Welcome to Pollywood!How British real estate agent Polly Brindle rose from Barnoldswick to Netflix stardom on ‘Selling the O.C.’
The newly released second series of Netflix’s hit show Selling the OC follows the Oppenheim Group as they take on Orange County, showcasing their luxurious properties and boisterous personalities. Among them is Polly Brindle.
Polly, from Barnoldswick, Lancashire, is the only Briton on the addictive show and quickly stands out by charming fans with her accent and boldly demanding respect from her team members. It appeared.
But the 36-year-old did not live up to expectations. Brindle, who has only been a real estate agent for a year, has been professionally closing deals on multi-million dollar Hollywood homes.
It wasn’t until the pandemic hit that Brindle realized her desire to become a real estate agent, and she was still studying for her real estate license when she landed the position on the show.
However, success is not her only characteristic, nor is her charm.
If you thought Selling Sunset was high-octane, Selling the OC, centered around the goings-on at Oppenheim’s offices in Orange County, California, is its little sister on steroids.
And in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, it provides a timely escapism.
The show kicked off 2021 with a peek at a stunning $106 million property in Laguna Beach with ocean views, a glass-bottom spiral staircase, a retractable roof, and a 360-degree rotating bed (this sale ($3.18 million in fees alone). .
Although these properties are modest compared to the Los Angeles homes in Selling Sunset (“Celebrities tend to have vacation homes here in Orange County,” Polly explains), they still attract attention. .
A “living wall” filled with thousands of plants is a must, as is a “water wall” pouring in from 40 feet high, not to mention the near-required infinity pool, customized wine cellar, and home theater.
But it’s the drama between real estate agents dressed like they’re heading to Harry’s Bar, not the home viewings, that millions of people are really paying attention to.
There are coworkers who cry, throw tantrums, and try to seduce married coworkers. And Polly, 36, is at the center of much of it.
But Brindle’s path to the show was unlike any other, going from Barnoldwick to Netflix stardom on Selling the OC.
This stunning model-turned-estate agent hails from Barnoldswick, a rural Lancashire town (population 11,000) not known for its millionaires.
“It’s all the way up north, it’s very picturesque, and it has a very small-town spirit where everyone knows everyone else.
“This is a very down-to-earth place,” Polly previously revealed in a conversation with the Daily Mail.
Barnoldswick is certainly very different from the sunny beaches of Orange County.
Polly grew up in a four-bedroom semi with her parents: older sister Ellen, younger brother Harvey, Geoff, an architect, and Claire, a taxidermist.
Spotted by a modeling scout at the age of 15, she left home a year later and moved to Paris, Milan and Barcelona, working for the likes of Virgin, Dior, Aston Martin and Marks & Spencer. She also shot a Lancôme commercial with Julia Roberts.
At 24, she married her husband, a model and poker player eight years her senior, and a year later moved from London to Los Angeles “to have a beach baby and live the American dream.”
She loved her marriage and “being the perfect wife.” She said: “I cooked dinner at 7pm every night, did the laundry and was also the breadwinner, but I was happy to be able to do it.
“The plan was to have a total of four children and have three by the time I was 30, white picket fence and all. I was heading in that direction and had a perfect marriage. “It was,” she said, “until the moment it wasn’t.”
As she revealed on the show, her perfect life was shattered after just five years of marriage when she discovered cheating photos on her husband’s phone.
“Up until then, I had never suspected anything, never pried into him,” she said.
“But then he came back from a trip and something went wrong.
“When I asked to see his phone, he had deleted everything. But my brother is a computer genius and gave me a software that allowed me to get back the deleted information. .”
She soon realized that her husband was not who he claimed to be. Her parents separated and divorced when she was 12 years old, and she didn’t want to repeat her divorce.
However, two days after Polly found the images on her phone, he left for England and she never saw him again.
But that was just the beginning of her problems. Because she was a US visa holder unlike her husband, she assumed full financial responsibility for their belongings.
As a result, she left two cars leased in her name and rented a four-bedroom house, which was more than she could afford on her own.
Financial difficulties led to a four-year legal battle with his ex-girlfriend. ‘“It was a battle because he had borrowed money from the house we were living in in London and I needed the money to start over,” she said.
She was working as a model in California, but took a step back from work as her health deteriorated due to the separation.
“No client would want to represent their product if you’re clearly distraught,” she told the Daily Mail.
Polly turned to a variety of jobs, from waiting tables at the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood to running a boutique architecture firm.
For Polly, her work in architecture proved invaluable, as she quickly gained an understanding of the industry’s terminology and how planning was viewed.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, it served as a complete stop and allowed her to think about future plans.
While she moved to Orange County and was studying for her real estate agent’s license, she came across the Oppenheim Group’s new office, which was under construction at the time.
At first glance, she knew she would work there. So Polly contacted Jason Oppenheim, who founded her company and runs it with her twin brother Brett.
When they met and Jason told him he was making a new show, she immediately thought, “This is disappointing…I’m not a wallflower, so I thought it would be a good fit.” I remembered.
Jason, the show’s compact dynamo, seems to spend as much time mediating between warring agents as he does running the business (The Oppenheim Group has nearly $2 billion in sales; (His value is believed to be around $50 million) When hiring an inexperienced person, he admitted to being concerned.
However, Polly turned out to be focused and ambitious, which allowed her to quickly become successful in business.
He added that Polly was even more impressive in that she came from a poor family.
As a perfect example, Polly revealed that she signed her first real estate deal just a few years ago, drinking oysters and martinis at the Sunset Tower Hotel, where she was a waitress.
Earlier this week, the second series of Selling the OC hit theaters around the world, and Polly is in the spotlight.
Brindle is seen closing deals while wearing glamorous outfits befitting a nightclub.
Since its release, fans have speculated about her actions and buzzed about the Lancashire native’s trendy looks and bold personality.
But while Brindle’s often juicy action on the show has been the subject of debate among viewers, if there’s one thing that’s not up for debate, it’s that of Lancashire, who is little known even to British fans. It’s her success story from her humble beginnings to Netflix stardom on Selling the OC.