Random Non-Actors Who Got Thrown Into TV Shows (12 items)

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  (#10) Aziz Ansari

  • 40

  When Aziz Ansari set about casting the parents of Dev, a protagonist based heavily on himself from the semi-autobiographical series Master of None, he didn’t have to get all that creative - Ansari simply cast his own real-life parents, neither of whom had acted before. Fatima and Shoukath’s sole acting credits are for the roles of Ramesh and Nisha, and though they stepped in with even more natural grace than was expected, both they and Aziz had wholesome ulterior motives when they made the decision to work together.

  As he wrote on Tumblr of all places:

  Tonight after we did Colbert together, [Shoukath] said: "This is all fun and I liked acting in the show, but I really just did it so I could spend more time with you." I almost instantly collapsed into tears at the thought of how much this person cares about me and took care of me and gave me everything to give me the amazing life I have.
  
  I’ve been overwhelmed by the response to the Parents episode of our show. What’s strange is doing that episode and working with my parents has increased the quality of my relationship to my parents IN MY REAL LIFE. In reality, I haven’t always had the best, most open relationship with my parents because we are weirdly closed off emotionally sometimes. But we are getting better.
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  (#1) Steven Van Zandt

  • 72

  Steven Van Zandt had already risen to fame in the mid-'70s, both as a songwriter and performer in his own right, but more prominently as a member of childhood friend Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. Then, in 1984, he quit the band to explore a solo career and found himself floundering for the next decade and a half trying to decide what to do with the rest of his life:

  I literally went out into the wilderness. I’m not exaggerating. I walked my dog for seven years. I’d be out for eight hours a day just thinking, "How’d I get here? If I ever get back, what will I do?" I said to myself, "If I ever get back in, I’m not going to stop working. I’m never going to be in this position again where I can’t work."

  Then, in 1999, an opportunity came to try something completely different: acting in one of television’s most storied series. Van Zandt auditioned for, and won, the role of Silvio Dante, Tony Soprano’s right-hand man in The Sopranos. Then he stuck around for the duration, appearing in the pilot, the finale, and every season in between. For Van Zandt, the transition from performing on stage to performing in front of a camera was a natural transition, as he told Today:

  We all have every single personality trait inside of us. The craft of acting is finding it, awakening it, and giving it off - inhabiting the particular characteristics in the script. But I am this OTHER guy, and I am interacting with guys in THEIR characters. That made me fearless!

  Shortly after landing the gig, Van Zandt rejoined the E Street Band, and he’s remained active in both worlds ever since.
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  (#11) Polly Lou Livingston

  When Pendleton Ward cast his mother’s friend Polly Lou Livingston for her first acting role in an episode of Random! Cartoons, she was already 80 years old - but that didn’t mean she was new to the arts. Described as a San Antonio icon, Livingston was a famed local artist who sat on the Dean’s Council of Fine Arts and the Gala Committee for the Performing Arts at the University of Texas. Her unique singsong Texan drawl and kind nature made Ward feel as though she was a perfect fit for voice acting.

  A year later, as Ward was putting together his masterpiece, Adventure Time with Finn & Jake, he cast Livingston as the voice of Tree Trunks, an elderly miniature elephant. Following Livingston’s passing in early 2021, showrunner Adam Muto reminisced, “She had a wonderful and unmistakable voice and was always a joy to have in recording sessions. Polly Lou really liked playing TT, and she'll be sorely missed.”
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  (#2) Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson

  • 35

  Over the course of eight seasons, Game of Thrones recast the role of Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane twice. The first Mountain was Conan Stevens, who had to step out after Season 1 due to scheduling conflicts. Then came Ian Whyte, but he didn’t enjoy the role and backed away in order to play several minor characters instead, including the giant Wun Weg Wun Dar Wun.

  For their third and final Mountain, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss selected a real-life giant. Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson was a former professional basketball player who had since been hard at work putting together perhaps the greatest strongman career of all time. The 6-foot-9, 420-pound dynamo mostly got the call to audition on account of his enormous size and visible strength, but Björnsson sealed the deal by picking an actor up over his head with ease, as he recounted in a Reddit AMA:

  [HBO] contacted me and called me in for an audition. During the audition, I lifted the guy up (well, he asked me to), and they were really impressed.

  Since wrapping up on Game of Thrones, Björnsson has continued to dabble in acting, but he’s also continued in his athletic passion, recently setting a new world record for deadlifting with 1,104 pounds. In other words, lifting that actor over his head was not a particularly difficult challenge.
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  (#3) Phyllis Smith

  • 72

  Though she had a past as a burlesque dancer and had made a few attempts to get into acting, Phyllis Smith had given up on the dramatic arts by the time the 2000s rolled around - but not the entertainment industry. Working as a casting associate, Smith found herself reading lines with hopefuls auditioning for an NBC adaptation of the British sitcom The Office when opportunity came knocking again.

  As Pam Fischer, who would go on to play Pam Beesly, recalled on her Office Ladies podcast:

  I think this is an interesting tidbit. Phyllis Smith, who plays Phyllis on the show, she was the casting associate for The Office. So when I auditioned for The Office, she read my audition scenes with me. [Director Ken Kwapis] was so taken with how she did her readings with the actors that he said to Greg Daniels, "I want her on the show. Can I give her a part on the show?" And so, Phyllis went from being a casting associate, which she had done for years with Allison Jones, the casting director... to having a part on this pilot.

  The plainspoken character of Phyllis Lapin (later to become Phyllis Vance by marriage) was invented and added to the cast solely for the sake of including the plainspoken Phyllis Smith. In a show built on deadpan, she was a natural. Seven seasons later, she’d appeared in nearly every episode of the series’ landmark run, which in turn has launched her into other acting roles in The OA and the modern Pixar classic Inside Out. 
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  (#9) Joe Walsh

  • 75

  Guitarist, singer, songwriter, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Joe Walsh first appeared as himself on The Drew Carey Show in the musical-themed Season 2 episode “Drewstock,” an episode that also featured Little Richard and long-time Cleveland mayor Michael R. White. It made plenty of sense at the time, given the episode’s plot, but then Walsh just kept showing up.

  Starting with Season 4’s “In Ramada Da Vida,” Walsh began appearing as Ed, a guitarist hired by Drew and his pals to complete their hotel-lobby-playing jam band, the Horndogs - but only after they’d already tried out Slash, Lisa Loeb, Joey Ramone, and a half-dozen other notables. He even got to feature heavily in an emotional scene in which Drew left the band, only to be replaced by Weird Al Yankovic. Walsh continued to make sparing appearances until Season 6, becoming the sort of cult cameo classic that can only really exist in the sitcom format. Even in a show known for its musical guests, “The Clown Prince of Rock” stood out by taking on another role entirely and running with it. 

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