Arisa Thomas, 36, is a Los Angeles dog groomer who runs Blue Pooch Grooming and joins the cast of “The Traitors: New Blood” as a self-declared “Most Likely to Overpack.”
Who Is Arisa Thomas?
NBC’s official cast bio keeps it simple: Los Angeles, California, dog groomer, age 36. But Arisa’s Instagram tells a fuller story of someone who has built an actual business, not just a job title for a reality show bio.
She runs Blue Pooch Grooming, which operates out of at least two Los Angeles locations, Centinela and Pico. Her page is stacked with the kind of before-and-after transformation content that makes grooming accounts go viral: fluffy white dogs getting the teddy bear cut, a client’s Bichon with 110 likes and counting, and video captions promising to turn “your dogs into cute teddy bears.” Her Instagram bio makes the pitch explicit with a paw emoji and the tagline spelled out for anyone landing on her page for the first time.
The business isn’t a side hustle she’s dressing up for TV, either. Her bio lists a booking contact through The Dog Agency, the kind of representation that suggests she’s already built a client base worth managing professionally, along with a Coaching highlight tab and a Testimonials tab. That’s a groomer running an established operation, not someone who groomed a few dogs and called it an occupation for casting purposes.
How She’s Approaching the Show
Arisa has been upfront with her following about the casting news rather than keeping it quiet until premiere. Her Instagram bio now leads with “Traitors: New Blood S5,” and one of her most recent posts is a video captioned “Telling my friends I’m going to be on the Traitors,” racking up double-digit comments from followers who clearly did not see this coming from their neighborhood dog groomer.
That kind of real-time reaction content is worth watching as the show gets closer to its September 17 premiere. Cast members who document their own casting reveal tend to keep posting through the lead-up, which means more material to track as the show builds anticipation.
Where She Fits in the Cast
At 110,000 followers, Arisa arrives with one of the more established online followings among the 22 civilians NBC selected from over 80,000 applicants. Compare that to a barrel racer or a funeral director working with a smaller, more local audience, and Arisa looks like one of the cast members positioned to bring in an audience that already knows her, on top of whatever new fans “New Blood” hands her.
Whether that translates to strategic advantage in the Scottish Highlands castle remains to be seen. But if the show’s producers were looking for a mix of relatable, camera-comfortable civilians, a groomer who already runs a business built on turning strangers’ pets into content is a logical pick.
The Traitors: New Blood premieres Thursday, September 17 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC, with new episodes streaming the next day on Peacock.
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