EDGE Interview: How Hollywood's LGBTQ+ Casting Director Logan Clark Built a Business on Diverse Talent

Having 13 years under his belt as a reality television producer and casting agent you might think that Logan Clark had done it all. But his latest project literally goes beyond the real world and into the spiritual one. It's a unique reality show concept called "Living for the Dead," which is currently streaming on Hulu and sees a team of five queer ghosthunters visiting America's most haunted places not only to explore evidence of the supernatural but help those experiencing it to cope with their hauntings.

But this isn't just a show with a new twist being put out into the airwaves for ratings, although that is a part of it. Clark, a gay man himself, has literally built his business on representing diverse talent and making sure television viewers aren't just getting spoon-fed content that excludes minority groups. This is reality TV after all.

Called The Casting Collective, Logan's business focuses on helping creatives hire talent that represent culturally distinct groups such as the Black and LGBTQ+ communities. "Living for the Dead" already has some queer power behind it, actor Kristen Stweart is producing the show along with "Queer Eye" creator's Scout Productions.

Still, just because a show is greenlit doesn't mean it is cast. That's where Clark comes in. He says he is fortunate to have built relationships with networks and production companies in all pockets of media.

"So if we're doing an LGBT ghost hunting show, I try to put together a team that is not only excited about the show and the creative speaks to it, but that also represents that community because that just helps with our authenticity so much," he tells EDGE.

One of Clark's biggest accomplishments was casting for HBO's queer ballroom reality show "Legendary." That show went on for three seasons and had the largest black and trans cast ever on television.

"My job is to put together a team that is curated specifically for the show based on the creative," he says, "I'm not African American and I'm not trans so I wanted to build a team that helps shape that initiative in a beautiful, meaningful intent way, but is going to be authentic and build trust."

Trust, he says, is important in the entertainment industry. "There's a lot of noise out there, there's a lot of noise in the casting marketplace. And for us, we are proud to kind of cut through it and be the team that not only provides authenticity and trust and the creative exploration of stories and talent, but also that is premier in what they do."

So what exactly prompted Clark to start his own casting agency? It was during the pandemic he says while working on a show called "I Can See Your Voice" in 2021, "I had this roar in my belly. That was like, I need to and I want to have a bigger ownership in what I am contributing to."

That ferocity and his vision of making the playing field even for everybody was his inspiration for starting the Casting Collective. Clark also co-produces shows as well so that extends his time with talent beyond the hiring contracts.

"I think it's just such an amazing poetic journey for not only the show and the consistency of the storytelling and making sure things are fluid and moving forward and there's relationships there that are like built from day one that I can leverage as we get into the shoot," he says, "but also as a participant, you know, you're working with the same face from the first phone call to the last hug before they get on the plane to head back home."

Coming up with the cast for "Living with the Dead," was unlike anything Clark had done before. The announcement came from creator Stewart, and he calls her a legend and an icon, "She is so incredible in everything she does."

He says about 2,000 people auditioned for the parts either in-person or on tape. There wasn't a single person he didn't have a reading with, "because I wanted to be able to have my hands around the authenticity of this space. I was very much bipartisan when it comes to paranormal. I didn't lean too far into believer or too far into skeptic. But I'll tell you I had some really, really, really amazing conversations and some also not so great conversations and therefore, you know, they didn't move forward."

In the end, he cast five people for "Living for the Dead": Alexandre LeMay, Roz Hernandez, Ken Boggle, Juju Bae, and Logan Taylor. These queer ghosthunters travel to different haunted locations around America looking for paranormal evidence. Like the "Queer Eye" team, this group not only tries to assess the situation, but offers help to their wary hosts. Whether that be a tarot card reading, a validation of some sort or just a hug, the title of the show sums it up. In the end, this mainstream concept owned by Disney wouldn't have been possible a decade ago.

"Something I didn't mention, is we are the advocate for talent," he says. "We are the people in the rooms with the network saying, 'this is your person and here's why' and fighting for them and sometimes it's turnkey. Sometimes you don't have to fight. Sometimes you just say here's the cap, you know, here are options and they say yes, no, maybe so. And we move forward. But there's some times where we say, 'you know what, we need to fight for this person' because we see something, and we want you to see it to give us another chance. Let us bring them in. Let's have a conversation with them in person. And I'll tell you, we brought 30 people in from across the country for, for final call back to do a chemistry test in this old spooky house in the Hollywood Hills. And, you know, 30 turned to 25 and then 25 to 15 and so on and so forth. We got down to seven and seven turned into the five that everybody will see."

Clark will continue casting and producing shows such as "Name That Tune," and "I Can See Your Voice" for Fox as well as some other projects he can't talk about. Still, he hopes that "Living for the Dead will resonate with people because everyone involved is eager for a second season. Over everything else, Clark is committed to encouraging casting teams to seek out diversity and inclusion for their shows.

"Whether it's myself or anybody across town," he says. "One of their biggest jobs is to be the advocate for talent and to fight because you're the only person in the room and [the talent's] not there --- they're a headshot on a wall. You have to respectfully put your foot down and say, 'I need you guys to see what I see and I'm happy to be proven wrong.' I will say, knock on wood, my track record has been pretty good."

All episodes of "Living For the Dead" are now available on Hulu.