Colton Underwood

Colton Scott Brown-Underwood (né Underwood; born January 26, 1992) is an American reality television personality and former professional football player.

Scott and Colton both attended Washington Community High School; Colton graduated in 2010.

Colton has a younger brother named Connor.

He was raised as Catholic.

Colton Underwood graduated from Illinois State University, where he followed his father's footsteps to play college football for the Redbirds.

He played defensive end at Illinois State and was signed by the San Diego Chargers as an undrafted free agent in 2014, and was on the practice squads of the Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles.

After being released by the Raiders, Underwood became a contestant on the 14th season of The Bachelorette, and was then announced as the lead of the 23rd season of The Bachelor.

He is the first lead in Bachelor franchise history to come out as gay.

Underwood was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Scott and Donna Underwood.

Both of his parents were star athletes at Illinois State University: Scott played college football for the Illinois State Redbirds and Donna played volleyball.

On May 10, 2014, Underwood was signed as an undrafted free agent by the San Diego Chargers.

On August 30, 2014, he was waived.

On September 3, 2014, Underwood was signed to the Philadelphia Eagles' practice squad.

On September 9, 2014, he was released from practice squad.

On September 23, 2014, Underwood returned to the Chargers and was signed to their practice squad.

On December 29, 2014, he signed a future contract.

Underwood was a contestant on the 14th season of The Bachelorette, starring Becca Kufrin.

After getting eliminated in week 8 after hometown dates, Underwood was cast in season 5 of Bachelor in Paradise.

After being linked to fellow contestant Tia Booth, Underwood broke up with her, and both left Paradise separately in the fourth week.

On September 5, 2015, he was waived.

On September 6, 2015, he was placed on injured reserve.

On September 10, 2015, he was waived from injured reserve.

On December 1, 2015, Underwood was signed to the Oakland Raiders' practice squad.

On August 29, 2016, he was released by the Raiders.

In January 2016, Underwood founded the Colton Underwood Legacy Foundation to raise money for cystic fibrosis research and medical equipment.

Underwood started the foundation after his cousin Harper was diagnosed with the disease.

From 2016 to 2017, Underwood dated gymnast Aly Raisman after he asked her out in a video.

Underwood has spoken publicly about his choice to remain a virgin, and how appearing on The Bachelorette helped him discuss the topic.

He began dating speech pathology student Cassie Randolph after meeting her on season 23 of The Bachelor.

When Randolph initially ended their relationship during the final three, Underwood broke up with the other two women and asked Randolph for a second chance without the pressure of an engagement.

On September 4, 2018, ABC announced that Underwood would star in the 23rd season of The Bachelor.

The announcement received mixed reactions on social media.

On September 21, 2018, ABC announced that Colton had started filming The Bachelor and had already met three of his contestants on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

On April 14, 2021, Variety reported that Underwood was in production for his own unscripted series at Netflix.

The six-episode series produced by Jeff Jenkins, Coming Out Colton, premiered on Netflix on December 3, 2021.

In the series, he meets with other openly gay public figures, including Gus Kenworthy, Michael Sam, and CMT host Cody Alan.

The series premiered to major criticism with Esquire describing the series as "calculated" and Variety's Daniel D.'Addario saying "'Coming Out Colton' is a distasteful extension of a brand that doesn’t mean much to begin with."

In January 2018, the foundation began the Legacy Project, with the goal of delivering AffloVests, chest wall oscillation devices which clear excess mucus from lung airways as part of the daily treatment for cystic fibrosis, to children in 50 US states.

Underwood and Randolph were in a relationship from November 2018 until May 2020.

In March 2020, Underwood tested positive for COVID-19, though he recovered in April.