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Love is Blind alumi Jeremy Hartwell is an entrepreneur who recently founded his own company. He was in the news when he joined Love is Blind season 2 as a contestant looking for a potential spouse, and he is now making headlines again for suing Netflix over “unsafe and inhumane working conditions for the cast of the shows.” He has also allegedly sued the show’s production company Kinetic Content and casting company Delirium TV.
Jeremy Hartwell filed a lawsuit on June 29 with the Los Angeles County Superior Court against the three companies. In a statement provided to Page Six, his attorney, Chantal Payton of Payton Employment Law, PC, of Los Angeles, alleged that:
“They intentionally underpaid the cast members, deprived them of food, water and sleep, plied them with booze and cut off their access to personal contacts and most of the outside world. This made cast members hungry for social connections and altered their emotions and decision-making.”
The lawsuit also alleged that the producers paid rates that were below Los Angeles County’s minimum wage.
Love is Blind’s Jeremy Hartwell began his career with a weapons manufacturing company
A Chicago native, Jeremy Hartwell was working in the mortgage industry when he joined season 2 of Love is Blind, but he is now the Founder of Catalyst Ventures LLC, which is a “holding company committed to providing transformative products, services, and solutions across a broad range of industries,” as per his LinkedIn profile. He started the company in July.
He completed his BBA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and MBA from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan before beginning his career with Raytheon (now Raytheon Technologies) and eventually moving to ZS Associates. His last job before starting his venture was with Guaranteed Rate as Director, Strategic Initiatives.
Jeremy Hartwell's lawsuit against Netflix
Jeremy Hartwell is suing Netflix, production company Kinetic Content and Kinetic’s casting company Delirium TV for labor-law violations and unpaid wages. According to the lawsuit, the contestants on the show were classified as independent contractors instead of employees even though the producers dictated their work completely.
The contestants were paid a flat rate of $1,000 per week, even though they were working almost 20 hours per day, seven days per week. The lawsuit underlined that the wage came out as little as $7.14 per hour, which is below the minimum wage in Los Angeles County of at least $15 per hour.
According to Variety, the lawsuit also seeks class-action status on behalf of the cast members of Love is Blind and other non-scripted shows created by Netflix and the two other companies over the last four years. The potential size of the plaintiff class could be more than 100 individuals.
Jeremy Hartwell joined the cast of Love is Blind season 2 on February 11, 2022. However, he could not find any real connection on the blind dating show.
The reality star connected with other female single-cast members of the speed-dating show through pods that prevented them from seeing each other until he proposed to a woman of his choice. However, he had minimal screen time on the show as he did not get engaged to his partner to proceed to part two of the series.
The fitness and sports enthusiast uploaded a brief clip of his time on Love is Blind on his Instagram where he tells the other cast:
“I don’t know why, I get so h*rny when I’m hungover, I don’t know what it is.”
Ten days after returning from the show, he even posted “an excerpt” from his “journal after returning from the [Love Is Blind] pods,” sharing about his “surreal and somewhat disconnected” experience. He is still in touch with a few cast mates from the show, including Danielle Ruhl and Deepti Vempati.
After his bittersweet experience on Love is Blind, Hartwell's allegations about "inhumane working conditions" have taken the internet by storm. The final outcome of this lawsuit remains to be seen.
