The actors on Stranger Things are household names now—but it all started with a first audition.

When the Netflix sci-fi series started in 2016, nobody had ever heard of Hawkins, Indiana and the Upside Down sounded like a pineapple dessert. For casting director Carmen Cuba, the process of finding the right actors to inhibit the roles was a monumental task. Cuba and series creators Matt and Ross Duffer knew that the show needed some heavyweight child actors, so she knew approaching unknowns wasn't going to cut it.