When actor Norman Reedus was first cast in AMC’s drama series “The Walking Dead,” he found a rental apartment not far from the show’s Atlanta-area set, expecting the housing arrangement would be temporary.

“I thought they’d kill me off in the first week,” he said recently, recalling playing Daryl Dixon in 2010. When Reedus realized his character wasn’t going anywhere—“The show just becomes this giant show”—he decided to buy a house. He paid $2.9 million in 2015 for a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired home in Serenbe, a luxury residential community about 30 miles outside Atlanta.

While some production crews and actors rent homes for short-term stays, more editors, cameramen, stuntmen, makeup artists and producers are moving to Georgia and buying homes closer to what is becoming a burgeoning epicenter of film production.

“There’s so much Hollywood going on in Georgia that they call it Y’allywood now,” said Reedus. “They’re all moving there because the work is there. It has become The Place to film.”

Like Reedus, some are landing in bucolic enclaves like Serenbe, located in Chattahoochee Hills, while others are planting roots in old-money neighborhoods like Tuxedo Park in the Buckhead district as well as areas near Piedmont Park and the BeltLine. New housing is also popping up near studios, including Trilith Studios in Fayetteville, about 30 miles south of downtown Atlanta.

Serenbe, where Reedus owns a home, has also attracted high-profile residents. In addition to restaurants, gyms and a school, part of the allure is privacy, said Monica Olsen, Serenbe’s head of marketing. A sign at the entrance advises visitors not to take unsanctioned photographs.

Olsen, who moved to Atlanta from California 20 years ago when her husband got a job at Turner Broadcasting, said Georgia’s tax credits have had a huge impact on the entertainment industry’s presence in the state. “You don’t have to be in L.A. to work in L.A.,” she said.  At Serenbe, prices range from $450,000 to $4 million plus. Plans call for nearly 2,000 homes, about 30% of which are built, Olsen said.

Reedus said privacy was a key selling point when he bought his house in 2015. The roughly 4,150-square-foot, four-bedroom house features a small river encircling the house and yard. It also has a private gated entrance and a long, winding driveway. “At that point, I had people in my bushes and people following me home,” he said. “It doesn’t have a direct neighbor.”