Spencer Pratt's evolution from reality star to LA mayoral candidate
Pratt will face voters for the first time in June.
Spencer Pratt was a westside Los Angeles teenager before he ascended to reality television fame in the early 2000s on "The Hills."
While pivoting to music briefly, Pratt continued his reality TV run on shows such as "Big Brother," "Marriage Boot Camp" and "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!"
In his second act, he spent adulthood pursuing a degree from University of Southern California, becoming a dedicated hummingbird enthusiast and caretaker, marrying popstar Heidi Montag and becoming a father.
For his next chapter, Pratt, now 42 and years removed from reality stardom, hopes to run his hometown, as mayor of the second largest city in America.
Pratt, a registered Republican who is running as an independent, is drawing attention in the race -- including from President Donald Trump -- as he attempts to steer his campaign over the finish line.
'Total menace': The chaotic origins of Spencer Pratt
When Pratt declared his run for mayor of Los Angeles in January, he described the city as "fundamentally broken" and said he was running to be the person to "take real action."
"Business as usual is a death sentence for Los Angeles, and I'm done waiting for someone to take real action. That's why I am running for mayor," he said at a Los Angeles rally.
One might be forgiven for not immediately recognizing the man standing on the stage in January as the same Pratt from "The Hills," the hit reality television series that ran from 2006 to 2010, and followed an oftentimes antagonistic Pratt as one member of a group of friends including his then-girlfriend and now wife Montag, Lauren Conrad, Audrina Patridge and more.
"From day one, [Pratt] was a complete and total menace. He was there to cause disruption, and disruption he caused," ABC News entertainment contributor Kelley Carter said of his role on the show. "He was a villain, for all intents and purposes."
Pratt's lasting legacy on the show was his role of influencing the breakup of a "best friendship" between Conrad and Montag, according to Carter. Much of Pratt's public life to this point has been tied to Montag, a fellow reality star and singer who has released two studio albums, and whom he married nearly 20 years ago.
Pratt followed Montag's lead in the mid 2000's releasing music of his own including a song titled "I'm a Celebrity." While pursuing his music career, Pratt famously once referred to himself as "The White Jay-Z".
Since the end of "The Hills" 16 years ago, Pratt has lived a quieter life, pursuing a political science degree from the University of Southern California. He's also raised two kids, Gunner, born in 2017 and Ryker, born in 2022, whom he references frequently on the campaign trail.
In his spare time, Pratt's become a hummingbird hobbyist, telling Audubon magazine in 2018 that one bird, Tiki, was "one of the best friends I have, factoring in humans."
Pratt’s 'crusade' for change in wake of LA fires
Pratt's mayoral run has been intrinsically tied to the devastating Los Angeles wildfires of early 2025 which destroyed more than 10,000 structures, including Pratt's home, in the Pacific Palisades.
In the immediate aftermath of the fires, Pratt took to social media to document his family's loss of their home and all their belongings. He and Montag encouraged their social media followers to download and stream Montag’s music as a way to financially support them, catapulting Montag’s 2010 album "Superficial" to No. 1 on the iTunes charts for a period of time.
Pratt documented the extreme loss he and his family faced in social media posts in the aftermath of the fires. "I'm in shock," he said in one of several posts at the time.
Carter pointed to the many social media videos that Pratt posted while the fires were ravaging LA homes, saying this generated empathy -- though Carter says some may have been "cautiously empathetic" due to their prior knowledge of Pratt's behavior on "The Hills."
"I think the empathy was effective because he seems to be a candidate for LA mayor that people are talking about," Carter said.
The former reality star announced his run for mayor on Jan. 7, exactly one year after the fires claimed his home, at the "They Let Us Burn" rally, where he criticized state and local leadership for what he said was a mishandling of the fire threat leading up to the fires.
In March, Pratt, who declined to comment for this story, told ABC News that he is "one trillion percent" on a "crusade" for change in the wake of the fires, something that appears to have resonated with supporters.
Using the Los Angeles fires as a focal point, Pratt has unveiled a series of deeply personal campaign videos portraying the fires' effect on himself and his family.
Pratt has also re-posted a series of videos, made by supporters of his campaign, that seemingly portray Los Angeles as a dystopian post-disaster city run by elites, including his main opponents in the mayoral race, current mayor Karen Bass and current council member Nithya Raman.
His campaign has also attracted controversy at times.
Pratt claimed in a campaign video released in April to be living in a trailer after his house burned down, but according to a report from TMZ published in May, Pratt has been staying at the Hotel Bel-Air for over a month while he campaigns.
Pratt told the outlet, "I have never told anyone I lived there" and responded to the report on X writing, "Why don’t they wanna talk about why I need a hotel in the first place?"
Within one week of the report, Pratt released a campaign ad on YouTube showing an Airstream trailer cruising through Los Angeles as he sings a spoof of the theme song from the '90s hit television sitcom, "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air."
‘As crazy as this sounds, I am the adult in the room’
In his advertisements and public comment, Pratt paints himself as a common man voice of reason, a messaging pattern seen most acutely during the most recent mayoral debate between the three front runners.
"I have common sense and I'm humble," Pratt said during the debate earlier this month. "As crazy as this will sound, I'm the adult in the room here as Spencer Pratt."
A registered Republican running an Independent campaign, Pratt is focused on painting his opponents as responsible for a downturn on everyday issues that concern Los Angeles voters.
Pratt is running as a clear outsider in the field of more than 10 candidates, which include two front runners, alongside Pratt: Bass, the incumbent who has held public office for over two decades including a stint in Congress, and Raman, a current city councilwomen elected in 2020. Among the crowded field, only Bass, Raman and Pratt qualified for a televised debate held on May 6.
If no candidate receives over 50% of the vote in the June 2 primary, the top two candidates will advance to the general election in November.
Whoever takes on the role of mayor will have to tackle the issues looming large in voters' minds. The wildfires devastated Los Angeles, wiping out landmarks, residences and businesses across the city, and Angelenos have voiced frustration with the city's preparedness and response.
Along with fire response, the next mayor will also have to contend with issues important to Los Angeles voters like homelessness, affordable housing and crime.
In a recent interview with CNN, Bass defended her record and highlighted Pratt's lack of prior experience saying "he has a degree in political science, but he does not have a background or knowledge in how our government works."
Raman recently contrasted herself with Pratt, while acknowledging there would likely be room for only one of the two in a runoff with Bass come November.
"That race for the second spot comes down to me, who has a progressive vision for an affordable Los Angeles, or a MAGA Republican who's a conspiracy theorist who has never held public office and has never shared any plans for how he's actually going to implement the change that he talks about," she said in a recent CBS News interview.
Civic engagement and political expert Ashley Spillane told ABC News by email that Pratt's celebrity may help him combat perceptions traditional politicians may face
"Spencer Pratt's cultural references make him more relatable to a group of voters who feel politicians are out of touch," she said.
Spillane explained how celebrities can communicate in a manner and venue that may feel more organic to audiences.
"They exist in spaces where many Americans already spend their time and attention. That gives them the ability to introduce civic participation into conversations that don't feel overtly political," she said, adding other candidates running for office "have to build those networks from scratch through party infrastructure and paid media."
Despite videos in support of Pratt's campaign now depicting him as a superhero, Carter points out that his reality TV "villain" arc may still be fresh in voters' minds.
"I don't know that he's scrubbing the reality TV villain part of who he is," Carter said, adding that Pratt was perceived as a villain both on and off the screen. "But I think that he is centering himself in a conversation that people are willing to have about his viability to be a candidate for political office."
For his part, Pratt maintains that he's not thinking about his public persona.
"I don't care about my image. I am doing this because I truly feel the only way to get the change that we need in LA is to get rid of these people that are in power. It's that simple," Pratt told ABC News in March.
Kristin Cavallari, who co-starred with Pratt on "The Hills" recently responded positively when asked her thoughts on her former co-star's campaign.
"I was shocked obviously, I think, at first like everybody else, but if you actually listen to him, he knows his stuff," she said on an episode of "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen." "These people lost their homes. They lost everything. And so, people are fired up. And I have empathy for that."
Cavallari isn't the only nationally known celebrity backing the candidate publicly. Fellow reality TV star Paris Hilton has shown her support for Pratt on social media, and he has received public words of support from comedian Adam Carolla and podcaster Joe Rogan.
ABC News reached out to "The Hills" co-stars Audrina Patridge, Lauren Conrad, Kristin Cavallari for comment on Pratt's run.
Can Pratt pull off the unexpected?
Los Angeles has not elected a Republican mayor since 1997, when businessman Richard Riordan won a second term.
Celebrity influence has broken partisan trends in the past, as demonstrated by former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's transition from movie star to a two-term Republican governor in a blue state.
The reality star to elected office model has a familiar ring to it thanks to President Donald Trump, who famously parlayed a reality role on "The Apprentice" into the highest office in the land.
"Oh, I'd like to see him do well. He's a character," Trump told reporters on May 20, when asked about Pratt. "I heard he's a big MAGA person." (When Raman reposted the clip on X, Pratt responded with a gif reaction that appears to show him feigning shock).
As Pratt turns the corner on the final stretch of the campaign, ahead of the June 2 election, voters will make the final judgment on who Pratt is in the year 2026. Is he the reality 'villain' first introduced to our screens nearly two decades ago, a hummingbird enthusiast, a victim of the LA wildfires or the next mayor of Los Angeles?
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