Everything You Need to Know about ‘Summer House’ Newbie West Wilson

Summer House season 8 newbies West Wilson and Jesse Solomon are truly a breath of fresh air on the hit reality show. Like, to say fans of the series are obsessed is a serious understatement. Ahem:

Today, however, we're here to discuss West. The Columbia, Missouri native was born to a cattle rancher father (iconic) and OB-GYN mother (iconic^2), and oftentimes provides much-needed levity to the season, which is currently keeping fans at the edge of their seats given the Carl Radke/Lindsay Hubbard demise of it all.

So without further ado, here's everything you need to know about West, starting with...

A bit more about his background

According to West's LinkedIn profile, the reality star attended Montana State University and graduated in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. He also spent all four years of his undergraduate career as a student-athlete on the football team, where he was a safety (_{she says with the confidence of someone who legit started watching football because of Tayvis}).

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On his MSU biography, West calls himself “a travel enthusiast who has visited all 50 states and 13 countries”—a fact we come to find out in one of the first few Summer House episodes— and someone who “enjoys shooting and editing videos.”

After college, the celeb had his first stint at ~adulting~ as a sales and marketing intern for Pandora in the summer of 2017 before working as a production assistant for Major League Baseball from March 2018 to February 2019. That same year, he co-hosted a YouTube show called Napkins, which he described on LinkedIn as “opening the doors to the food, people, and culture of New York City.”

Afterward, the Bravolebrity began a job at Mediaplanet as a project manager from February to August 2019 before eventually making his way to Bleacher Report, where he worked as a social producer and was eventually promoted to video producer. How-ev-er...

He's currently a sports social and editorial producer for Complex Networks

As of August 2023, West is the sports social and editorial producer for Complex Networks—a hire that fans of the show got to see play out IRL throughout the season. 🥺

The reality star recently made an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen and opened up about the massive career update. “I think it's not really a secret anymore, if you follow my Instagram or Twitter or anything, that I am employed,” he said on the April 11 episode. “I'll save the fun, juicy moment for the show. But, I do have a job now. Income, health insurance.”

During a second exclusive convo with BravoTV.com, he added, “The moment I kind of got to close [the] door on unemployment was this summer, and it was [a] very touching moment for me in real life [and] with the cast, on camera, with the crew, [with] everyone...Like, just seeing people who I hadn't known for that long be super supportive and happy for me was a special moment that I'll like remember forever. So that was awesome.”

Kk, so what's the backstory on him joining Summer House?

Per his cast bio, West “was introduced to the group through Lindsay, whom he met out one night in the city.” It also describes that becoming unemployed at the time made it possible for him to be open to the opportunity of making a debut on Summer House. And tbh, thank goodness for that because we're obsessed!

He and fellow cast member Ciara Miller had a ~thing~ on the show

Yep, West's cast bio *also* just so happens to read, “As he turns on his Midwestern charm and quickly focuses his attention on a fellow housemate, will this be his chance to push himself to take things past the casual dating stage?”

Enter: his full-on romance with Ciara, who's been a fixture on the hit show since season 5. Despite fans everywhere rooting for the two for what seems like f-o-r-e-v-e-r, it's finally during episode 14 that things come to a head and West considers asking the model to be his girlfriend while having a chat with fellow castmembers Kyle Cooke and Jesse Solomon.

“What’s the future plans for you and Ciara? Are you going to put a label on it?” the Loverboy founder asks before West replies, “We talked about that on the horseback ride. I was trying to like define it, and I just sounded like a stupid f*cking idiot.” While on the outing with Ciara, the marketing pro wound up tripping on his words a bit and not really confessing his true feelings. “I could tell she was like, what the f*ck is this guy saying?”

*Le sigh* Stay tuned, we guess! 🙃

But also...

He had a bike incident that low-key made headlines

Turns out, the Summer House newbie was hit by a car back in March while riding a bike in New York City. “Everyone has a New York first, you know, and I scratched one off the bucket list today,” West shared in a TikTok video before explaining that he was riding in the bike lane and had a green light, yet the car driver failed to see him and wound up crashing into his bicycle while making a left turn.

“I, like, braked hard and just kind of let my hips and torso, like, eat the hood of his car,” the Bravolebrity added, noting that he had been rushing to a dentist appointment, so he legit “popped up” from the pavement and kept things moving.

“I was like, ‘Your hood’s cool. I’m cool.’ The poor guy was about to start crying,” he recalled. “I mean, fun experience, I suppose. We’re all good.”

Whelp! You know what they say: You're considered to be a real New Yorker after living in the city for ten years *or* getting hit by a car while Citi Biking. We don't make the rules! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Summer House airs every Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.

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