Asher Grodman ’10 is the Ghost with the Most

Grodman plays the spirit of an affluent 1990s stockbroker on the CBS hit Ghosts.

BERTRAND CALMEAU/CBS

Following a string of guest appearances on acclaimed shows such as Law & Order, Succession and Elementary, actor Asher Grodman ’10 landed his breakthrough role in 2020 when he was cast as Trevor Lefkowitz, one of the congenial specters in the hit CBS comedy Ghosts. A prominent member of the main ensemble, Grodman’s character is best known for one thing: his conspicuous lack of pants.

“I was walking around the hotel room, rehearsing, running the lines — everything with my pants off just to prepare,” Grodman says. “But it actually was a bit of a comfort, because I’d never done a comedy, so in my mind, I was like, ‘Alright, well, if there’s a moment that I don’t hit, I’m still a dude up there with no pants on.’”

Ghosts, an American adaptation of the British series of the same name, premiered in October 2021. It is now airing its third season and was renewed this month for a fourth. Filmed in Montreal but set in Upstate New York, the show revolves around a young couple who inherit a crumbling estate. Their plans to refurbish it as a bed and breakfast take an unexpected turn when they encounter an otherworldly surprise: an eccentric group of ghosts from various historical eras who died on the property and reside within its walls. Grodman plays the spirit of an affluent 1990s stockbroker with a love of partying; he was pantsless at the time of his death and remains so in the afterlife.

“I think that this is a brilliant concept for a television show that is inherently very limiting, because these characters can’t leave the property. They have no way to affect the real world,” Grodman says. “But they kind of have the freedom that comes from [the fact] that there’s 1,000 years of history on this plot of land.”

Grodman, who majored in film and English at the College and calls Columbia “his first artistic home,” draws a parallel between embodying a ghost on television and the texts he engaged with in the Core Curriculum: “You deal a lot with existential questions,” he says of the role.

Though he auditioned for acting jobs throughout high school and college, Grodman recalls being “too intimidated” to join any of the performing arts clubs on campus. He still regrets turning down an offer to play Cassius in the King’s Crown Shakespeare Troupe’s production of Julius Caesar. “I remember saying ‘no’ because I’m dyslexic and I was like, ‘I won’t be able to do this. I’m gonna fail and I’ll fail in front of friends. I just can’t handle it,’” Grodman says. “It’s one of my biggest regrets. I should have done it.”

Grodman earned a M.F.A. in acting from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and has a long list of indie film and theater credits to his name, including the lead role of Mozart in the South Coast Repertory’s production of Amadeus. He also has experience behind the scenes: In 2015, he wrote, produced, directed and played the lead in the short film The Train, starring Academy Award-winner Eli Wallach.

When his filming schedule has allowed, Grodman has been an adjunct professor in the theater department at CUNY Hunter College. He’s also taught acting to teen inmates at Rikers Island.

For Grodman, the road to his first recurring television role wasn’t without bumps, including a delay filming the pilot for Ghosts due to Covid-19. Season 3 was also delayed, as a result of the Writers Guild of America’s strike last summer. There were personal struggles, too: “I’ve been in this business for 20 years and most of them were bleak,” Grodman says. “I was fired by multiple agents. [There’s] a lot of negative feedback … to be able to scrape together a career at all is rare, so I’m very grateful for that.”

Grodman says he hopes to continue to pursue more film and theater roles. For now, though, he’s enjoying portraying Trevor, the under-clothed ghost. “It’s a pretty great gig, so I’m happy to take my pants off for years to come,” he says.

Nathalie Alonso ’08, from Queens, is a freelance writer, a children’s author and an editorial producer for LasMayores.com, Major League Baseball’s official Spanish-language website.