Who is Vanessa Villela? The New Selling Sunset Star Everyone Loves

The much-anticipated fourth season of everyone’s favourite real estate reality TV show, Selling Sunset is now airing on Netflix. And this year, to add some extra drama the show is known for airing, The Oppenheim Group has recruited some fresh faces, including Emma Hernan who is set to take over Christine Quinn’s desk (uh oh) and total newbie Vanessa Villela.

That doesn't mean she hasn't made her mark though. Vanessa Villela is currently trending on Google, with 'Vanessa from Selling Sunset', 'Vanessa Villela age' and 'Vanessa Villela sister' all breakout search terms. The latter refers to the first episode in the new season, where Vanessa opened up about the tragic death of her sister, Jackie - who was the inspiration to her becoming a realtor after staging homes herself. Vanessa has dedicated her career to her sister, telling her fellow cast that Jackie always insisted Vanessa would make a great realtor.

So, who is the Vanessa Villela?

Vanessa is 43-years-old and of Spanish and Italian ancestry. The newbie realtor was born in Mexico, becoming a US citizen back in 2017. Much like co-star Chrishell Stause, Vanessa Villela got her start in soap operas.

What soap operas has Vanessa Villela been in?

Since then, she gained some impressive acting credentials starring in multiple shows. According to her IMDB profile, she appeared in 67 episodes of Una Maid en Manhattan, a Spanish language TV version of the hit Jennifer Lopez movie.

She was also in 108 episodes of the popular Spanish TV show Eva Luna, where she starred as the main character and she was in Lord of the Skies from 2016 until 2018.

Vanessa is completely new to her co-stars as well as the audience - meaning she isn’t bringing too much baggage or long-term feuds to the show with her. Which is pretty lucky, since there was drama between fellow new girl Emma and co-star Christine before the season even began.

Recently speaking to Cosmopolitan about season four filming, co-star Amanza Smith said ‘None of us knew Vanessa at all. But she quickly is like family. It’s funny like Jason really is very [specific in] the way he chooses people to join the brokerage, I don’t know if he has a little checklist. She fit right in and very quickly became, you know, just one of the family.’

Although she’s an unknown face to the Selling Sunset cast and viewers, she does have a big fan base from her career as a soap star, who will likely be following her to the show.

Who is Vanessa Villela's sister?

Opening up about losing her sister on the first episode of Selling Sunset, Vanessa explained that she only became a realtor in memory of Jackie. Jackie owned a home staging business in San Diego, and always encouraged Vanessa to get involved in real estate. On the show, Vanessa explained that she died due to complications of medication she was taking and that the death was very sudden.

The emotional scene saw all the women rally round her, promising they would treat her as family.

Vanessa is also a fashion designer

Alongside her work as a luxury real estate agent and reality star, Vanessa is also an aspiring fashion designer. Earlier this year, she revealed on Instagram that she had been collaborating with swimwear brand Lascivious on some of her own designs, sharing several photos of her modelling the looks.

Vanessa caught Covid during the filming of Selling Sunset

During the filming of season 4 of Selling Sunset, Vanessa unfortunately contracted Covid. ‘On August 5 I contracted Covid, and it stole 5 weeks of my life at the most important times as I was filming and doing my real estate. Today, almost 3 months after and I’m still dealing with getting my body to a 100% I’ve had insomnia, hormonal imbalance, severe lack of energy, brain inflammation etc.’

However, in October, she thanked a team of doctors for ‘saving her life’ and helping her recover. ‘I’m now starting to live a normal life again, I’m still in treatments and WOW I cannot imagine how my life would be without your help, I have no words to describe my gratitude to you AND EVERYTHING YOU HAVE DONE FOR ME!

It seems Vanessa is doing much better now, so hopefully, she’ll be around for the whole season and we can see how she fares with this drama-packed cast.

Click through for more on Selling Sunset's Christine Quinn and her filming wardrobe...