Jason and Brett Oppenheim have made a name for themselves in both real estate and reality TV.
They are best known for their roles on Netflix’s hit show Selling Sunset, which follows the agents at their Los Angeles-based brokerage, The Oppenheim Group. Over the years, they have amassed a fortune in their industry, reporting more than $3.5 billion in sales and $500 million in active listings. That said, when they were growing up, the siblings experienced financial struggles, and Jason described the pair as “incorrigible” as kids.
Before they became real estate brokers and reality stars, the identical twin brothers had careers in law. As reality stars, Jason and Brett have shown their personal and professional lives on Selling Sunset and the spinoff Selling the OC, which follows a group of real estate agents based in Orange County, California.
Jason and Brett have shared stories from their childhood and expressed their appreciation and love for each other — as both brothers and co-workers — in podcast interviews, TED Talks, social media posts and more.
“On our birthday, I’m reminded of how lucky I am to have a twin brother, best friend and someone who has never left my side,” Brett wrote in a 2021 Instagram post.
Here’s everything to know about the Oppenheim brothers, Jason and Brett.
Jason is the older twin
The brothers are identical twins, but Jason is a few minutes older than Brett. In an Instagram post celebrating their shared birthday in April 2021, Jason mentioned their age difference.
“Today I was born at 1:17pm, I made sure everything was cool, then Brett came into the world at 1:25pm, after I made sure everything was cool,” he wrote in the post’s caption. “Happy birthday, bro! You’re welcome.”
They were raised by a single mother in California
Jason and Brett grew up in Northern California, and they were primarily raised by their mother. In a 2021 TED Talk, Jason talked about how their parents divorced when they were young and said he and his brother were “incorrigible kids.”
“We lacked respect for authority, fought incessantly with our mom, her boyfriend when she had one and each other — a lot,” he said. “We were just frustrated, constantly getting into trouble at home, at school with our teachers.”
Jason continued, “We were two kids who felt like they had nothing to lose and we didn’t care much about anything.”
They were sent to a correctional camp at 13
In an effort to help her sons, Jason and Brett’s mom enrolled them in a correctional camp — but told them they were going to a basketball camp.
“We packed gym clothes and were excited about the trip, only to land in Idaho and be handcuffed and taken away to the desert,” Jason said in his 2021 TED Talk, later adding, “That started the worst month of my life. The camp was a living hell. We hiked through the desert eight to 10 hours a day.”
They moved in with their father when they were 16
The twins were expelled from several high schools before they went to live with their dad, a two-tour Vietnam veteran, who put them on a strict routine.
“Rather than a quick fix, my dad took a different approach,” Jason recalled in his TED Talk. “He threw away all of my baggy clothes, cut my hair, took away my jewelry, took away my cigarettes, and he would wake me up at 5 a.m. to work out with him in the garage.”
After the early morning exercise, Jason said his dad would dress him for school, drop him off and pick him up. The now-realtor then spent afternoons completing his homework at the community college where his dad worked.
They attended UC Berkeley
Jason and Brett went on to attend community college and worked in local restaurants as dishwashers, busboys and waiters. After three years, they both transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, and were the top two students in their graduating class.
In 2023, Jason shared that he and Brett return to speak at UC Berkeley every year.
“My brother and I really enjoy the opportunity each year to go back to our alma mater, UC Berkeley, and speak to the business school class,” he said in an Instagram Reel. “It’s exciting for us to see all the energetic students ready to take on the business world. I only hope we can impart some wisdom from our experiences. It certainly feels like a full circle when we took our favorite professor’s class many years ago and now we get to go back as guest speakers.”
Jason originally wanted to be a mechanic
Jason shared in his TED Talk that as a teenager, “All I cared about at the time was working on my vintage Camaro and perhaps becoming a car mechanic.”
He had other career aspirations in childhood, too. In a 2020 Instagram post, Jason shared photos of an autobiography he wrote at age 11.
“I apparently wanted to be a pro-bono lawyer and an Olympic volleyball player in my free time,” he captioned the post. “Throw in an athletic and beautiful wife, a large family and a dependable, fast car for good measure!”
They went to law school and became practicing lawyers
After graduating from UC Berkeley as undergraduates, Jason went to law school there and Brett attended law school at UCLA.
Following law school, Jason joined the Los Angeles office of the international law firm O’Melveny & Myers, according to his bio on The Oppenheim Group website. While there, he represented the former CEO of Enron Corporation in the highly publicized Enron trial.
“I have always been an analytical thinker and a career in law seemed like [a] logical progression; that’s what the law represents — intellectual argument, advocacy for your client and critical thinking,” Jason told Swagger magazine in a 2020 interview.
Meanwhile, Brett served as a securities litigation attorney at Skadden, Arps LLP (now Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP) and Latham & Watkins LLP, according to his bio on the Oppenheim Real Estate website.
They quit their jobs and traveled the world together
Jason and Brett left their law careers to travel the world on and off for three years. Brett quit first, and then Jason followed, and they each packed a 50-pound bag and traveled to 80 different countries.
“I was happy on paper, I wasn’t really happy like in the real world. Maybe a 6.5 on the happiness scale,” Jason told real estate agents Ben Belack and Zach Goldsmith on the podcast To Live and Buy in Los Angeles.
In December 2023, the brothers shared an Instagram post with 10 photos from their travels.
“Travel photos from when Brett and I quit our jobs as attorneys to travel the world for three years, visiting 80 countries and more than 200 cities!” Jason wrote in the caption.
They started The Oppenheim Group in 2013
When they returned, both Brett and Jason decided to go into real estate — and became the fifth generation in their family to do so. Their great-great-grandfather Jacob Stern was a prominent Los Angeles real estate mogul who founded The Stern Realty Co. in 1889, according to The Oppenheim Group website.
After a few years of real estate experience under their belts, the twins opened The Oppenheim Group together in 2013. At the time, they were working in a two-bedroom house with one intern, which Jason recounted to Jason Tartick on his podcast Trading Secrets.
In March 2019, the first season of Selling Sunset premiered with eight episodes.
Their romantic relationships have made headlines
Over the years, the brothers’ relationships have been chronicled on Selling Sunset.
Jason has dated three agents from The Oppenheim Group: Nicole Young, Mary Fitzgerald and Chrishell Stause. During his relationship with Fitzgerald, the couple adopted dogs Zelda and Niko, and Fitzgerald has called Jason “one of my longest and best friends.”
His 2021 relationship with Stause was a main storyline on the fifth season of Selling Sunset, but the pair ended things after citing “different wants regarding a family.” Jason later dated Marie-Lou Nurk for less than a year.
Brett was previously in a relationship with model Tina Louise, but they broke up in 2021. In 2022, he stepped out with girlfriend Samantha Abdul amid reports that “at the moment they want to take things slow and see where it takes them.”
Source: People
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