For casting directors, there is no such thing as a small part.

Shows like “Widow’s Bay,” “Hacks,” “Pluribus” and “The Pitt” not only made an impression with the Television Academy across the board, but saw many of their supporting actors and guest stars land nominations. Working character actors like Kate O’Flynn, Carlos Manuel Vesga, Lauren Weedman and Patrick Ball all landed their first Emmy nominations for brief but meaty parts.

So how did these Emmy-nominated shows go about finding their hospital patients, hive mind members and quirky assistants?

With its rotating roster of hospital patients and doctors, Season 2 of “The Pitt” saw 13 of its performers get recognized — up 10 from last season. Landing a background spot on the show can provide L.A. locals consistent work for up to six months due to the show’s unique filming style.

Casting directors Cathy Gelfond and Erica Berger, who have been working together since 2017 and won an Emmy for their work on Season 1, are responsible for casting anyone with at least one line, which totaled 250 performers this past season.

“In my 30-plus years, I think I had done two movies and had never done a television show [in Los Angeles]. So, it’s been quite fascinating to see the depth of talent in day players,” Gelfond says. Berger adds, “We get to do every single part here, from top to bottom, so we have more opportunities to give people their first chance.”

Many of this season’s new discoveries, including guest stars Brittany Allen and Jeff Kober, made a strong impression as hospital patients.

“I think it’s just if we feel moved,” Berger says about what draws her to specific actors. “Because we’re watching so many of the same scenes again and again, if I’m crying after I’ve seen 40 takes of the same one, I know it’s going to move other people too.”

When building out the quirky world of Katie Dippold’s horror comedy set on a tiny New England island, “Widow’s Bay” casting directors Allison Jones and Emily Buntyn relished the fact that nobody wanted a recognizable face. “I’m from that part of the world, you’re not going to cast glam-looking people who come from there,” Jones says.

Jones and Buntyn, who have worked together for over a decade, were initially brought on to consult on the casting of Tom Loftus, the horror-skeptic mayor who wound up being played by Matthew Rhys (double Emmy-nominated thanks to his turn in “The Beast in Me.”).

What struck Jones when reading Dippold’s scripts, long before anyone knew the sensation “Widow’s Bay” would become, was how she wrote the older locals in town.

“I couldn’t wait to grab these women and men who were kind of crusty and old,” Jones says with a wide grin on her face.

Dale Dickey, who plays the town gossip, was a no-brainer addition. Her audition was unorthodox: “The scene was her just having a coughing fit. We needed an actual smoker,” Jones says.

As a casting agent who has worked on everything from “Barbie” to “Freaks and Geeks,” Jones’ connections run deep in the industry. She happened to know O’Flynn’s manager, who had just signed her from London.

“She physicalized it all within herself; she was extremely quiet. She did a very good American accent, but what she imparted to that character was not on the page,” Jones says of O’Flynn’s audition.

“We had wonderful actresses read for that, many of whom could have done the part. Kate, though, was the personification of when you make a funny noise and a dog goes, ‘Huh?’”

At the core of “Hacks” is a story about a veteran (Jean Smart) and up-and-coming comedian (Hannah Einbinder) coming together to change each other’s lives. So naturally, the fifth and final season had to go full out with a diverse, multigenerational cast to celebrate everything the show has come to represent, which included bringing back vets like Laurie Metcalf and Weedman, while introducing Cherry Jones and Leslie Bibb into the mix.

“If you don’t get it right with those smaller roles in comedy, you’re dead in the water,” casting director Linda Lowy says.

Lowy and fellow casting director Morgan Smith, who work together under their Backyard Casting banner, were excited to cast more L.A.-based talent this time around. There were also financial reasons attached to that: “We needed to find locals, and I think that’s across the board with every show now. There’s no extra money anymore,” Lowy says.

The journey to casting Jones, who guest stars in the memorable “Montecito” episode alongside Bibb, was a difficult, touch-and-go process because of conflicts in the Emmy-winning actor’s schedule. “It just shows that if you keep going at it in the most gentle, creative, nice way, you might get what you want,” Lowy says.

The show has also been celebrated for its queer representation, with openly queer performers like Einbinder bringing their own lived experience to the characters. “Anytime that they intentionally write a queer character, we always try to prioritize those castings for authenticity,” Smith says. “We literally put it in the breakdown.”

“Pluribus,” which was specifically written by “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan as a vehicle for Rhea Seehorn, had to find the right performers to round out the collective hive mind.

Karolina Wydra and Vesga were two of the breakout finds for casting directors Sharon Bialy, Sherry Thomas and Russell Scott, who all worked with Gilligan on both “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul.”

“We had gotten to the point where we had seen everyone that we had thought of and had been submitted from all over the world. We finally had to go back to our old handwritten books, just looking through them,” Scott recalls. 

That was when Wydra, who didn’t have an agent or manager at the time, popped up from an audition years ago.

Vesga’s casting came from an hour-long conversation Bialy and Scott had with him at Gelson’s after being impressed by his tape. Bialy recognized “the kind of actor” Gilligan would be drawn to for the part of Manousos.

“He’s a really smart guy and we have found that if you cast really smart actors, you tend to get a lot more than you were even hoping for in future episodes,” Bialy says of the theater-trained performer.

“One thing that’s different with the casting for Vince and these roles is you’re casting a lot of people who’ve never done it before. They might be theater actors, but they’ve never been on camera. We’re spending a long time talking to them, explaining that it’s just about listening.”

As these casting directors reflect on their Emmy-nominated work — and their work on follow-up seasons — the search for the next breakout performer is always on.

“It just never stops once you are submerged into this career path,” Thomas says. “If I’m watching the new ‘Descendants’ movie with my kids on the weekend, I am going, ‘Oh, my God, that’s a discovery! Wow, they’re really good.’ And I’m looking them up in the middle of having this moment with my family because my brain just won’t turn off.”