Meet Renee Ariel | On Camera Host & Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Renee Ariel and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Renee, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
When I was 19, I dropped out of college and moved across the country to Los Angeles. At the time, this didn’t feel like a risk at all. It felt like a necessary decision I had to make in order to achieve my goals. Now, nearly 10 years later, I look back and am shocked that I moved away from everyone and everything I knew to chase a career that wasn’t guaranteed. A career some people never break into. That being said, I’m sure a lot of the decisions I have made throughout my career that felt necessary at the time, may be seen as huge risks to someone else, or even to myself now looking back. For me, in the moment, a risk has always felt like a necessary decision I had to make for change. If I want to grow, change is inevitable. And with change, there’s always risk. But I think of risk as a beautiful gateway to get where we want to go in life. As they say, no risk, no reward. It can be scary, but when you truly know what you want, you make that necessary decision and you take that risk. Because there’s no other option.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Everyone has their own story of how they broke into the entertainment world. For me, it all started with a silly little YouTube video I made called “I Know Who Big A Is,” which was a 3-4 minute video, where I predicted what was going to happen in the Pretty Little Liars season finale. Was my prediction correct? Not even close. However, this video somehow accumulated over 300,000 views. And given the unexpected success of my video, I started thinking about how I could lean into this niche to help with my dream career. Which at the time, meant acting or becoming a YouTuber.

This was when I discovered After Show Networks, which were these YouTube channels that would live stream TV fan reactions right after new episodes aired. It looked pretty cool. It was basically 2-4 people sitting down and chatting about their thoughts on all their favorite shows. Immediately I thought…I could do that!

So I ended up leveraging the success of my video to pitch myself to a small After Show network I found on YouTube that had a Pretty Little Liars after show. And to my surprise, they offered me the chance to host the “pre-show” for their season finale after show. Now, if we’re keeping it real, the pre-show I did was a hot mess and mostly consisted of me reading comments that asked when the actual after show was going to start. But nonetheless, this birthed a new interest for me. Hosting. Unfortunately this after show network I initially pitched myself to had limited shows and opportunity, so what did I do? I found another one. And this one welcomed me with open arms and I started hosting several after shows.

From there, I put together my first reel and sent it out to several digital networks. If I’m being honest, I had one in mind that I really wanted to host for, and that was Clevver TV. So, every month I would email Clevver my reel and ask if they had any openings. After about 6 months, they finally responded and asked me to come in for an audition..

After a quick interview and writing test, I got the audition on the spot. I became a news personality for Clevver News! I couldn’t believe it. My time at Clevver was really positive. This job not only helped me grow significantly as a host, but is also where I produced for the first time. And it was all going so smoothly until the company unexpectedly shut down over night just a year and a half after I started. It felt like my world was crumbling down. I didn’t have a backup plan. I didn’t have a next step.

However, shortly after the company shut down, other opportunities presented themselves and I continued to work as a pop culture host for various networks over the next two years. And that’s right around when SHEIN came along. My friend told me about an audition for a live shopping show. called SHEIN Live. They were looking for hosts. Although I had never done any hosting gigs like it, and had really only dabbled in done pop culture news, I decided to go for it anyway.

Long story short, I got the gig and it was truly the best thing that’s ever happened for my career. I went from cohost to host, to host and producer, to somehow becoming the face of SHEIN. By the end of 2022, and almost 3 years into my time at SHEIN, they offered me a full time gig as senior producer and their first ever in-house host. Today, I not only host and produce SHEIN Live, but I’m involved in nearly every project SHEIN US does. I travel around the country regularly for events, pop ups, and music festivals. It truly feels like a dream job.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
There are definitely some LA staples, and I like to think I’m a pretty decent host, on and off camera, for anyone who visits me in the city.

For starters, we would absolutely do a day in Malibu, it’s a must. We’d pop over to Philz coffee and grab a bevvy to hold us over for the drive. Then we’d head straight to Malibu Farms for a cute lunch. After lunch, we’d go to El Matador beach and have a nice chat while admiring the view. Then we’d finish off our lovely Malibu day with a sunset dinner at Moonshadows, which is a gorgeous oceanfront restaurant with great seafood.

Outside of Malibu, I would take my best friend to as many LA areas we could squeeze in. We’d go to Beverly Hills, Culver City, West Hollywood, Santa Monica, Silver Lake…as many places as possible with the time we have.

For experiences, we’d go to a comedy show at the Improv, hit up a few farmers markets, check out a movie at street food cinema, walk around The Grove, attend jazz night at the Hollywood Bowl (which would be the only experience I’d allow in Hollywood), and lastly, have ourselves a fancy night of magic at the Magic Castle.

For restaurants, we’d go to The Nice Guy for the vibes and cacio e Pepe, Summer Fish + Rice for some bomb sushi, The Royal Curry Cafe for Indian food, any restaurant in Westwood for great Persian food, Lacha Somtum for massaman curry, and of course, In n Out (which should go without saying)

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to shoutout my mom. She has always been my biggest cheerleader, even when no one else was in the stands. My mom supported me when I made a decision not many people agreed with, to drop out of college and move to Los Angeles. My mom rooted for me when I had a hard time rooting for myself. She reminded me of my value when a network didn’t. She watched every video, tuned into every live stream. She was, and continues to be my rock. I am so grateful for her and hope she knows how much her support has meant to me. It’s fueled me and helped me not give up in times that I have felt lost or defeated. I am so happy to be where I am today, but the hardest part about it is being 3,000 miles away from my favorite person. I love you, mom!

Instagram: @reneeariel

Other: tiktok: @reneeariel

Image Credits
Ty Harris (for the jean jacket pic)