Aaryn Gries’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Aaryn Elizabeth Williams (née Gries; born September 3, 1990) is an American reality television personality, YouTuber, entrepreneur, and former model from San Marcos, Texas. She is best known for her appearance as a contestant on the reality television show Big Brother 15, She is currently a ranch owner and operator, a YouTube Creator, and is working on a line of products that she has yet to give the details on.

Early life

Gries was born in San Angelo, Texas, on September 3, 1990, and raised on the ranch of her father, a German Texan. Before middle school, following her parent’s divorce, she moved to Castle Rock, Colorado, with her mother. There she attended Douglas County High School, graduating in 2009. She spent the summers with her father in Texas. From a young age, Gries took an interest in cheerleading, serving on an Elite Cheerleading All-Star team before high school. In high school she was a part of varsity dance and varsity cheer; from 2005 to 2007, Gries served as a coach at the Castle Rock School of Gymnastics. From June 2011 to April 2012, she served as an Ice Girl cheerleader for the Texas Stars Hockey Club.

Pageantry and modeling career

While still in high school, Gries competed for and won the title of Miss Colorado Teen International 2007. Gries has worked locally in Texas as a specialty model, doing work for Maxim in Austin, Texas and was signed by Belle Petite as a promotional model. She was also signed to Zephyr Talent. As of part Zephyr Talent, Gries has landed numerous gigs in Texas, including modeling lingerie on the runway during Austin Fashion Week at La Zona Rosa Marketplace. She was dropped from Zephyr Talent after her bigoted comments on Big Brother.

Big Brother 15

Gries appeared on Big Brother 15 in 2013. While in the house, Gries quickly formed a romantic relationship with David Girton. She was also part of the “Blonde-tourage” alliance with Girton, Kaitlin Barnaby, Jeremy McGuire, Nick Uhas, GinaMarie Zimmerman, and Jessie Kowalski. After Girton was evicted, Gries won the “Big Brother BBQ” Head of Household competition in the following week. She chose to target Elissa Slater for eviction, blaming her for Girton’s exit. However, Slater was granted that M.V.P. power for a second week in a row and was able to flip the vote against Uhas, who was later evicted that week. Gries was nominated for eviction in the third week, though her ally McGuire was ultimately evicted from the house. She was nominated for a second consecutive time the following week, but worked out a deal with Helen Kim and Slater to stay in the game. Following the eviction of her ally Barnaby, Gries won her second Head of Household competition in “Roulette Me Win”, making her the first HouseGuest to hold the title twice this season. She kept her end of the bargain with Slater and Kim, allowing them to control the nominations and orchestrate the eviction of Howard Overby. During the double eviction week, Gries won her third HoH in the “Summer School” competition and nominated Kowalski and Spencer Clawson for eviction. After winning her first Power of Veto seconds later, she saved Kowalski and instead backdoored Judd Daughterty, who was shortly evicted in a unanimous vote. Gries won her fourth HoH of the summer in the “Way Off Broadway” competition, setting a record for the fastest amount of HoH wins in Big Brother history. With that, she is also tied with Drew Daniel, Janelle Pierzina, Hayden Moss, Rachel Reilly, and Ian Terry for the most HoH wins in a single season. She nominated Slater and Kim, and then nominated Clawson as a replacement after Slater won the Power of Veto and took herself off the block. After Kim’s eviction, Slater won Head of Household and nominated Gries along with McCrae Olson. While Slater’s intention was to split up Olson and his showmance Amanda Zuckerman, the plan went awry after Zuckerman won the Power of Veto and saved Olson. This forced Slater to nominate Andy Herren as a replacement, which led to Gries’s eviction on Day 70 by a 5-0 vote, coming in 8th place. In the final two, Gries voted for Zimmerman to win Big Brother, despite the majority of jury members voting for Herren.

Controversy

Gries became the center of controversy after making remarks widely condemned as racist and homophobic by the show’s live feed viewers as well as host Julie Chen. These comments led to a negative reaction from many fans, and more than 27,000 people signed a petition asking that Gries be expelled from the house before she was evicted. She also became known by the moniker “Aaryn the Aryan” in several gossip blogs that covered the controversy.

On the controversy, CBS stated “Big Brother is a reality show about watching a group of people who have no privacy 24/7 — and seeing every moment of their lives. At times, the HouseGuests reveal prejudices and other beliefs that we do not condone. We certainly find the statements made by several of the HouseGuests on the live Internet feed to be offensive. Any views or opinions expressed in personal commentary by a HouseGuest appearing on Big Brother, either on any live feed from the house or during the broadcast, are those of the individual(s) speaking and do not represent the views or opinions of CBS or the producers of the program.” It was later speculated that the HouseGuests had been warned about these comments.

She was seen on the show’s live Internet feed referring to Herren as a “queer”, and also referred to Asians as “squinty eyed”. She remarked that Kim, her Korean American housemate, should “go make some rice.” In a notable confrontation with African American houseguest Candice Stewart, Williams flipped over Stewart’s bed and aggressively mocked her with a stereotypical accent when Stewart expressed disapproval of the act and threatened to “raise hell” if it happened again. She also referred to Stewart as “Aunt Jemima” behind her back and said she should “go make pancakes”.

Many of the comments were eventually aired on the show, leading to media scrutiny and even more backlash from fans. Her comments in the house led to Aaryn losing representation from her talent agency and her job as a magazine spokesmodel.

Gries’s mother apologized for the offensive comments after hiring a publicist, and spoke out against the exploitation of her daughter’s words for ratings in an interview given to the Los Angeles Times a few days after her eviction. She further attempted to demonstrate Gries’s racial tolerance by indicating she took a young African American man to her prom as her date, claiming the man was “one of her closest friends through high school”. Further, she stated “Aaryn’s first true love was Cuban American, and she has cousins of Japanese descent who she truly loves; she has never discriminated against anyone for their sexual orientation whether within our family or not. Aaryn truly loves all people equally.” Gries’s African-American prom date identified himself to TMZ as Mike Miller, sharing prom pictures with the online publication. Miller claimed Gries was not “prejudiced or hateful.” He also said Gries’s sense of humor was that of a “smart-ass.” Gries later apologized for such comments, adding that she had learned from what she said and that the experience has made her a better person. She also apologized for her comment about Texas in an interview with Jeff Schroeder.

Personal life

Gries attended Texas State University, with a major in psychology. Gries has worked locally in Texas as a specialty model, doing work for Maxim in Austin, Texas, and was signed by Belle Petite as a promotional model. She was also signed to Zephyr Talent. Gries met her husband, Nick Williams, on the same day that her father passed away. They married on May 10, 2015. They have three daughters, Skyla (born June 14, 2016), Adeline (born November 29, 2017), and Reese (born August 19, 2019). The Wiliams’ live in Texas, near Austin.

YouTube Career

Williams is a successful YouTube Creator with over 340 thousand subscribers. She posts motherhood and lifestyle vlogs usually 3 times each week.