diff --git a/scrapeit/imdb.py b/scrapeit/imdb.py
index db4701f..b6fb00a 100644
--- a/scrapeit/imdb.py
+++ b/scrapeit/imdb.py
@@ -278,7 +278,7 @@ class IMDb:
         real_name = name[0]
         role_name = name[1]
         if role_name:
-          role_name = role_name.split('(')[0].replace('/ ...','').strip()
+          role_name = role_name.split('(')[0].replace('/ ...','')
         credits['cast'].append((stripTags(real_name), stripTags(role_name)))
     self.credits = credits
     return self.credits
diff --git a/scrapeit/utils.py b/scrapeit/utils.py
index 6bcc2ff..c4c0f16 100644
--- a/scrapeit/utils.py
+++ b/scrapeit/utils.py
@@ -125,9 +125,10 @@ def html_entity_decode(s, encoding = 'utf-8'):
   return u''.join(r)
 
 def stripTags(s):
-  return djangohtml.strip_tags(htmldecode(s))
-  
-  
+  if s:
+    return djangohtml.strip_tags(htmldecode(s)).strip()
+  return u''
+
 from htmlentitydefs import name2codepoint
 
 # This pattern matches a character entity reference (a decimal numeric