This Is Us Cast Panel with Executive Producer Dan Fogelman at SXSW 2018 [Video]

"There is hope and optimism there...that there is a happy ending potentially for the show and for the world." - Dan Fogelman

In the critically-acclaimed NBC drama, This Is Us, everyone has a family and every family has a story. The series chronicles the Pearson family across three decades: from Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) as young parents in the 1980s to their 37-year-old kids Kevin (Justin Hartley), Kate (Chrissy Metz), and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) searching for love and fulfillment in the present day. In the This Is Us Cast Panel, creator and executive producer Dan Fogelman as well as cast members Ventimiglia, Moore, and Hartley take an inside look at the Emmy Award-winning drama.

"One of the greatest things about the experience we all have on this show is the conversation that gets started because of these very simple, attainable stories." - Milo Ventimiglia

During the session moderated by Glamour's Jessica Radloff, she asked the panelists a series of questions related to fan encounters, in addition to sharing a funny story about her mother, who happens to be a huge This Is Us fan, and got the lucky opportunity to meet Hartley and Brown. Prior to the Featured Session, fans joined the cast and producers at the world premiere screening of the This Is Us season 2 finale episode as part of the SXSW Film Festival.

Before going to the audience for questions, Radloff posed on last question asking, "What have you guys learned on this journey and what has this show done for you as a person?" Fogelman thoughtfully responds with, "For me, I am one of those people who cannot get off CNN right now and watch everything that is going on in this country, just generally and globally how divided everybody is. I am constantly just going, what on earth is going on right now? How are we all collectively here regardless of what side of the line we sit on? And I look at the show, not just that it exists...the popularity of the show and the fact that people across all spectrums of life are attaching to this show that is open-hearted and optimistic, romantic, and inclusive; it gives me hope a little bit," said Fogelman.

Watch the video above for the full This Is Us Featured Session. Browse more 2018 Keynotes, Featured Sessions, Red Carpets, and Q&A’s on our YouTube Channel.

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This Is Us - Photo by Steve Rogers Photography/Getty Images