Spoilers for Too Hot to Handle below.
When Matthew Smith met the rest of the cast of Netflix’s Too Hot to Handle, a show for horny people who aren’t allowed to have sex, they took one look at his long hair and called him “Jesus.” That might not be the most creative of nicknames, but it really stuck throughout the show. The narrator, Desiree Birch, used it as the punchline for many jokes about the contestant who seemed to be very concerned about policing the sex lives of his fellow housemates. To be fair, there was $100,000 on the line, and every time everyone got physical, they got money deducted from the pot.
Smith decided to leave the show on his own after determining he’d learned enough from the process. What did he do after he left the private estate at Casa Tau in Punta Mita, Mexico? Apparently this long-haired, beanie-wearing man from Denver already had a pretty full career onscreen before he went on this wacky reality TV show.
He’s appeared on America’s Next Top Model, New Girl, Stitchers, Face Off, and The Young and the Restless, according to his IMDB page. The 29-year-old has apparently lived in L.A. since 2011, so he clearly had some time to make connections, and maybe had a few gigs waiting for him after his stint on reality television.
So, how did he use his leg up on the entertainment industry after he left Too Hot to Handle? You’ll never guess, because it’s just too obvious.
Aline Arruda/Netflix
“Jesus” played Jesus in a short film.
After Smith left the show, which filmed last April, one of his next gigs was to play Jesus Christ in a short film called The Commissioning. Here is the trailer for the film, in which you can see our favorite member of the sex police dressed as actual Jesus Christ.
This means Smith didn’t have to do much to his already lusciously long locks once he left Mexico. Playing Jesus doesn’t really require much of a spruce-up to the old hair situation.
He wrote a children’s book.
As he advertises on his Instagram profile, Smith’s been doing more than getting chummy with some Apostles. Back in 2016, he published a children’s book he co-wrote book called Windy. “Long ago, the Earth’s most beautiful creature learned the true meaning of giving. This is her story—the story of Windy,” the book’s description reads on Amazon. There’s also a woman on the cover who looks like she might also belong in a movie based on the New Testament.
He’s the COO of something called Dream Katchers Enterprise
After watching this video, Dream Katchers Enterprise appears to be some kind of entertainment company (?). I don’t know. Watch it, and you let me know.
Anyway, that’s Matt “Jesus” Smith. Hope you feel…enlightened.