Janet Nelson Berger began her career as a secretary at CBS in the mid-1950s before rising to become a production assistant and was a casting director at a time when few women had managerial roles in network television. She worked on television series that included Playhouse 90, DuPont Show of the Month, The Defenders, The Doctors and the Nurses, and For the People. She also did location casting for the television movie "F. Scott Fitzgerald and 'the Last of the Belles'".