Sydnee Falkner is a reality TV producer’s dream. Born in Colorado and raised in Northern Alaska, the 32-year-old worked in subzero temperatures in remote oil fields to save up for college as a teenager. You’d never know it from her Instagram page, which is full of glamour shots and gym selfies—but that’s to be expected, now that she’s an Arizona-based fitness model. Falkner had been recruited to appear on unscripted shows before, but it wasn’t until Million Dollar Secret that she found the perfect series for her ultra-competitive, hidden-weapon strengths. Unfortunately, she may have been a little too perfect for a game where a player that stands out quickly becomes a target.
“A lot of it is appearance-based,” she tells Marie Claire of her strategy on Netflix’s answer to The Traitors. To dupe her 11 competitors in the game of wit and cunning, to survive several elimination votes, and eventually walk away with the titular fortune, she decided to play to surface-level assumptions with her “Scottsdale bottle girl” disguise. She recalls thinking at the time, “If I dress the part a little bit, everyone won’t really look at me as a strong player, just as the token ditzy girl. That worked for about five minutes before I couldn't keep my mouth shut.”
