‘90 Day Fiancé’ Casting Director Talks Diversifying Cast With More Representation — ‘A Transgender Story Is High on the List’
Senior director of casting for Sharp Entertainment, Brooklyn Bagwell, who cast season 3 of 90 Day Fiancé, reveals what is in store for the franchise in the future. Diversifying the cast in future seasons is a priority, which could include a transgender story.
How important representation is when casting ’90 Day Fiancé’
In the interview for Variety, Sharp’s senior casting director, Bagwell, dives deeper into the 90 Day Fiancé casting process. She revealed, “I think it’s important that we speak to the fish-out-of-water moments. We want to find a foreigner who has never been to America before.” And also, she’s looking for “loud, captivating, relatable characters.”
On top of that, she’s also revealed how important representation is in casting future seasons of 90 Day Fiancé. She said, “100%. It’s so important that each season has a very eclectic, diverse cast. And that is No. 1 when we’re casting this show. These last couple of years, we really honed in on that.”
’90 Day Fiancé’ casting director calls getting a transgender story ‘high on the list’
While there haven’t been many LGBTQ couples in past seasons of 90 Day Fiancé, there definitely is more representation than in other TLC shows. So far, there’s the franchise’s first male gay couple, Kenneth ‘Kenny’ Niedermeier and Armando Rubio, from 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way Season 2. And their first bisexual couple, Stephanie Matto and Erika Owens, whose story was featured on 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days Season 4.
However, 90 Day Fiancé has yet to cast a transgender or non-binary person on the show. According to the casting director, this could change soon. Bagwell says, “Stay tuned! A transgender story is high on the list.”
Also, the casting director reveals she would like other types of representation. She says, “We would love to find a Deaf couple or a blind couple; we’d love to find a teenager or an extremely visual couple, like two very tall people, or an octogenarian dating an octogenarian. It’s really, really, really important to us to feature all types of
couples.”
The casting director thinks ’90 Day Fiancé’ is just getting started
90 Day Fiancé is currently on its ninth season. The franchise continues to expand constantly each year with new spinoffs, such as The Single Life, 90 Day Diaries, and 90 Day Fiancé UK. It appears that Sharp struck gold with this format, and there’s no ending in sight.
In the interview, Bagwell opened up about the longevity of 90 Day Fiancé. She said, “Looking at all of the countries and states we haven’t featured yet, and different types of characters we haven’t featured yet, I feel like this show has the potential to go on for another 10-plus seasons. I’m being honest.” She concluded, “I don’t see any ending in sight at this point. I think we’re just getting started.”
With many more seasons in store, 90 Day Fiancé fans are hoping that there will continue to be representation from various groups of people. Fans look forward to the franchise’s first trans and non-binary 90 Day Fiancé cast
90 Day Fiancé Season 9 airs Sundays at 8 pm EST on TLC.
