Everything You Need to Know About ‘Summer House’ Newbie Jesse Solomon

To say Summer House season 8 newbie Jesse Solomon is a breath of fresh air on the hit reality show is a serious understatement. Like, in the event you generally stay off Twitter (your psyche thanks you), here are people's general ~vibes~ about the Illinois native:

^ @ ABC execs...are you reading this?!

Anyway! If you're curious to know more about our fave reality star/budding musician, here's your handy-dandy guide—yw!

He's in investor relations

Jesse graduated from the University of Miami with a bachelor's degree in music business and immediately put his skills to use after his time there. Early on in his career, he worked for Live Nation as a concert promoter and then became a music central floater and eventual coordinator at William Morris Endeavor.

However, he then pivoted to working at Sixpoint Partners as the vice president in October 2022 before having the same job title at the Chicago Atlantic Group from April 2023 to March 2024—aka right around the time he joined the cast of Summer House.

Jesse has also often spent his time pursuing more charitable endeavors and previously volunteered at Friedman Place and Imerman Angels. The former is “a non-profit Supportive Living Community for blind and visually impaired adults in Chicago,” while the latter “provides free, one-on-one cancer support and personalized mentoring for all cancer fighters, survivors, previvors and caregivers.” Literally what can't he do?!?! 😭

We have Kyle Cooke to thank for Jesse getting cast on the show

During a May 2024 interview with Life & Style, Jesse dished that after he became friends with the Loverboy founder, he ultimately got a call from producers and the rest was—as they say—history! And thank goodness for that because we're obsessed. “Kyle and I had met in the city and the producers reached out to me and it was a really quick process from there,” Jesse recalled before adding, “They hit me up on June 14th and I was out in the Hamptons filming by July 2nd. It was a bang-bang play. Everybody was super great. It was like what am I doing, but why not? I’m really glad I did it.”

However, he was initially hesitant about joining the reality series

Yep, according to the University of Miami graduate, he had “a bunch” of doubts about everything from how he would be perceived by colleagues to the fact that his personal life would be up for discussion on such a public platform.

“I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. I’m like a finance bro working in New York City, I worked at a publicly traded company, and it’s not a good look to be getting hammered and hooking up with girls on national television. I’m sure there’s like a lot of compliance regulations but I just thought this was a more fun path,” he said during that same Life & Style convo. “I wanted to go party in the Hamptons and make some new friends and I’m glad I did.”

Luckily, Kyle was able to be a support system for the reality star and even had a long convo with him before the cameras started rolling. “I sat down with Kyle for two-hour-long drinks and just really talked through everything. He gave me a lot of good advice. I think he’s probably f*cked up everything that you could possibly f*ck up at least once,” Jesse dished with a laugh.

“He was really helpful and really nice and welcoming. Most of the cast were nice and welcoming but it just took a little time for everybody to warm up to me. I think I came in a little hot, but I am what I am!”

He's a testicular cancer survivor

At age 24, Jesse was diagnosed with testicular cancer after going for a routine physical and telling his doctor he felt a “twinge of pain in my testicle.”

The celeb first opened up about his diagnosis publicly via Instagram on July 29, 2018, and penned the following message.

Summer House fans know that Jesse's cast members rallied around him when it was time for his five-year cancer scan, including fellow newbie West Wilson—which leads us to the fact that...

Jesse and West Wilson are BFFs

At the beginning of the May 16 episode of Summer House season 8, Jesse opened up about how nervous he was about his upcoming five-year cancer scan after feeling a lump in his testicle. “I’m just not comfortable with like, being f*cking emotional,” he confessed to West.

Following four years of clean scans, the reality star was looking forward to his fifth, but his concerns only grew after both he and his doctor noticed peculiarities. “The doctor felt something and then I felt something separate and both things were like, abnormal,” he said to West and Ciara Miller over the phone in the episode.

Thankfully, everything ended up being okay and the issue was attributed to a calcium buildup. However, Jesse really confided in his costar about the ordeal. “West really dragged it out of me,” he recalled to People once the episode aired. “I wasn't trying to have a conversation about this scary thing. He just could tell something was wrong and he's a good friend and he asked, ‘What's wrong and is it about Tuesday?' And then I just broke down. I couldn't keep it in anymore.”

During a separate convo with Us Weekly, Jesse also noted how “scared” he was, and while the moment with West was shortened for the show, the two were actually outside having a conversation for close to 40 minutes. “I would’ve held it in if I could have, but I think just there was emotions. When you bottle them up, sometimes they spill over,” he added.

He's a musician

Bravoholics know all too well that franchise stars have come out with literal bops, from Luann de Lesseps's iconic track “Money Can't Buy You Class” to Scheana Shay's “Good As Gold” (not to mention the screamo version 👀).

How-ev-er!!!! Despite having some very big shoes to fill, Jesse stepped onto the scene with “What Would Jesse Solomon Do?”—aka the song of the summer the celeb dedicated to his housemates after they supported him through his health scare.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go ahead and stream the song on a loop until he comes out with another hit. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also...our thoughts exactly @ Andy Cohen!!!!

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