Kentucky Man Who Plays Dead on TikTok Lands Gig as a Corpse on 'CSI: Vegas'

Sonja Flemming/CBS

It's one thing to play dead, but it's another to play a corpse on TV.

Josh Nalley has now officially done both, after pretending to be a corpse on TikTok every day since October 2021 landed him a role in an upcoming episode of CSI: Vegas. Of course, he'll be playing a dead guy.

"I got an email from CBS that said they'd seen me on TikTok and wanted to offer me the part," Nalley, 42, told the Courier Journal. "At first I didn't believe it, but they flew me out to California. It turned out that Mario Van Peebles was the director for that episode so besides getting cast in the show, I also got to meet him, which was great."

RELATED: 'CSI: Vegas' Star William Petersen Hospitalized Due to Exhaustion on Set of Sequel Series

Sonja Flemming/CBS

After a yearlong quest to score an acting gig simply based off videos of him lying still in various places, Nalley landed the role of his lifetime (or after-life time).

It all started when he decided he wanted to capture "a little bit of virality" last year, per the Washington Post. As a result, he posted videos every day for 300 days, each with a caption detailing how many days he'd been playing dead until he was "cast in a movie or TV show as an un-alive body."

More specifically, the idea came after he spotted a woman who posted about hot sauce every day until she got offers from hot sauce companies. Playing dead couldn't have been much different, Nalley thought. "I figured that was the easiest way that I could actually get onto a TV show or movie, you know, without actually having to audition or move out of Kentucky," he told the Post, citing "laziness" as part of his reasoning.

RELATED: 'CSI: Vegas' Star Jorja Fox Says She Won't Return for Season 2

In his videos Nalley has appeared at the bottom of a staircase, on random cliffs in Kentucky, in abandoned buildings, in the middle of a creek, and even in front of a mini-mall to prove that he'd pass as an accurate dead person. And now, his story has come full circle just in time for spooky season.

Sonja Flemming/CBS

The restaurant manager will appear in a Nov. 3 episode of CSI: Vegas, which will star Paula Newsome, Mandeep Dhillon, Marg Helgenberger, and William Petersen as living people. Showrunner Jason Tracey told Entertainment Weekly that the appearance proved that Josh was a "pro at this death thing."

"Rarely do we find an actor as well prepared to play a corpse as Josh," he said. "It was a pleasure watching him work."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

But playing dead isn't just a challenge to Josh, as he acknowledges that he's getting older, and told the Post that now he can "face death and not really have to worry about it because, you know, I've seen myself dead so many times."

While he's gotten offers to appear in music videos and low-budget films as a corpse, too, Nalley has his sights set on the next big step in his acting career. "Maybe one day, getting a speaking role," he said.