Robert J. Ulrich

Robert J. Ulrich is an American casting director and producer active since the 1980s and best known for casting television shows including Glee, The Boys, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica, CSI, Diagnosis: Murder and Matlock. He has also cast most Ryan Murphy productions since Popular in 1999. He has been nominated for eight Emmy Awards, winning a Primetime Emmy Award for casting Glee. He has been nominated for the Artios Awards 22 times and won twice, for casting Glee and Nip/Tuck.

Robert J. Ulrich began his career as a stage actor, but realized he would not be successful. He moved into casting and says he learned more about acting his first time behind the table than in his previous career.

Known for casting musical television series, Ulrich told The Hollywood Reporter that "it's so much more fun when you're doing a musical, because people are singing and your day's suddenly better". He developed this musical casting process for the show Rhapsody, which did not get greenlit. Initially, he would have auditionees sing a cappella or with a backing track, but insisted on bringing a live pianist for the callbacks, saying in 2020 that "great singers are better with a piano and less trained singers are much better with a piano". He has also said that having live piano sets actors at ease. The pianist he found for the Rhapsody callbacks was Brad Ellis, whom he would use for subsequent musical auditions as well as integrating into shows like Glee. Ulrich's musical casting process has not changed since Rhapsody, and he encourages actors to showcase themselves. He has also opined that for television, he considers acting ability above singing and that actors from the stage "should bring it down for the screen".Sometimes for auditions later in a show a pianist will not be used.