'Selling the OC' Star Kaylee Ricciardi Says She 'Stayed True to Herself' When Filming Season 4 of Netflix Show: 'I Am Who I Am'

Kaylee Ricciardi's path into reality TV happened "naturally."

The star, who is the newest person at The Oppenheim Group, was throwing events but decided to migrate over to real estate, as she felt like it was the right fit for her. Soon enough, she was asked to be a part of Season 4 of Selling the OC, which focuses on twin brothers Jason and Brett Oppenheim opening a real estate office in Orange County, Calif.

"I had seen a couple of episodes here and there, but when the opportunity presented itself, I was like, 'Why not? This sounds amazing.' I had an interview with the Selling Sunset team before COVID, and then obviously COVID happened, and filming was on pause. They reconnected with me and were like, 'Oh, we're back at this.' I'm ready to take my career to the next level," the Netflix personality exclusively tells OK!.

Kaylee didn't want to watch prior seasons, as she wanted to put her "best foot forward."

"I have a background in modeling and have done some acting — obviously this isn't acting, this is reality. It was quite different than anything I had experienced but somewhat familiar, if that makes sense. I was very excited to film and had such a fun time filming the show. However, it was a lot for me to handle at once because we filmed it during my busy season. I was scrambling to do all my Coachella stuff while filming, so I was working 12-16 hours a day, but I was running off adrenaline. It was fun and exciting, but it was a lot to balance all at once!" she shares.

"I had a few moments that you'll see as the season comes out, where I had another thing on my plate that made it even harder to focus and deal with everything," she continues. "But I think I did a pretty good job balancing everything. I gave myself a pat on the back because it was a difficult year — but in the best way."

Selling the OC, which premiered in 2022, includes a lot of fighting and heated moments, but Kaylee tried to "stay true to myself" throughout filming.

"I'm more of a neutral person, just in general. I don't really find myself in the heat of the drama, but sometimes it happens. I tried to be the voice of reason," she explains. "I had a personal conflict going on outside of the show that was taking up a lot of my mental space, so I had a hard time kind of focusing on the petty drama that was unfolding. I tried to mediate in a sense and bring everyone together and just be like, 'Why are we fighting about this stupid stuff?' I really tried to be as neutral as I could while obviously having a backbone. If I find something to be inappropriate, I'm going to speak up, but I just tried to have fun and make people laugh."

"Though my friends are fighting, I wanted to stay neutral and be like whatever happens, happens, but I am going to do my best to put my best foot forward and be the best person I can be," she adds. "If someone really crosses a line, I'll speak up, but I find all the petty drama a waste of time."

Though the editing process can be daunting, Kaylee tried to bring humor while filming. "I have had the same personality forever. I don't know how to be fake at all. I am who I am; take it or leave it, and I just hope that it's received well. I don't have a bad bone inside of me, so at times it was intimidating to watch other people argue," she says.

Despite the ups and the downs, the brunette babe is "grateful" for the opportunity to be part of the show. "I'm friends with Austin [Victoria]. I've known him for eight years, so he and his wife, Lisa, were already friends of mine, so I wasn't going into this not knowing anyone. I felt like it was a safe place. I really got along with everyone. I think everyone's really cool, and I'm excited to see where the journey continues. If we film for more seasons, I would love to be a part of this," she admits. "I'd love to keep it going."

Austin and Lisa told Kaylee to just "stay true to herself" while being in front of the camera. "Let your personality shine, don't be shy," she adds. "I think it was a blessing to have them around. It was nice knowing Austin had my back, but I honestly felt that everyone else was open to getting to know me. Everyone was welcoming and incredible, and having Austin made me feel a sense of safety, I suppose. I think it made me open up a little bit quicker too, because sometimes I can be a bit closed off, I'm told. It helped me bring down my barrier pretty quickly."

While she "clicked" immediately with Gio Helou and Tyler Stanaland, she didn't get to spend time with other people due to filming schedules or just different schedules in general. "We spent most of our time laughing and just being really silly," she says of bonding with her coworkers. "I tried to not go on the show with any bias. I wanted to know everyone for who they are. I feel like I genuinely got along with every single person. They're all great."

Additionally, she's "lucky" to have Jason and Brett in her life. "I've had boss figures that are more often than not quite intimidating, and I feel a bit scared to ask questions, but he's my mentor and friend, too. It's very easy to feel like he's my actual friend and my boss. He's juggling a million different things at once, and he gives me great advice. He's so smart," she raves.

Since Kaylee has been a "hustler forever," joining Selling the OC made perfect sense to her. "I am the director of Partnerships at PIZZASLIME, a company that throws Revolve Coachella parties together for Coachella and Stagecoach. We've done that for a few years now. I basically obtain huge company sponsorships, and we get to bridge the gap between people like Casamigos, Revolve, Converse and more. We all work together to create an incredible experience. Over the past 13 years, when you're doing luxury rentals, if it's 30 days or less, you don't need a license to do that type of real estate, so I was connecting the dots. I was like, 'If people are going to Coachella for four days and need a house, and I have $50,000, what can you get?' I had a friendship with all these different homeowners, so over the years that turned into something more and more. I had big clients like Coach or Clinique reach out to me. They said they needed a luxury house for an activation, like a gifting suite or daytime photo op event where all celebrities and influeners come and take photos. These big companies started to look for rentals and it snowballed from there," she explains.

From there, big companies started working with her, and she worked on the production end with PIZZASLIME. "I brought on companies that had budgets. I got the funding and help on the back end to help run the entire event behind the scenes to make sure things run smoothly and people aren't waiting at the door," she adds. "I'm a person of contact for celebrities to get in the door."

Now, she's looking forward to what the future holds.

"Having this opportunity to be on the show opened up doors for me. I love the opportunity to work with new people, new companies and new experiences," she concludes.