You're listening to The West Wing Weekly. I'm Rashique Sherway.

And I'm Joshua Molina. As we head towards the end of The West Wing, we're introducing

a new monthly feature, a bonus episode that will help us discuss some stuff that falls

out of the scope or the timeline of our episodic discussions.

So this week, we're talking a little bit about the casting process behind the show. We

always love to ask actors about their experiences, auditioning and getting their roles, but what

about the people who bring them in to audition in the first place?

That's where the casting department comes in. And Josh spoke to one of the people responsible

for casting The West Wing, Tony Sepolvita.

Tony Sepolvita, senior vice president in the casting order by the others, television.

I was a cast character on The West Wing, Susan's 3 and 4.

Which includes when I first joined the show.

Technically, I cast you on The West Wing. Technically. Aaron Sarke called me and said, we're going

to add Josh Molina to the cast. So that's how I cast you.

So how did Tony end up on The West Wing? Well, he grew up in Santa Rosa, California, before

moving to Los Angeles for school.

I went to UCLA to be an actor and I realized halfway through the process when I wasn't

getting cast in anything, that I really didn't like rehearsing. I certainly didn't like

the idea of memorizing lines. So what I did was I started focusing on directing because

I liked that better and I didn't mind rehearsing and figuring things out.

And to make myself better at theater directing, I thought I'd do an internship in casting.

And I got an internship with Meg Lieberman, who was working at MGM at the time. And she

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