Typecasting is the process by which a film, TV, or stage actor is strongly identified with a specific character, one or more particular roles, or characters with the same traits or ethnic grouping.

Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson are often typecasted in roles of neurotic characters, such as Nicholson's performance in The Shining or Pacino's in The Devil's Advocate. Before this, Pacino had been associated with his performances in Scarface and The Godfather trilogy, both gangster roles. There have been instances in which an actor has been so strongly identified with a role as to make it difficult for him or her to find work playing other characters, as in the cases of Adam West, who played Batman, Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movies and William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek series.