Houston – If you’ve tuned in to watch “The Trust: A Game of Greed” on Netflix, you’ve probably seen local woman Winnie Ileso competing to win her share of $250,000. It’s a lot of dough, but when Ileso agreed to be part of this reality show, she had almost no information about what she was signing up for. “I didn’t know how many people, who it was, I didn’t know what I was doing literally until I walked down the cliff -- in my nice little pink pumps -- and Brooke (the host) told us what it was.”
Here’s the deal: 11 strangers travel to a cliffside villa in a tropical location where they are told they have already won an equal share of that quarter of a million bucks. As cast members get to know each other and build trust, they can also stab each other in the back by secretly voting each other out. That means each contestant’s payout gets bigger as fewer people end up splitting the pot of cash.
Unlike most reality shows, it just takes one vote for a person to go home. However, if an there’s an equal number of votes cast for two different contestants, then the votes are canceled out.
When challenges, alliances and secret vault sessions are introduced, many are faced with the difficult decision of whether they should share the money or attempt to steal more than their fair share. We won’t spoil what happened but Ileso, who is one of two local contestants from Houston, shared her strategy with Houston Life. “It’s a game at the end of the day and it’s like, you either choose for the game to get ahead of you and eat you up or you get in front of the game and I’m a natural athlete and competitor. I got in front of the game, okay? I wasn’t going to let it play me.”
Originally from Mansfield, Texas, Ileso is passionate about fashion and fitness. She works out multiple times per week to stay in top shape, and she’s even appeared on the runway at New York Fashion Week. As for what’s next, she tells Houston Life she plans to continue pursuing a career in fashion, focusing on highlighting black designers.
‘The Trust: A Game of Greed’ is streaming now on Netflix.