Ghosts Is Full of Kindred Spirits

There have been ghostly comedies on TV before, but the Kerbys of Topper weren't cult members, the spectral seafarer on The Ghost and Mrs. Muir never came out of the closet and the "car ghost" on My Mother the Car didn't have a shard of glass protruding from her head. And, for sure, they weren't as naughty as the deceased denizens of the hit CBS sitcom Ghosts.

Based on the popular British series of the same name and adapted by coshowrunners and executive producers Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, Ghosts tells the story of freelance journalist Samantha (Rose McIver) and her chef husband, Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar), who leave New York City to become innkeepers when she inherits a rundown manor house upstate.

A near-death experience grants Samantha the power to interact with the departed, from an eleventh-century Viking to a '90s Wall Street player, all of whom passed away on the property in their respective eras. Thanks to these flamboyant phantoms, things around Woodstone Mansion are never dead.

What makes the show work, though, is not the ghosts' outrageousness, but their "verisimilitude," Wiseman says. Everyone is adept at doing their character, but in a way that you don't feel like it's someone in a costume on a sketch show." Plus, Port adds, "Rose and Utkarsh do a great job of grounding the show."

For the eight main ghosts, this success has been the answer to a prayer.

"We're a cast of veteran actors who have been working for a long time, and this is our first big break, so there's a lot of humility," says Sheila Carrasco, who plays the darling-but-daft hippie, Flower. "We're all isolated together up in Montreal," adds Rebecca Wisocky, who portrays the Gilded Age ghost, Hetty Woodstone. "From the very first table read, we were all amazed at how much we just naturally enjoy one another's company." In fact, the camaraderie of these ghosts is so genuine, it's scary.

Living: Samantha Arondekar

Played by: Rose McIver

She's played a zombie medical resident (iZombie), Tinker Bell (Once Upon a Time) and a yellow-suited superhero (Power Rangers RPM), so seeing dead people is well within McIver's wheelhouse. "I don't know what keeps drawing me to the otherworldly," she says. "But I do like working in heightened stories."

Even so, playing Sam is a switch. "I was the exaggerated character on iZombie," she says. "Being a conduit to these wacky ghosts has been a new challenge for me, and given me so much respect for those who had to play it straight to my madness."

What do you like best about your character? "Sam is incredibly motivated and caring. She's a real initiator and she pushes Jay out of his comfort zone in ways that have been really exciting."

Finest moment? "The scene in the kitchen at the end of season one, where she finally recognizes that the ghosts have become the family she always wished she had. It spoke to her commitment to the house and to standing by them through thick and thin."

Are ghosts treated differently in New Zealand? "Halloween was not a big deal growing up in New Zealand. That was something we saw in the movies, like white Christmases. We had Christmases on the beach. Halloween always stood out as something that was pure Americana. And there's not as much comedy around ghosts in New Zealand. It's more like a visitation from a deceased relative."

Say something nice about your castmates. "Brandon and Richie are incredibly well-trained improvisers. Between setups, Brandon pretends he's an actor who's dating Jennifer Lawrence and Richie pretends to be a focus-puller. They just really finish me off."

Favorite pop-culture ghost? "Myrtle from Harry Potter. She's a misfit who has been loitering around the toilets of Hogwarts because she's felt bullied. I think she'd find a few like-minded friends if she came to Woodstone Mansion."

Living: Jay Arondekar

Played by: Utkarsh Ambudkar

It's not easy for this comedian and rapper to play the straight man to spirits he can't see or hear, even though he does just that as Jay, chef and innkeeper at Woodstone Mansion.

But being a real-life father has helped. "My job on the show, at any given time, is to ignore between four and ten [ghosts] who are all begging for attention," he says. "Having two small children has prepared me to disregard a lot of crazy shit." Jay serves a vital function, however. "He provides the audience's perspective of, 'What the hell is going on here?"

What do you like best about your character? "Jay's openness to exploring the unknown. The dude walks around a house hearing his wife talk to people he can't see or hear, and he just sticks with her. Jay can really have empathy. He's like, 'Ghosts or not, they're still human beings,' and he wants everyone to have a chance at happiness."

Finest moment? "The episode where they took the car off the blocks and let me drive was the possession episode. That really came close to what I'm capable of as a comedian and as a silly person. Rebecca plays Hetty very grounded. I took the grounded out and just went for fun."

What's it like to be on a hot network sitcom? "A lot of actors turn their noses up at a [network] sitcom, but when you see the joy on people's faces when they see us out in public, that's why I started doing this — to bring joy to people's lives."

Say something nice about your castmates. "Sheila just tickles me. Devan is an unheralded genius of his time. Danielle makes me laugh. They're all so funny. To watch their chemistry grow as an ensemble has been a huge joy and pleasure."

Favorite pop-culture ghost? "Nearly Headless Nick from Harry Potter . We just built a Nearly Headless Nick Lego kit that glows in the dark. It's the coolest thing my kids have ever seen."

Ghost: Alberta Haynes

Played by: Danielle Pinnock

After developing nodules on her vocal cords in high school, Pinnock thought she would never sing again — and didn't, for over a decade. Then came Ghosts. "I was like, 'Can I really do this?'"

She really can. Pinnock sizzles as Alberta, a Jazz Age siren iced during the Harlem Renaissance. "I wanted to pay homage to all the Black artists who came before me," she says. "So I got myself straight into voice lessons, and I've been training for the last two years."

What do you like best about your character? "Her confidence. Alberta is such a badass. She doesn't care what anybody thinks of her. She's taught me how to be more confident in my own life."

Finest moment? "When Alberta's great-great-grandniece comes to the B&B, and we find out that Alberta always wanted to be a parent. It's a beautiful episode about family, loss and grief. There was not a dry eye in the house when Ashley Kelley and I were singing together."

What's the biggest plus of playing a dead diva? "Alberta gets the best clothes. That crushed velvet is fabulous and those feathers at the end of that cloak that she has. It's like she's peacocking all over Woodstone Mansion. She wants to be seen! When I go in real life, I'll probably just pass in a robe. I'll be so mad that's my forever outfit."

Say something nice about your castmates. "Sheila is one of the best character actors. She always has something fresh. And when Devan starts screaming about goat testicles or whatever the hell he's talking about, it's game over. The tears start coming, the lashes are flopping off to the side, and I literally have to go back into makeup."

Favorite pop-culture ghost? "The Ghost of Duke Ellington played by Jordan Peele on the animated [Netflix] series Big Mouth. He's just smoking a cigarette and doing these improvised jazz steps. He just takes me out."

Ghost: Hetty Woodstone

Played by: Rebecca Wisocky

Even while devouring the latest episode of [fake costume drama] Bodices and Barons, achieving corporeal fulfillment atop a washing machine or having a May 1987–December 1887 romance with a hot-to-trot young housemate, Hetty Woodstone remains the most tightly wound woman in the mansion.

"Hetty is silly and ridiculous and a hypocrite," Wisocky says. "But I love her so much." Few portray imperious women more attractively. "I have been fine-tuning difficult, misunderstood women for a while," she admits. "I very much like that brand of humor."

What do you like best about your character? "Hetty really does have a kind heart buried under all those many layers of control and fear. She's a real stick in the mud. But the more uptight the character, the greater the pleasure watching them unravel."

Finest moment? "Hetty's support of Isaac's coming-out story. It perfectly encapsulates why she's not an irredeemable person. Also, [her discovery of the vibrations from the] washing machine. I'm a very verbal actor and Hetty has all these very beautiful aria-type speeches. But the scene with that washing machine was silent. It felt like a nice opportunity for her."

Your character was so mean on Devious Maids. Has Ghosts softened you up? "I've played my share of villains. When people recognized me on the street, I always used to think they were vaguely concerned that maybe I had slept with their husband or slapped their mother. But the feedback about Ghosts on social media has been so loving, and that's new to me. That Hetty is a welcome face on people's TV screens is very gratifying."

Say something nice about your castmates. "Utkarsh has such a hard job on the show. He's so funny and inventive and such a good improviser. He really went to town impersonating Hetty. It felt very right that he gets the opportunity to just let loose with physical comedy."

Favorite pop-culture ghost? "Patrick Swayze in Ghost. The Hetty of season one would not at all approve, but the Hetty of season two might."

Ghost: Isaac Higgintoot

Played by: Brandon Scott Jones

When Jones — who had already played a dead person on The Good Place — got the part of Revolutionary War soldier Isaac Higgintoot, he wondered if it would feel different to play a ghost.

For the record, he says it doesn't. What does feel new is playing a Revolutionary War soldier who's gay. "So much of the debate around queer existence is about what our founding fathers envisioned. So to have a character from that period realize that his contemporaries made it harder for him to live the life he wanted is really interesting."

What do you like best about your character? "His absolute desperation to be liked and how that's constantly in conflict with who he is. Growing up as a queer person, I really identified with that general narrative. 'I know what I'm supposed to be, but I'm really this.' I also like his ruffly little cuffs."

Finest moment? "When Isaac realizes the truth about his relationship with his wife when he was alive and can finally move forward. That was a big hurdle. And, obviously, coming out of the closet was momentous for him."

Have you watched the British Ghosts? "I saw the pilot and thought, 'Oh, this is so good, I better not watch any more. I'll only compare it to everything that I do.' But it's going to be the first thing I watch once I'm done with this show. If I'm still alive. Or still dead."

Say something nice about your castmates. "When Rebecca says a line like, 'Ride me while you get sucked off,' which she got to say in the Halloween episode, she's just unbelievable. She's just so good. It's like, the more committed you are, the funnier it gets."

Favorite pop-culture ghosts? "In the movie Heart and Souls, Alfre Woodard, Kyra Sedgwick, Charles Grodin and Tom Sizemore play a pack of guardian-angel ghosts who possess Robert Downey Jr. I love them so much. As a kid, I watched that movie over and over again. They were so great as a group."

Ghost: Trevor Lefkowitz

Played by: Asher Grodman

For a party-hearty Wall Street guy doomed to spend eternity with no pants on, Trevor is actually a sweetheart. "He just wants to have fun and live as much as he can," Grodman says. "Even though he's dead."

Grodman's time at Columbia University provided useful background. "A lot of the guys I went to school with were on their way to being finance guys." But he says Trevor has more facets than the average bro. "It's not like, 'Oh, he's the douche.' There's more complexity to who he is."

What do you like best about your character? "I love that he's the most social ghost. In a house where everyone is kind of over everything, he's the little brother who just wants to rile everyone up. He wants action! Let's do all this stuff! Let's do fun things!"

Finest moment? "The 'Trevor's Pants' episode because we get to go back in time and see Trevor's Wolf of Wall Street/Lehman Brothers lifestyle. With flashbacks, we get to be two shows at once. Plus, it builds us a murder mystery about a missing pair of pants."

What's the biggest challenge of not wearing pants all day? "You're endlessly uncomfortable. Any temperature change in that studio I feel first. Plus, the undergarments I have to wear are very tight. The hardest part is trying to hide that stuff. But we have a really wonderful crew who warns me when we can see anything that's not safe for CBS."

Say something nice about your castmates. "I'd never done a comedy before this, so I'm usually the first person to break. Brandon and Richie do these bits and Devan will improvise and they just kill me. Everyone is hilarious. Sheila, Danielle — I can't name just one!"

Favorite pop-culture ghost? "Trevor's favorite ghost is the lady who hovers over Ray in his bed in Ghostbusters. But for me, it's Mufasa in The Lion King. His form appears in the sky, and he tells Simba, 'Remember who you are."

Ghost: Flower

Played by: Sheila Carrasco

Ask Carrasco to describe Ghosts, and she has a Flower moment. "It's Ghostbusters, but if Ghostbusters were The Office and there were no busters," she says.

A quick-thinking sketch-comedy performer before blossoming as Flower, Carrasco likes that Ghosts is grounded, despite all the metaphysical shenanigans. "It doesn't feel like a supernatural show," she says. "Like so many of the ghosts, Flower has a sad backstory, but there's an innocence that feels very real. She may not remember what you just said, but she's always going to give people the benefit of the doubt."

What do you like best about your character? "Flower can be an awesome agent of chaos on the show, like when she locked Samantha in the vault. But she also has a very loving Earth Mother personality. It's fun to play two sides of that coin."

Finest moment? "The 'Jay's Friends' episode, where Flower finds out that her brother didn't die in Vietnam. I really loved getting to explore that connection to her past life. I feel like in every episode we get to dig a little bit deeper. I get new information that rounds her out in a way I never thought possible."

How do you feel about Flower's complicated past? "Who knows what Flower did in her past or what she's capable of, especially when she comes up with things from the cult. She's this free-loving wild child, but she also just wants to hug people and be there for them. It's nice to play somebody who is kind of a dummy. Not like me at all."

Say something nice about your castmates. "I love giggling with Danielle in between takes — she makes me laugh so much — and Román is my day-off buddy. We'll hang out and go to yoga and then get food. He's like my little brother."

Favorite pop-culture ghost? "Shoeless Joe Jackson from Field of Dreams. He was very handsome, and what a cool name! All ghosts need to have a cool descriptor like that."

Ghost: Pete Martino

Played by: Richie Moriarty

Moriarty — who plays Pete, the Pinecone Trooper with an arrow through his neck — knew Ghosts had touched a nerve on Halloween 2021.

"I was sitting down with my family for dinner. We had put some candy out in a bowl on our front steps. The doorbell rang, and when I opened the door, it was an eleven- year-old girl dressed as Pete. I was like, ' What is happening?' We are so lucky to have found this great audience. My wife and I pinch ourselves every day."

What do you like best about your character? "His blind optimism. He's always looking on the bright side and is always willing to jump into things headfirst. If I had a tenth of Pete's optimism in my real life, I'd be a different person."

Finest moment? "The 'Pete's Wife' episode. From the first table read, you could tell it was special. To be a ghost on the show whose family is still alive is very cool. Many audience members have lost a loved one, and I'm sure they like to think they're looking down on them."

How about Pete and his pathos? "Ghosts is a comedy, first and foremost, but there are also moments that can elicit tears. The Joes have done an expert job at finding that balance. That's a difficult thing to do on a twenty-one-minute show without commercials."

Say something nice about your castmates. "Brandon and Rebecca will read a line, and I'm like, if you gave me a hundred shots, I would never read it like that. But that's exactly the right way to read it. Also, it's really fun to play off Rose because Samantha and Pete both have that same sort of wide-eyed optimism."

Favorite pop-culture ghost? "Ghostbusters was the first movie I saw in theaters. My parents were like, 'He's too young, but we're taking him anyway.' Ever since, I've been obsessed with Slimer. He gets to roam the hallways of a hotel and eat food off trays that no one wants. Like, what a dream!"

Ghost: Sasappis

Played by: Román Zaragoza

Zaragoza recently came across something straight out of Ghosts. "I found my manifestation journal from 2020," he says, "and the first line was, 'I would love to be part of an ensemble comedy, and I want it to do well.'"

His character has grown with the show. "When we started, I had some deep talks with our showrunners about who Sasappis is. We figured out that he's a storyteller; a shy, hopeless romantic; a young soul who died and became this jaded old man. It's been fun to discover that throughout these seasons."

What do you like best about your character? "Sasappis is not afraid to be honest. In my own life, I'm such a people-pleaser, and he's the opposite. I love his blunt, honest nature. If anything, I'm learning to be a bit more upfront with people."

Finest moment? "In 'The Tree' episode where one of Sasappis's [living] Lenape descendants, Bob, comes to the estate and Sasappis hears his native language spoken. Dallas Goldtooth, who played Bob, and I had worked together at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and I looked up to him so much. For him to come on and be so excited about the show was a blessing."

How important is representation to you? "Representation in film and TV is one of the biggest drivers for why I do what I do. My father, Gregory Zaragoza, is an actor. Early in his career, he was playing a lot of stereotypical characters, but he paved the way. I'm just honored to be a part of the representation because I didn't see much growing up. It's so important to Native and other communities out there. It's showing that anything is possible."

Say something nice about your castmates. "We go to work every day, and I'm just happy to be there. When we're on hiatus, I miss everyone, and I want to go back."

Favorite pop-culture ghost? "Betelgeuse, because Beetlejuice is such an iconic movie. Growing up, my sister and I binged every Winona Ryder movie, and Beetlejuice is always going to be at the top."

Ghost: Thorfinn

Played by: Devan Chandler Long

Long knew exactly how to play Thorfinn even before he was cast. "Sometimes when I'm alone, I speak in Thor's voice, and I was doing that long before this job came around."

After an injury ended his football career, Long became an actor, but few saw his range. "I would get brought in for ex-Navy SEAL dudes and hardcore bad guys," he says. Ghosts changed that.

"It's a nice departure to get to play comedy, because that's where my heart is," Long says. "I'm always trying to find a reason to laugh."

What do you like best about your character? "He doesn't dance around anything. He just speaks his feelings, and he's kind of unapologetic. He's the kind of guy who does whatever he wants, whenever he wants. If Thor's tired, he's taking a nap."

Finest moment? "My favorite scene is in the 'Pete's Wife' episode where Sasappis and Thor are watching [fake reality series] It's Getting Hot in Here and they get into an argument about show-watching etiquette and Thor learns how to apologize. I had that same conversation with my son, but I was Sasappis in real life."

When did you realize you were funny? "I was this size at fourteen. Everyone was like, 'Who is this, Lurch?' I got tired of being the big weirdo guy. I desperately wanted to fit in. Being able to make fun of myself helped me navigate my childhood. It was always about maximizing smiles-per-minute. I was voted 'Most Likely to Never Grow Up,' and I took that very seriously. It was a badge of honor."

Say something nice about your castmates. "Any time we get a good joke going, Danielle tries to not laugh and button it up, but it just pours out of her eyes, and she's crying. That kind of laughter is so fun to be around, and it's so contagious."

Favorite pop-culture ghost? "Patrick Swayze from Ghost. Because it's Patrick Swayze, and he's the coolest. He was romantic, and he had that cool mullet. It's just like pinnacle, elite ghosting.

Ghosts is executive-produced by coshowrunners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman with Mathew Baynton, Jim Howick, Simon Farnaby, Laurence Rickard, Ben Willbond and Martha Howe-Douglas; Alison Carpenter, Debra Hayward and Alison Owen for Monumental Television; and Angie Stephenson for BBC Studios. The series is a production of CBS Studios in association with Lionsgate Television and BBC Studios' Los Angeles production arm.

This article originally appeared in emmy magazine issue #6, 2023, under the title, "Kindred Spirits."