Photo Credit: Brandon Carter/Instagram; Tailgate Beach Club; EyeHatePhil/Instagram; Chico Hyndrx/Instgaram; Oshea Russell/Instgram
Before thirst traps became an entire social media economy, before everyone with abs had a fitness program and before Instagram started handing out blue checks, PopGlitz had the Eye Candy section. Over the years we’ve featured models, actors, athletes, fitness trainers and the occasional person who was simply too fine not to write about. Some were already working in entertainment while others were just beginning to build their names online. And quite a few of them went on to become some of our most viewed and most requested features.
So after digging through more than a decade of the PopGlitz archives, we decided it was time to check in on some of our Eye Candy All Stars. And yes, some of them are still fine.
Brandon Carter/King Keto
Photo Credit: KingKeto/Instagram
Brandon Carter technically goes back even further than the PopGlitz Eye Candy era. We originally discovered the Chicago native during the MySpace days when we covered him at DefGlam, years before social media fitness influencers were everywhere. But lesser known is the fact that he can actually rap. These days he goes by the name of King Keto and says over 1,000 trainers have gone through his online coaching program High Ticket Trainer. He also launched a Bro Laboratories supplement company way back in 2013 that reached 7 figures in revenue in its first two years. He’s since gone on to model for Nike, Puma, Adidas, Jordan and Men’s Health. We came for the abs but he apparently had a business plan. Follow on Instagram
Johnny Middlebrooks
Photo Credit: Johnny Middlebrooks/Instagram
When PopGlitz first covered Johnny Middlebrooks, he wasn’t bouncing from reality show to reality show yet — he was simply a very fine track star from Chesapeake, Virginia. At the time, Johnny was competing at the University of Mount Olive in North Carolina, running the 200 and 400 meters and making a name for himself on the track. Since we were living in Virginia back then, he was basically one of our local Eye Candy finds: athletic, photogenic and exactly the type of person who was going to end up on our radar.
Fast-forward a few years and apparently running track was only the warm-up. Johnny went on to become one of reality TV’s most recognizable repeat offenders, starting with Love Island USA Season 2 before popping up on All Star Shore, The Challenge: Ride or Dies, Love Island Games, Pop the Balloon Live and House of Villains. He even returned for another season of Love Island Games. So yes, PopGlitz knew Johnny back when he was just a Virginia track star. Now he has enough reality TV credits to qualify for his own IMDb category. Follow on Instagram
Rapper EyeHatePhil
Photo Credit: EyeHatePhil/Instagram
When PopGlitz first covered EyeHatePhil, he was still an up-and-coming Houston rapper with no television résumé to speak of. We knew him mostly from WorldStar, a few photoshoots and his early music. Since then, he has expanded into modeling, acting and reality television. He appeared as one of the Quavo lookalikes on MTV’s Game of Clones, became especially recognizable to Zeus Network viewers after his chaotic Bad Boys audition went viral, and later appeared on Unscripted TV Network’s dating show Spin the Block as well as Making the Cast.
His modeling work has grown alongside that exposure, while he has continued releasing music, including his 2025 debut EP Next to the Visionary. It is a major evolution from the guy we initially spotted in a few shoots and WorldStar clips, and today he is probably best known to a newer audience through reality television. Follow on Instagram
Marcus Allen aka Chico Ehhh
Photo Credit: Marcus Allen/Instagram
When PopGlitz featured Marcus Allen, better known as Chico Ehhh, in 2018, he was still a Penn State football player preparing for the NFL Draft. He was already popular online from Vine and definitely had the look, but at the time football was clearly the career path. Just weeks later, the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted him, and he went on to spend five seasons in the NFL.
After football, though, Marcus made an unexpectedly major pivot into high fashion modeling. What started with shoots for Pittsburgh boutique TONS eventually led him to Paris and into the runway world, where he has since walked for brands including Vetements, KidSuper and Nahmias. In 2026, he also appeared in Thom Browne’s GQ Bowl runway show alongside names like DeAndre Hopkins and Justin Jefferson. So one of our former football-player Eye Candy picks has basically gone from Penn State, to the NFL, to legitimate international fashion model — easily one of the biggest glow-ups in the entire PopGlitz archive. Follow on Instagram
O’Shea Russell
Photo Credit: Akoo Clothing
O’Shea Russell may have one of the most satisfying glow-ups in the entire PopGlitz Eye Candy archive. When most viewers first met him on Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta, he was Erica Dixon’s extremely good-looking model boyfriend, but the show quickly turned his finances into a running joke. He was labeled “broke,” and famously couldn’t even complete his dramatic exit after their breakup because his car ran out of gas. PopGlitz kept following him for years afterward, rooting for the comeback while he was posting workout videos from Virginia and clearly trying to rebuild his momentum.
And look at him now. O’Shea went on to become a series regular as Tommy on All the Queen’s Men, one of the most recognizable faces from the Tyler Perry-produced drama, and added more acting credits with projects like Wicked City and several films. The guy reality TV once reduced to a gas-money punchline is now a familiar face in Black television and film, which makes his story one of the biggest full-circle moments in this entire feature. Follow on Instagram
The best part of looking back at the Eye Candy section is seeing how many of the people we featured went on to build real careers for themselves. We’re always happy to see that progression, because the section was never meant to be just about posting attractive people — the point was to give shine to models, athletes, artists and personalities we thought deserved more attention.
Sometimes that meant catching someone before the rest of the world knew their name, and sometimes it meant simply giving them their flowers while they were still on the way up. Years later, seeing where some of them ended up makes the whole thing that much more rewarding.
