To some extent, this applies to prose as well - not as much to POV characters as to others, but even then it can be helpful.
But let me back up a little.
In print, the reader has access to the POV characters' innermost thoughts and feelings. What this means is that it is not only their actions that define them, but what goes on inside their heads.
On screen, this is not so. Nor is it for characters on the page whose thoughts the reader is not privy to. What does this mean for the writer? Allow me to explain my thoughts.
No matter what work you put into a character's design - their backstory - what matters to the reader is what they see. If the things you invented do not impact the story, the reader sees none of it and your detailed character bio results in nothing but a 2D stereotype that the eye merely glances over and forgets.
An example: your main characters stop at a sandwich shop three days a week for lunch. You have a beautiful bio drawn up for the guy behind the counter. He fought in Operation: Iraqi Freedom - two tours - but when he came back he was a changed man, tortured, haunted, and his wife left him. Since then, he has become a Buddhist and is seeking inner peace and enlightenment. His father back in Idaho is dying of cancer, but the sandwich man can't leave his job to go and take care of Dad because he needs the money.
How does this manifest on the page? "Here's your sandwiches, ladies. Enjoy!"
That's it. None of the backstory you devised, the intricate personality you worked out in detail, shows itself to the reader, because the story being told has nothing to do with any of it. In practical terms, he is not any of those things in your bio: he's just the guy who says, "Enjoy."
So what if you define him in relation to other characters. Maybe he's like the Soup Nazi and is combative with your leads. Or perhaps he owns the sandwich place with his sister who is a flake and sleeping on his couch, and so every time we are in the sandwich shop there is some nice conflict happening between them.
Even if it's just a little color, it is something. He's no longer just the guy who hands your MCs their sandwiches; he is a character.
Your other characters can benefit too; it doesn't have to be just bit-parters. If you have decided that Jack's younger brother was bitten by a poisonous spider and almost died while vacationing in Brazil, unless your plot is about spiders then the most we will see (unless you shoehorn in some dialogue to explain it - which is itself problematic) is Jack staring suspiciously at a spider in the corner of the room. Not compelling drama.
So start again. Make Jack a control freak, and Betty a free spirit who is offended by structure. Together they spark, and will create drama simply from the way they respond to every situation. This particular example is a cliche, but there's a reason for that: it's a good one.
The point, though, is that while backstory is not a bad thing, if it doesn't show up on the page then it isn't a good thing either. Define your characters against one another, make it so that the way they behave is in direct contrast to everyone else. How they respond should not only be about the events of their past, but about how other characters will respond to the same stimuli.
If you want drama, if you want entertaining characters, if you want depth, then that bio sheet alone is probably worthless. Think about they way every character relates to, and contrasts with, the others. Know their alliances, their clashes, their romances. Define the group together, so you know they complement and contrast.
Make good drama that doesn't just exist in theory. Then write it.
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