How DONDI's Phillip Went From Being Bullied to Thriving on Reality TV

Somehow Deal or No Deal Island's Phillip Solomon knew he'd end up exactly where he is today. The millennial multihyphenate has made a splash on screen during this season of the NBC competition show, but to him, it was more or less always in the cards.

"I think that if you asked me as a kid, did I think that I was going to end up here doing this, I want to be honest with you and say no, but then I want to be really honest with you and say yes, because I think it's one of those things where you have to know that you are bringing something else," Solomon exclusively tells Men's Journal about his journey. "From a very young age, I was like, 'People aren't listening to me, they're not looking at me,' but I know that I have something to say and I have something special to bring to the world. And I think in really discovering it, I think I discovered it on stage in middle school."

He started acting in school musicals, which gave him confidence, but by the time he hit high school, he was struggling with his weight. "My senior year in high school, I looked in the mirror and I said, 'I'm not going to do this anymore,'" Solomon shares about the moment he decided to make a change. "Everyone said, 'How did you lose all the weight?' And I said, on day one, I ran around the block and it was awful. And then day two, I ran around the block twice, and that's just the kind of person that I am. It was through running, it was through all of that, and it's really been a journey. I lost 50 pounds my senior year of high school, went down from a weight size 36 to a 28, went down from an adult extra large to a small."

"I think that fitness and health and wellness isn't always accessible for people of color. I am a first generation American from a family of Caribbean immigrants. So the rule was if you are eating well and consistently, you're in a good spot. It doesn't really matter what you're eating," Solomon explains. "We were kind of eating rice and bread and starches, and this and that. And so by the time I had moved at the end of elementary school, I was horrendously overweight. I was almost borderline obese. It was one of those where I was constantly bullied and made fun of. And again, in being one of the only faces of color in my graduating class of 700, it's so hard to have another element of your life, another facet of your life where you have to look in the mirror and remember that you're not everyone else."

He also candidly opens up about another part of weight loss "no one really talks about," saying, "You get compliments and then you get accolades, and then you develop disordered eating that goes along with it. And the only reason that I can speak so freely who I am right now is because I've been through all that. I've done the depression, I've done the anxiety, the disordered eating, and now I'm at the point where I look in the mirror and I work hard for what I do, and I don't let it take over my life. And I think that that's so important in fitness."

Weight wasn't the only struggle in Solomon's life at the time. "My dad's side of the family has a pretty bad stutter, pretty bad," he says. "And so growing up and going to speech therapy in elementary school, and getting pulled out of class and all that other stuff, I was told – and again, it was the '90s so give this woman grace and forgiveness – I was told, 'Hey, listen, you are super smart and creative and there are so many things you can do where you don't have to speak. There are so many other skills and talents that you can use.' And so the person I am that I heard her and said, 'OK, then I need to make sure that I do everything that involves talking."

Solomon, who also acts and models, became a middle school teacher in New Jersey and did that for more than a decade, raking in accolades like the 2020 Teacher Who Makes Magic award. He was also chosen to be part of McDonald's Men of McCafe, a group of charitable African-American men who give back to their community. "I hit year 12 and I had done amazing things," he says, but even so, he was ready for a change. "I hit the millennial checklist – two master's degrees by 22, got hired three weeks out of school and I was like, this is it." 

There was a reason he didn't embrace a career change sooner. "I stayed for two kids – kids who looked exactly like me to be able to look up at the front of the room and say, 'I have options. If I want to do this, I can," Solomon says. "But more so for kids who didn't look like me to be able to say, 'I'm learning, I'm growing, I'm evolving from someone who's had a different life experience than me.' And I think you can only do that for so long."

An offer presented itself and Solomon took the leap. "I received an opportunity to be a group fitness instructor at Barry's in Austin. I did a little research, I flew out to Austin, I did all the things," he tells MJ. "I figured out I would be the first Black male instructor in the entire state. And I said, you know what? I've already broken down a lot of boundaries in my life. What's one more?"

Now, the actor is making a difference in other ways and taking his experiences with him: "I tell everyone when we're right in the middle of the class to remember who they were six months ago, a year ago, five years ago, and know that out of respect for that person, we needed them because without them, we wouldn't be who we are right now."

Solomon took that work ethic to the island too, trying to maintain his regime the best he could as he filmed the competition series. "I started working out on the island day one," he says. "And it's not for the muscle growth and development. It helps me feel like the best version of me. I am the happiest, the most comfortable, the strongest and the most powerful when I have woken up and I exercise immediately."

As for his diet on the island, Solomon admits he "had to be a little bit more lenient," continuing, "Normally I try to compete as a competitive bodybuilder once a year. So that's a pretty strict 12 to 16 week regimen as far as watching your protein, what you're eating, stuff like that. But on the island, I didn't have a lot of options there. So what did work to my advantage is the heat, the humidity, the physical exertion, and the anxiety of it all. My heart rate was the highest it has ever been for a month. It was just high every day. Imagine waking up every morning and being like, am I going home today? It's just the weirdest thing. And so you just start to worry and your heart rate is so high. I lost eight pounds on the island and we were there for under a month, and I was like, cool."

Meanwhile, going into shooting the show in Panama, Solomon didn't plan to work with any reality TV stars that may show up, including cast mate and Survivor winner Parvati Shallow: "In my head, initially, I thought to myself if there was another Boston Rob [Mariano], if there was another big name, they have to go immediately. And then I kind of surveyed the scene and took the temperature of the room. And when more than half of the group didn't know who she was, I was like, that kind of negates her power in this situation. So the only power she still had was being able to play a game, play it well, and stay afloat for as long as she could. And so I knew if someone was going to be playing a game 24 hours a day, it was going to be her. And I had to be standing right next to her because if I wasn't there, I was the next one out. And so I knew that I had to align myself with her."

As for Dr. Will Kirby's infamous arrival to the jungle in a full-blown tuxedo, Solomon says, "All I could think to myself is the things that older straight men will do to avoid going to therapy is astonishing. I was like, 'I don't need all of this. I just don't need it. It's too much. It's three much.' He was doing the most no reason. But also, at my core, I am a musical theater kid and Dr. Will puts on a show, and that's why I love him. I'm obsessed with him because whatever he does is on a grand Broadway scale and I'm here for the insanity each and every day."

Still, Solomon had a solid plan on how he wanted to play. "I watched Season 1 and I was like, how do you do well here? And it seemed like you have two different avenues to do well in this game, and it was dominate challenges, but also make good relationships," he explains. "And I was like, if I can do one and or two of those things, I never have to play [the banker] and I won't go home. And so I think as viewers will see, the relationships that I made on the island are real. Although I was playing a game, my superpower is human connection."

While fans will have to wait to see how his Deal or No Deal Island journey pans out, don't count him out for future shows. "I would love to stay in a reality TV space," he tells MJ. "I think that I am really good at being a real person. I think that one of the amazing things that I've gotten to see in watching the show is I think every civilian is scared of watching themselves on TV and almost becoming someone else when you're like, 'Who is that? That's not me.' But even if you can tell from right now, what you see is me, that's me."

As for whether any of his former students are watching him on DONDI, Solomon assures, "Oh, they are reaching out every hour. They're watching it more than anyone else."

Deal or No Deal Island airs on NBC Tuesdays at 9/8c.