Caress’s brother on The Circle is more than just a rapper, he’s Paul Russell!

Contestants playing as family members and friends is nothing new for contestants on The Circle as catfish have been a key part of the show since the beginning. However, we need to take a moment to talk about a connection you might not even pick up on upon watching season 6 due to the way in which the show undersells a certain contestant’s connection to one of music’s rising stars. 

In the season 6 premiere, we meet Caress, a 37-year-old motivational speaker from Dallas who decides to enter The Circle as her younger brother Paul. When talking about her brother on the show, Caress refers to him as a rapper who has quite a large social media following. What fans watching the show might not pick up on is that Caress’s brother is artist Paul Russell whose single “Little Boo Thang” took off late last year. 

That’s right, Paul is not just some aspiring rapper. He’s an artist that is making quite a few waves in the music industry at the moment. He has over 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify and his 2023 song, “Little Boo Thang” has over 206 million streams on Spotify alone. Later this fall, he’s set to hit the road as an opening act on Meghan Trainor’s The Timeless Tour with new music on the way including his newest single “Eat Pray Love” which dropped just this April. 

Paul Russell’s sister likely didn’t mention his success because the show filmed before his big break

After I connected the dots and realized that the Paul we see playing the game this season on The Circle is actually Paul Russell, I began to wonder why Caress didn’t exactly sell how successful her brother was when on the show. Well, this might be a matter of timing. 

It’s unclear when filming on season 6 took place, but it’s expected that the season filmed in early to mid-2023 which means that The Circle season 6 was likely filmed before “Little Boo Thang” took off and Russell’s rise to fame began. This is likely why Caress is a bit modest when talking about her brother’s achievements on the show, as he had been in the industry waiting for his big break which likely came after filming on season 6 ended. 

This is likely why Caress did not mention her brother having a hit single or hype up his status more than she did on the show, at least when talking alone in her apartment. After all, we’d understand not playing up the successful rapper angle to other players in the game as doing so could have made Paul a target for that reason alone. 

Still, it is quite humorous to think that both Caress and her brother both had a life-altering opportunity in 2023 with Paul getting his big break with “Little Boo Thang” as his sister Caress joined the cast of The Circle and decided to play as her little brother.