Right from the beginning of Too Hot to Handle Season 5, Louis Russell made no secrets about who he is. “I’m a player, and I get the girls,” the 22-year-old semi-pro British footballer joked in a Netflix promo, later describing himself as a “menace.” Joining nine other hot singles on a lavish yacht in the Caribbean for what he thought was a new dating show called Love Overboard, “horny hunk” Louis was immediately ready to get the “floating sex palace” rocking. Those desires were torpedoed, however, when he learned that to win the $200,000 cash prize, all the sexy cast members had to do was avoid physical intimacy.
Louis is “cheeky, charming, and a challenge,” per his Netflix bio, which lists boxing, football, and “making a girl fall in love at first sight,” among his hobbies. As someone who spent much of their school years in detention, the Hampshire, UK, native has never been one to follow the rules, and the streamer teased that the “dapper sweet talker won’t have to try too hard” to steal the women from Lana’s gaze either. In this case, though, that could certainly work against his chances of winning.
As he embarks on his Too Hot to Handle journey, here’s everything else to know about Louis.
In his Instagram bio, Louis reiterates, “They call me the menace,” adding a smiling face with horns emoji for good measure. Even before the Netflix reality series premiered, he already had more than 62,000 followers, and many of them seem to enjoy his many shirtless photos. “Not another topless one,” he joked in a December 2021 caption. Amid fitness-related posts and spon-con for such brands as Asics and boohooMAN, the Brit rarely seems to shy away from a suggestive caption. “Who’s comin for a ride?” he wrote along with a July 10 biking photo, after captioning an earlier shot, “Tell your father that he ain’t gunna get his daughter back.”
Louis’ other Instagram captions also might offer some small insight into his dating life. “Just coz I grew up with nothin doesn’t mean I’m easy to please,” he added in May, after already insisting that he could be “outta sight but on your mind.” Whether or not he was manifesting his Too Hot to Handle casting, Louis also made some ironic references in the past. “If you can’t take the heat you betta get out the kitchen,” he captioned a post in June 2021, the same month he wrote that he was “just getting warmed up” after a photo shoot.
On TikTok, where he already has more than 150,000 followers, Louis also shares his dance moves and sense of humor. He also offered a light Too Hot to Handle spoiler on July 4, writing, “All imma say is [Lana wasn’t] happy with us.”
Though he mentioned his semi-pro football career on the Netflix series, Louis seems to be leaning more into modeling these days. Currently represented by Forte Model Management, in September 2021, the six-foot-one-inch-tall reality star shared an Instagram about a “big moment” in his career as a model: his “first big campaign” for the Jack Wills fashion brand. “Hopefully more blessings like this to come,” Louis, who’s also posed for ASOS, among other brands, wrote at the time.
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