‘Ghosts’ Star Richie Moriarty Reveals His ‘Comedic Hero’ Auditioned for CBS Sitcom

The smash hit sitcom Ghosts could have looked very different if Richie Moriarty weren’t cast as Woodstone Mansion’s scoutmaster spirit. During San Diego Comic-Con on July 21, the ensemble cast of the freshman sitcom attended their first of many panels to discuss the premiere season of their single-camera comedy alongside showrunners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman. While in conversation about the auditioning process, Moriarty revealed he actually auditioned up against his “comedic hero.”

Though he did not confirm who it was after castmate Utkarsh Ambudkar blurted it was “Jim Carrey,” Moriarty said it was a surreal experience. Admitting how he auditioned in New York and then flew out to Los Angeles, Moriarty reveals he auditioned with two other actors at the time but it wasn’t a walk in the park. 

“I got word that they didn’t want the other two people, so I was like, ‘Oh, so I got the job,’ and they said, ‘No, they need to present the network with two, at least two options. So now they’re going back out into the casting pool to find someone else to audition against you,’” Moriarty divulged of the behind-the-scenes process at CBS.

Sharing how he returned to New York after the audition, it was then two weeks later that the actor, writer and improviser says they “found someone to audition” him up against. “I shouldn’t say this, but I don’t care — Comic-Con, here we are! The guy I auditioned against was like, a comedic hero of mine,” Moriarty said as co-star Devan Chandler Long interjects, asking for him to confirm whether the comedic hero had actually offered him Oreo cookies before they would be evaluated for the sample performance.

“Yeah, he was eating Oreos and he goes, ‘You want an Oreo? So good!’ And I’m like, ‘Is this a power move?’ It’s such a power move. Yeah, like, ‘No, I don’t want an Oreo,’ like, black stuff in my teeth? And then I go and read [for Ghosts] and then like about a week later, I found out I got it,” Moriarty shares.

The Official 2022 San Diego Comic-Con International panel can be seen on YouTube in its entirety, care of CBS. For more on Ghosts and everything Season 2, stay tuned to the very latest about the show, news about the cast, and everything in between only on PopCulture. In the meantime, relive the first season of Ghosts on Paramount+ for free from June 3 to Sept. 2, 2022.