. They were early to the event, were no trouble at all, took directions well & helped to make the party special. The kids loved them. Overall I was impressed by them & would hire them again. read more

Amazing characters!! Incredible service! I booked 3 characters for a halloween party and I can honestly say I am so happy I did! The characters were unbelievable, so talented and such nice people! They were very professional yet super friendly! Had so much fun with the crowd we didnt want the night to end. They were the best part of the entire party. Because of noise complaints we had to relocate the party to another location and the Characters For Hire team was so understanding and sweet, they drove to the other location with the best energy! The makeup artist was super talented and the onsite supervisor was so nice and incredible. The day before the party they offered to send another talented character with no extra charge. I'm beyond happy with the company and I look forward to working with them for all my upcoming events! Thank you soo much!!! read more

Characters for Hire - Party Characters Near Me - New York, New York

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Worst company I've ever dealt with in my life. I hired two flappers for my sister's wedding ($675 each) One showed up. The company never bothered notifying me. I found out from the one (mediocre) flapper that the second one was NOT SHOWING UP. The company told me that they would refund me for the one missing flapper + offer me a "free" character experience to help compensate. I asked for a Santa for my kid's party. The company called me 15 minutes prior to "Santa's arrival" to tell me that that he was NOT SHOWING UP. I had 8 disappointed little kids in my living room. It's now almost 8 weeks later, 9 emails, and 6 phone calls later, and they still have NOT refunded my money! Unbelievable. read more

This company is a total rip off. Contracted with them 8 months before the event. They call me the day of event saying they don't have their make up person. They were supposed to be at event at 1pm. They show up with no costumes no instruments and no idea what they were there for. They couldn't perform so they were asked to leave. The company refused to reimburse , I have filed legal complaint read more

I am a professional actor in NYC. I was thrilled with the professionalism and level of my fellow actors on the gig I recently worked on. As for management, texts were promptly responded to, something that is certainly not not the case with every casting company. I would be happy to work for them again. read more

This company is a complete rip-off. They are unprofessional and have no clue what they are doing. They milked the process and provided little if any solution. read more

To start off if there was an option for 0 stars I would. This company is EXTREMELY unprofessional. They are the most unorganized company I have ever dealt with, and treat their potential customers and employees like garbage. I am here to forewarn you to not book this company for your events. Xoxo read more

I have been at birthday parties for mom and dad, famous baseball players, on US weekly live! and rolling stone studios as the young abraham lincoln and even fox 5 for 3 hours on the july 4th weekend as george (the immature and silly) washington with nothing but great experiences and reviews. Not only did everyone have fun, including me, but the pay is commensurate with the work. Give them a chance and have some fun, it's more than just NYC and surrounding areas, it's all over the USA. My experience is the greater NE and hopefully other areas as well. They also asked me to be Washington on live tv in DC and The Grinch as well which is just amazing, my favorite prosthetic character if I could parallel it with my time. read more

Not an upstanding company. I hired "zombies" to do a dance at a Halloween party at my home. The actors did a great job! ... I felt AWFUL about the whole situation because one of them reached out to me because they were never paid. I paid the company (on time).... I paid $5,000 for 5 zombies to do The Thriller dance and then dance with my guests for an hour. I just wonder where all the money went and why it did not go to the people who actually did the work. I do NOT recommend this company. It is awful that these people were not paid (at all or on time). read more

Characters did a Luke/Darth experience for my son's birthday. They were very personable and the costumes were excellent. Could be better versed in the Star Wars storyline but not everyone is a fanatic. The actors were professional and I would hire again for another event should the occasion arise. read more

Our party was the best! Vertical as Spiderman was amazing. He jumped off our 2nd story deck! Flips, kicks, jumps, my son could not stop smiling. Nick was also very accommodating and straightforward. Ultimately are booking a high quality event and there are costs related to this, but definitely worth every penny. All of our guests were blown away, as they left they said, "Can't wait to see what you do next year!" And they won't have to as we just booked my daughter's Frozen birthday party. Can't wait. Thanks to Nick and the whole team! read more

Just to update my prior review. Everyone can decide who to believe in this argument. I paid $2000 and got 3 actors. That is not disputed by the owner. We had agreed to 5 actors. We had less than 70 kids at the event (I think it was around 55 that came). I also asked only for the refund for the 2 actors that didn't show up. Look, I'm a small time event planner and I don't have time to write bad reviews of vendors (in fact, this is my first one ever). My client paid my bill so I let this debate with them go as I have to spend my time working on other events. I can say that I have booked several more Star Wars parties and I've been using a great co. called Saber Kids. They are extremely professional and far less expensive. read more

Hired Darth Vader to come to my son's 5th birthday party. The kids loved it and made it a memorable experience. He battled them with light sabers and then they all took turns taking photos with him. It wasn't cheap by any means but in my opinion it was worth the cost. Definitely a great alternative to the magician/clown options out there for kids entertainment. read more

I am completely awestruck at the performance of Frozen characters Anna & Elsa with whom I hired for my nieces birthday party! I brought Broadway to Staten Island to the complete delight and utter amazement of 10 children and twenty adults, I will never forget this party, the professionalism of the girls and the handler Mike made the entire event unforgettable! This company is definitely way above all the other party companies and I have used many. Rose1962 read more

We hired an acrobatic Spiderman to entertain at my son's 5th Birthday Party. We went with the second level package that includes an obstacle course, interaction with the kids, and a little performance by Spiderman. There was a bit of a scheduling conflict and Spiderman showed up late. I almost had a nighmare on my hands with 21 five year olds (or younger) in our house. HOWEVER, CFH completely made up for the problem. They delivered Spiderman and the Green Goblin and put on a fight scene at no extra cost. The kids had a blast and continued to chat about it at school for the next week. I still get "hey, that is the lady who knows Spiderman!!" when I pick my kids up from school. So, aside from a near-disaster scheduling problem, the show was fantastic! read more

Horrible. On December 8th, I hired two characters from Characters for Hire, for my 8 year old son birthday party which would occur January 28th. Way in advance. I was asked to put 50% deposit which I did and the remaining would be the week before the event .. which was 7 or so weeks away. On Dec 21 the company wrongly debited the remaining amount from my account. I began to phone, complain, call, sometimes I got through to someone who could not help me at all. One excuse after another. Literally right before holidays they took the money and no one would be accountable for it until today 1/13. I heard from their accounting department that they would refund the wrong amount taken and but never received so I called all this past week asking for the amount. No one picks up. Left messages no returned calls. emailed. no return email. I wrote yet another note this morning questioning the business and finally got a Manager to email me back that he is refunding me the entire amount and cannot service my needs. He claims he is getting too busy. Here is what I think. they needed the money.. maybe they had characters..maybe not...maybe they were limited and waited close enough to the time of the party to figure out how many characters are needed for what events. In any case, they cancelled on an 8 year old birthday party , refunding me immediately ( which of course they could have done the same at the end of December) and wished me the best! Be careful if you are choosing this company .. read more

We hired "Characters for Hire" to put on a Star Wars party for my 6 year old son. We were told that the party would include games, obstacles courses, jedi training activities, story telling activities and a star wars show where 3 characters would act out a light saber dual. We were told that we would be provided with an hour of entertainment, a coloring book for the birthday boy, and that the story telling and light saber show would involve my son. What took place was far from this. The 3 actors that came were only prepared for the light saber show, none of which was tailored for my child. (If you watch the video on the website, that is exactly what they did for us, approximately 10 minutes of entertainment, nothing involving my son.) The rest of the time was utter chaos. The jedi training was brief and unfocused and mostly consisted of a simon says game. There was no story telling, no coloring book for my son, no obstacle courses. But what I am most unhappy with was the fact that my husband and I spent the whole party trying to figure out what was going to happen next, corralling kids, and dealing with the guy we booked the party with. It was stressful and I was not able to interact with my son or our friends who had come to the party. I had agreed to pay $950.00 for the package. What was delivered was so below what was promised that I have asked for $200.00 back. In response, the guy I booked the party with is just not responding to my emails. I am having to go through the credit card company to contest the charge. My advice: AVOID CHARACTERS FOR HIRE. read more

Terrible experience, save your money. This company is highly unprofessional. They did a Star Wars party for my son in 2012. The characters showed up one hour and half late, they then needed to put their costumes and make up on as well as practice while my guest were in the back yard waiting. I was so embarrassed bc I had to keep telling my guests that it shouldn't be too much longer. Worst of all, I paid a lot extra for them to film the experience and make a video for my son. A person came to film and so my husband and I never shot a video bc we expected to get a video from the company. It is now almost 2014 and still no video! I called the owner multiple times and he makes excuses after excuses as to why it hasn't been sent out. Finally he stopped answering our phone calls and we haven't heard from him at all. Buyer be very aware, not only did we lose a lot of money but we don't have any video memory of that day. read more