EXCLUSIVE: Carly Usdin: I am Jewish. I am Gay. I am a DJ

Carly professionally produces promo spots and interviews for musicians including Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Adele, but unprofessionally her passion for music transforms her into DJ Carlytron.

By: Ashley Baylen
Published: March 9th, 2012 in Culture » Music » Interviews

DJ Carlytron

Shalom Life is proud to present our first Jewish LGBTQ series. We asked 10 public figures (ranging from comedians and actors to children’s book authors and musicians) to complete the following sentence:

I am Jewish. I am Gay. I am _________________

In the blank space, each participant has placed a personality trait, hobby, profession, descriptive adjective, or an interesting tidbit of information that describes an element of their being. Additionally, they have personally written a paragraph explaining their choice and how that choice defines them.

Religion and sexuality are integral to our self-identification, but they define us just as much as our interests, personality, career choices, philanthropic work, and talents.

Enjoy our series and share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Day 8- Carly Usdin

I am Jewish. I am Gay. I am a DJ

Music has always been a passion of mine, but after a few failed attempts at being in a band I opted to put away the guitar and focus on other pursuits. I always loved curating music for myself or my friends -- in the 90s it was via mixtapes, in the 00s I'd make cd mixes and now it's iTunes or Spotify playlists. A few years ago I decided to channel this interest into something more productive and started learning to DJ. I played at some parties for my friends and totally fell in love with it. The ability to make a room full of people dance and have a good time is really powerful. And while I have a lot of training and studying to do before I make a go of it for real, it's a really fun hobby that I like to explore whenever I get the chance to. But sorry, I don't take requests.

Carly Usdin got her start in the visual arts as a kid growing up in New Jersey when, instead of writing papers, she'd turn in poorly-made videos for school assignments. After getting a film degree from the University of Central Florida she eventually moved to New York City, where she currently resides. Carly has spent the past several years writing, producing, directing and editing on-air promos and artist interviews for Logo. She has created wildly successful promo campaigns for shows like RuPaul's Drag Race and produced nearly 150 interviews with artists like Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson, Janelle Monae, Courtney Love, Robyn, Adam Lambert, Uh Huh Her, Sam Sparro, Goldfrapp, Sia, Tegan and Sara, La Roux, the Scissor Sisters, Adele, Kylie Minogue, Florence + the Machine and Lady Gaga.

Carly is a huge nerd, high-functioning neurotic, French fry connoisseur, and wannabe pop-and-lock dancer. She enjoys bowties, robots, orange soda and the smell of clean laundry. She dislikes coconut, chunky peanut butter, snakes, poor spelling and grammar, gladiator sandals, and disproportionate outfits. She likes to show off at carlyusdin.com and dispenses a seemingly unending supply of random thoughts in 140 characters or less at @carlytron.