Nyle DiMarco is a teacher. He is. It’s something he’s wanted to be for a long time. Yes, he did make history when he won America’s Next Top Model cycle 22, and he did go on to win Dancing With the Stars season 22 after that. It’s also true that he walked the Oscars red carpet this year as a nominated producer for his Netflix documentary Audible. But at his core, the 6-foot-2, steely blue-eyed beauty is a teacher. And he went to college to do just that.
“After America’s Next Top Model, I actually was planning on going back to teaching math,” he says in a phone call through an interpreter. And teach he has, though math has not been the subject.
In the span of a few years, the now-33-year-old has wielded the platform he’s built through his competition show appearances as a chisel, carving out a foothold for himself in Hollywood’s landscape. And instead of continually pushing himself, returning to his role as model, actor, and face, he’s used that foothold as stability to give others a leg up and a path into the limelight. DiMarco has become a living portkey: a breathing and vocal touchpoint
