What does a casting director do? It’s one of the most important roles on any film or TV production, but there are a lot of misconceptions about the job. At IndieWire and Disney’s Pass the Remote panel on April 1 — a giddy TV FYC event that put top casting directors Tiffany Little Canfield, Josh Einsohn, Wendy O’Brien, Danielle Aufiero, Seth Yanklewitz, and Julie Ashton in front of a packed theater at Vidiots in Los Angeles — Yanklewitz said some people even think he and his peers are inherently “mean.”

“There are so many misconceptions,” said Yanklewitz about the business of casting. An industry veteran with credits on “New Girl,” “Black Hawk Down,” and more, Yanklewitz recently cast Hulu’s hit crime comedy “Deli Boys” for Pakistani-American creator Abdullah Saeed. Yanklewitz explained how a crash course in South Asian history helped make the casting process both more authentic and more inventive.