PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Two Portlanders are taking an unconventional route on their search for love in the latest season of Netflix’s hit reality dating show Love Is Blind.
Since the show’s release in 2020, Love Is Blind has welcomed single men and women to participate in a social experiment that aims to prove that people can fall in love before meeting each other in person.
Each season, about 30 adults enter the “pods” where they can blindly date other singles from behind a wall. The successful couples get engaged in the pods, before having a big reveal where they see each other for the first time and then head on an engagement trip together.
After about four weeks of learning about each other, their families, friends, lifestyles and homes, the final couples can either choose to say, “I do” or “I don’t” at their wedding — thus proving whether love really is blind.
The first five episodes of Season 4 premiered on Friday, March 24. Most of this season’s singles are based in Seattle, but at least two of the contestants have roots in Portland.
Beware: spoiler alerts are ahead.
Kwame Appiah
In the season premiere, 33-year-old contestant Kwame Appiah says that he played soccer overseas before a career-ending injury caused him to return to the U.S.
Appiah now works as a sales development manager for an intelligence platform based in Seattle, but according to Us Weekly, he is a Portland native. His LinkedIn also shows that he worked at a Vancouver-based data company for almost two years.
“Compatibility has been ‘tough’ to find for Kwame, who’s been living the single life for the past four years,” Netflix said of Appiah. “He says he’s over the ‘meet up, try it out, fail and try again’ cycle of modern dating and ready a partner that ‘matches my energy’ and can join Thanksgiving dinner with his family.”
In the first round of episodes, Appiah took a liking to fellow contestants Micah Lussier and Chelsea Griffin — before being rejected by Lussier and ultimately proposing to Griffin.
Brett Brown
Brett Brown, 36, worked as a designer in the gaming industry for nearly 10 years before taking his talents to his footwear — an industry that thrives in Portland thanks to the Nike World Heaquarters based in Beaverton.
According to LinkedIn, Brown got his start at Nike as a 3D designer in 2018. Since then, he has been promoted to the director of immersive design.
“Romance has taken a back seat to his career since 2016, when his last relationship ended after two years,” Netflix said of Brown. “But Brett says he’s finally ‘ready to let someone into my life’ now that he is established and ‘financially stable.’ Got suggestions? Well, he’s all ears, since his best quality as a partner is being a ‘good listener.’”
Brown’s top pick while dating in the pods, Tiffany Pennywell, seems to tick all of those boxes. The couple were first to get engaged this season, and seem to be a fan favorite already.
See how Appiah and Brown’s journeys unfold when the next round of Love Is Blind episodes are released on Friday, March 31.