EDGE Interview: 'Living for the Dead' Stars Roz Hernandez & Ken Boggle Dish on the New Queer Ghost-Hunting Show

One of the best things about the new ghost-hunting reality show "Living for the Dead" is not that it's the first mainstream show of its kind to feature all-queer investigators, but it's how the cast is made up of individuals both skeptical and dogmatic. Two of these opposites bonded deeply during filming.

Roz Hernandez and Ken Boggle who make up two of the five-member team couldn't be more different when it comes to dealing with the paranormal. Hernandez is a self-proclaimed skeptic and Boggle actually talks to the dead as a psychic medium.

"I meeeeean, I don't know," Hernandez tells EDGE drawing out the word "mean" in a high-pitched comical drawl when asked if she is sensitive to spirit. "Over the years I used to think I was, but as I've gotten older, I've just gotten skeptical of all of this stuff, and I think I definitely have a deep connection to my intuition. I think it's the queer thing, actually; kind of using those instincts is something that we develop and sometimes walking into a room and being like, oh, there's a weird vibe going on in here, like, I think that's something that I've got, but I'm not good with."

Boggle, on the other hand, said he got his psychic abilities at an early age. He lived in a split-level house when he was eight with a cemetery in the backyard.

"So my bedroom is on the same level as the graves so I wasn't getting much sleep at night because these spirits would --- I could hear them walking down the hall --- see me through the door frame," he tells EDGE. "They would come into my bedroom and circle my bed and bend over me throughout the night and I couldn't sleep, I was crying, and it was terrifying." It wasn't until his grandmother shared that she could also see them that he began to relax.

When they aren't in front of the reality cameras both Hernandez and Boggle remain in the professional realm of the paranormal. Hernandez hosts a podcast called "Ghosted" in which she speaks with guests about their experiences, and Boggle does professional tarot readings with a twist.

"I'm the first person in the world to my knowledge to develop a spread that actually talks to spirit and it's how I actually begin every one of my mediumship readings," Boggle says. "I find that the tarot gives me additional layers of information in detail and when the spirits don't want to communicate that really opens the floodgates to make them feel comfortable to come forward, and it helps tremendously in paranormal investigations where you have a psychic medium who also has this other talent that can do that, so to me they're inseparable."

Early on in "Living for the Dead," the two have a special chemistry. Hernandez is kind of the sardonic sentinel of the team. But that doesn't mean she isn't affected. Early in the series Boggle, was testing out a claim that one of the spirits had a tickle fetish.

"I was genuinely so creeped out when Ken from the show was doing some weird stuff with his feet," Hernandez chuckles. "We were sleeping in a room where apparently the ghosts tickle your toes and grab your feet. I was not into that."

That was a lighthearted moment, but there was another one that wasn't as humorous, and it solidified their bond maybe for a lifetime.
In an episode called "Rainbows and Clowns," which takes place at the infamous Clown Motel in Nevada, the team visits a local bar in which one of the female patrons says she has a 17-year-old non-binary child who she supports but also admits that it is hard sometimes. The mother says she has sympathy for what her child is going through because it must be hard psychologically. Not soon after, Boggle, moved by the mother's story, gets very emotional on camera and leaves the room. It's one of the series' more visceral moments. Hernandez comes to his aid in an act of support

"I lost track that I was on a television show," Boggle remembers. "To me, it was me and Roz in a room and my friend was consoling me and helping me. So I really disconnected from the fact that we were filming something. In retrospect, now I'm nervous about that being seen globally because when I came to myself and we were outside and I got a breath of fresh air, I looked at the Scout producers and said, 'Oh my God, I'm gonna be a meme!' I was like, 'If I look crazy, please don't make it look like a meme. And they were like, 'Ken, it was the most beautiful, natural, authentic, human emotion. And so I was like that soothes me. I'm OK then, I'm fine."

Hernandez also has an emotional outburst in the show. Unlike Boggle's it's angrier, but no less courageous.

In an episode that takes place at a historic Vegas strip club called the Palomino, there are claims that the male spirits are sexually harassing the dancers and just have an overall disrespect towards women.
Disgusted, Hernandez puts aside her skepticism and addresses them directly.

"I reminded them, 'Listen, you're haunting a strip club in Las Vegas," she says. "You could be haunting some dingy old house that's falling apart or you could be haunting an abandoned prison. You get to be here for eternity, so you need to act correct.'"

Her REM-pod (a paranormal electronic device) alerts her they are listening, "I'm not gonna lie, I threatened them a little bit. I said --- and listen, I wasn't really going to do anything but just to let them know what's up --- I was like, 'I'll get you out of here, you know, I can; I'll light some stuff, I'll say some things and you'll be gone,' I had to play the role of a bouncer."

Since this is only the first season, the show must do well for Disney to greenlight a second season. Both Boggle and Hernandez said they would return if that happens.

The experience had such a profound effect on Boggle that he admits to getting a little depressed once filming ended.

"It was like, I lived this life that I loved more than anything in the world," he says. "I've loved it more than any relationship I've ever had; the work to me is better than anything I've ever experienced. If they wanted to do a thousand seasons, I would show up for a thousand."

Hernandez is just as eager to get back in front of the cameras to swing her skepticism, "I would love to. There's so much more that we have to do, and I just think of all the possibilities of what we could do with the show."

You can watch all eight episodes of "Living for the Dead" right now on Hulu.