Meet the Alum Who Went from Pro Athlete to Reality Star

Sean Marshall ’07 is no stranger to performing for a crowd. The former co-captain of the Boston College basketball team played professionally for thirteen years across seven different countries, including Japan, the United Arab Emirates, and France. But last summer, it was someone else in his household that took a turn in the limelight. His wife, Brandi Marshall, starred on the Netflix reality series Selling the OC, a spinoff of the smash hit Selling Sunset. Both shows follow the flashy lives and careers of glamorous realtors at the luxury real estate firm The Oppenheim Group.

“My wife has always been there for me during my basketball career, taking pictures of me with fans and kind of standing back,” Marshall said. “Now, the roles are reversed. I’m the person holding the camera in the back, and I love it.” Because the eight-episode series regularly showcases the personal lives of the realtors, Marshall appears in a few episodes, though you might need a sharp eye to spot him. “There’s a bunch of scenes that didn’t make the cut,” he said. “I’m kind of like the background guy.” He said his family is still adapting to being reality stars, and that the newfound attention has been a mixed bag. When the show premiered last August, Marshall said, Brandi and her costars suddenly found themselves being subjected to hateful online comments, messages, and memes.

But the benefits of appearing on the show have been significant. Marshall and his wife have amassed tens of thousands of Instagram followers, signed social media sponsorship deals, and received abundant red carpet invitations. The show has also helped Brandi connect with new real estate clients. “It takes a lot of courage to knock on a stranger’s door who has a $12 million house and ask them to sell,” Marshall said. “But now when they open the door they’re like, ‘I know you from somewhere.’”

The Marshalls first met each other as kids growing up in Rialto, California, then began dating as adults while Sean was on the overseas professional basketball circuit. A small forward, he played for nine pro teams in all before retiring in 2020. His professional playing days may be over, but he’s still closely involved with the sport. He runs Pro’s Vision Training, a basketball skills development program that works with players age seven and up, which he cofounded with the NBA veteran Darren Collison. Marshall is particularly proud that a few recent Pro’s Vision alumni have been selected in the NBA draft, including the Orlando Magic’s Paolo Banchero and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Chet Holmgren. 

Marshall, who was also roommates at BC with the late Pete Frates ’07, continues to serve as general manager of the Team Challenge ALS basketball team, which competes annually in ESPN’s The Basketball Tournament. Marshall’s team hasn’t won the championship yet, but if it does, it plans to donate a portion of the $1 million prize to ALS research. Marshall said that the real goal of the team is to raise awareness of ALS in honor of Frates, who passed away from the disease three years ago at the age of thirty-four. “I promised Pete before he died that as long as I could do this, that I would have this team,” Marshall said. “I made that promise, so I’m going to stick with it.”