Arisa Thomas is a Los Angeles dog groomer and pet-content creator, and one of 22 civilian contestants on NBC’s The Traitors: New Blood. She entered the season as a Faithful and became one of the early casualties of the game, banished 13-5-1 at the Round Table in Episode 4 (the Round Table began at the end of Episode 3).
Thomas built her pre-season game around a deliberate contrast: friends described her as “friendly, cute, bubbly,” while she said she wanted to use that approachable image as cover for a more mischievous and strategic side. She later described the idea as being seen as a “Golden Retriever” while actually being a “naughty Chihuahua.”
Her run ended when other contestants incorrectly connected a hand-holding interaction between Thomas and Victor Vollbrechthausen to a fabricated Traitor ritual. She was banished 13-5-1 (Arisa 13, Victor 5, Michael 1; 19 voters) after being suspected of secretly pocketing a shield during a mission. As she was banished, she was revealed as a Faithful.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Arisa Thomas |
| Age | 36, per official Traitors cast material |
| Hometown | Los Angeles, California (professional base and cast-listed hometown; birthplace not confirmed) |
| Current location | Los Angeles |
| Profession | Professional dog groomer and content creator |
| Traitors role / status | Faithful; banished at the Episode 4 Round Table (13-5-1) |
Who Is Arisa Thomas?
Public information about Thomas’s early life, education and exact upbringing is limited. Los Angeles is both her professional base and her official hometown for The Traitors: New Blood, though it hasn’t been independently confirmed as her birthplace. Public sources do not document her schooling or how she specifically entered dog grooming as a career, so those details are left out here pending further reporting.
Arisa Thomas’ Career as a Dog Groomer
Thomas is officially billed as a dog groomer. One source identifies her as working alongside her mother, Yuri Thomas, who reportedly founded the family grooming business, Blue Pooch Grooming, in Los Angeles in 2013, with an older sister, Aya, said to manage the store; that detail comes from a single source and hasn’t been independently corroborated, so it’s presented here with that caveat. The business is described as specializing in teddy-bear cuts, breed-specific styling and Asian-fusion grooming techniques.
Thomas maintains a grooming-focused social media presence under the handle @arisathegroomer across Instagram, TikTok and X, posting transformations, breed-specific tips and pet-care content; her TikTok reportedly had roughly 295,000 followers as of a recent snapshot, a figure that will change over time. In one 2020 post, she said a grooming event she took part in raised $1,000 for Los Angeles dog-rescue organizations. In another notable post, she groomed a Chihuahua named Pie and pushed back on the idea that Chihuahuas are all “feisty finger biters,” arguing they can be sweethearts too, a nice window into her public voice, though it isn’t evidence of anything about her Traitors strategy specifically.
Public sources do not confirm a formal grooming-school program, specific certifications, professional-association membership, or whether she holds any ownership stake in the family business, so none of that is claimed here.
The “Friendly, Cute, Bubbly” Arisa
Thomas has described how her friends see her: as “friendly, cute, bubbly.” She has framed that reputation as something she plans to use deliberately in the game, expecting other contestants to read her as harmless and non-threatening. Her self-declared cast superlative is “Most Likely to Overpack,” a lighter personal detail alongside the more strategic persona she’s built around her public image.
A Friendly Front With a Mischievous Side
Thomas has said she wants to show that “the good girls can be naughty as well,” describing a game persona built around being warm and approachable on the surface while remaining more calculating underneath.
In the premiere, she explained the contrast more directly: “People see me as a Golden Retriever but really, I’m a naughty Chihuahua.” The comparison captured her plan to let other contestants see her as friendly and harmless while she tried to play a more mischievous and strategic game.
That strategy was clear before the season began, but her actual run ended in Episode 4 after other contestants incorrectly interpreted her interaction with Victor Vollbrechthausen as evidence connected to the Accomplice twist.
Arisa Thomas on The Traitors: New Blood
Thomas entered The Traitors: New Blood as a Faithful, despite saying before the season that she would have preferred to play as a Traitor. Her pre-season strategy centered on making friends, building trust and using her friendly image to avoid becoming an obvious target.
Episodes 1–2
Arisa began the season as a Faithful and survived the opening murder and first Roundtable. Joe Vanella and Tomica Adams were the original Traitors, while Katie Fites was later recruited as the season’s third Traitor.
During the opening episodes, Thomas’s “Golden Retriever” versus “naughty Chihuahua” persona became part of how she approached the game. She wanted other contestants to see her as friendly and harmless while keeping a more strategic side underneath that image.
Episode 3
Episode 3 set up Arisa’s downfall: an incorrect theory took hold at the Round Table, which began at the end of the episode and cut off on a cliffhanger before the vote was revealed.
Niyyah Hayes pointed to a previous moment in which Arisa and Victor Vollbrechthausen held hands while attempting a body-language lie-detector exercise. After the group received a clue stating that two players had competed in plain sight to become a Traitor, several contestants connected that clue to the earlier interaction between Arisa and Victor.
The theory was wrong. Arisa was a Faithful, but when the Round Table concluded in Episode 4, the group voted to banish her 13-5-1 (Arisa 13, Victor 5, Michael 1; 19 voters).
The real Accomplices were Katie Fites and Xavier Scruggs, with Katie ultimately becoming the season’s third Traitor. Arisa and Victor were not part of that recruitment process.
Episode 4
Episode 4 picked up the Round Table where Episode 3 had left off and revealed the vote: Arisa was banished 13-5-1 (Arisa 13, Victor 5, Michael 1; 19 voters) and revealed as a Faithful. Her elimination, the Faithfuls’ second straight wrongful banishment, remains the defining event of her season.
Her exit also demonstrates one of the central risks of the Faithful role: a contestant can be eliminated based on a theory that appears to connect multiple pieces of evidence even when the underlying interpretation is incorrect.
Arisa was banished with 13 of 19 votes, the fourth player eliminated. The clue Michael Foote and Ben McDonnell received during the mission read ‘Last night, two players battled in plain sight to become a Traitor,’ referring to Accomplices Xavier Scruggs and Katie Fites. Once word spread, the group read Arisa’s hand-holding truth test with Victor as a Traitor induction ceremony. Abby Lee also insisted she saw Arisa take a Shield during the mission, a claim that added to the suspicion. Before the Round Table, Arisa offered to let the group pat her down to prove she had no Shield. Abby Lee took her up on it, a moment that did not make the broadcast. Asked to assign each Traitor a dog breed, Arisa picked a Bernese Mountain Dog for Joe, a standard poodle for Tomica and a Chihuahua for Katie. Her first suspicion had been Joe, based on his facial reactions, and she also suspected Michael and Katie before she left.
Why Was Arisa Thomas Banished?
Arisa was banished 13-5-1 because several Faithful contestants incorrectly connected her interaction with Victor Vollbrechthausen to a clue about two players competing to become a Traitor in plain sight.
Niyyah Hayes highlighted the hand-holding moment between Arisa and Victor during a body-language exercise. The group interpreted that interaction as potentially connected to the Accomplice twist, but that interpretation was incorrect.
Arisa was a Faithful, making her Episode 4 elimination an erroneous banishment rather than a successful Traitor identification.
Did Arisa Thomas’s Friendly Persona Help Her in the Game?
Thomas’s friendly and approachable image was a clearly stated part of her pre-season strategy. She expected other contestants to underestimate her and wanted to use that perception as a form of cover.
However, her actual game ended before there was enough evidence to determine whether the strategy could have worked over a longer run. She was not documented as leading a major voting bloc, correctly identifying a Traitor or successfully using her dog-grooming background to read another contestant.
Instead, her elimination came after the Faithful group developed an incorrect theory around her interaction with Victor Vollbrechthausen. Her run therefore provides a clearer example of the risk of mistaken Faithful theories than proof that her pre-season strategy succeeded or failed.
Personal Life
Public sources document Thomas’s mother and sister in connection with the family grooming business, but do not reliably confirm her marital status, a partner, or children, so none of that is stated here.
Where Arisa Thomas Stands Now
Arisa Thomas’s The Traitors: New Blood run ended in Episode 4, when the Round Table that began at the end of Episode 3 concluded and the Faithful banished her 13-5-1 (Arisa 13, Victor 5, Michael 1; 19 voters) after a false theory connected her and Victor Vollbrechthausen’s hand-holding exercise to the season’s Accomplice twist.
Arisa was not a Traitor. Her elimination came from an incorrect interpretation of the evidence rather than a successful identification of a Traitor. She was banished in Episode 4 and does not return as an active contestant in Episode 5.
Her short run remains notable for the contrast between her planned “friendly” persona and the way the Faithful ultimately interpreted one of her interactions.
Arisa Thomas’ Journey
Arisa Thomas entered the castle as a Faithful alongside her train-mates Wyatt Gillespie, Madeline Kostopulos, and Victor Vollbrechthausen. After Victor drew heat at the first Round Table, Arisa tried a playful ‘truth test’ in the crypt on night two, holding Victor’s hands, looking into his eyes, and asking if he was a Traitor. The moment turned fatal for her game when Michael Foote and Ben McDonnell surfaced a mission clue reading ‘Last night, two players battled in plain sight to become a Traitor.’ Niyyah Hayes connected the clue to the handholding and theorized it was a Traitor recruitment ceremony, even though the clue actually described Accomplices Xavier Scruggs and Katie Fites competing for the third Traitor spot. Abby Lee then insisted she had seen Arisa pocket a Shield in the mission, a claim Arisa denied (Arisa said she only put a gold string in her pocket). At the Round Table that began at the end of Episode 3 and concluded in Episode 4, Arisa was banished 13-5-1 and revealed as a Faithful.
| Episode | What happened |
| 1 | Entered as a Faithful with the train group (Wyatt, Madeline, Victor). |
| 2 | Voted for Madeline at the first Round Table as the votes piled on; performed the handholding “truth test” with Victor in the crypt on night two. |
| 3 | The mission clue (“two players battled in plain sight”) surfaced; Niyyah tied it to the handholding; Abby’s Shield claim spread; Round Table began on a cliffhanger. |
| 4 | Banished 13-5-1 when the Round Table concluded; revealed as a Faithful. |
Arisa gave her exit interview to Entertainment Weekly after her banishment from The Traitors: New Blood. On the handholding moment that doomed her game, she said: “Yeah, that heat was on me bad… I didn’t think the nail in the coffin would’ve been the handholding thing, because that really was just me being me.” She added: “Yeah, I think definitely it was the clue that got me out, essentially.”
She also questioned the logic of the case against her: why would a Traitor recruit Victor publicly when he already had heavy heat, and if the group believed the recruitment theory, why not vote Victor out too. On Abby Lee’s claim that she pocketed a Shield, Arisa said: “I do believe that Abby really did believe she saw what she saw, just like how Kriste said she heard what she heard. But I think it just goes to prove what you think you see or hear in the game is never right.”
Arisa also revealed that she suspected Michael Foote: “he is a lawyer… he commanded the Roundtable… I was like, ‘Whoa, why wasn’t Michael murdered?’” She said Madeline Kostopulos was “one of my really good girlfriends now,” and admitted she voted for Madeline at the first Round Table because the votes were going that way and she wanted to protect her position with Wyatt Gillespie and Victor Vollbrechthausen.
Her banishment had immediate consequences for the game: the Faithfuls’ second straight wrongful banishment strengthened the three-person turret; Logan Smith knowingly voted Arisa out despite believing she was a Faithful; and the Katie suspicion survived Arisa’s exit, exploding at the Episode 4 Round Table cliffhanger with Jay Vinnedge declaring, “I believe Miss Katie is a traitor.” Morgan Cook was one of only five voters who backed Victor Vollbrechthausen instead of Arisa, per the Episode 4 voting record on the season’s cast page.
FAQs
Who is Arisa Thomas?
Arisa Thomas is a 36-year-old Los Angeles dog groomer and content creator who competed on The Traitors: New Blood.
What does Arisa Thomas do for a living?
She works as a professional dog groomer and creates pet-grooming content online.
Is Arisa Thomas a dog groomer?
Yes. Dog grooming is her officially listed occupation on The Traitors: New Blood cast materials.
Where is Arisa Thomas from?
Arisa Thomas is from Los Angeles, California, which is also her professional base and listed hometown for The Traitors: New Blood.
How old is Arisa Thomas?
Arisa Thomas is 36 years old, according to official Traitors cast material.
What does Arisa Thomas mean by the “naughty Chihuahua” strategy?
Arisa described her game persona by saying people see her as a “Golden Retriever,” while she sees herself as a “naughty Chihuahua.” She wanted contestants to view her as friendly and harmless while she played a more mischievous and strategic game.
Is Arisa Thomas a Traitor or Faithful?
Arisa Thomas was a Faithful. She was not one of the original Traitors and was not recruited as the season’s third Traitor. Katie Fites ultimately became the third Traitor.
Is Arisa Thomas still on The Traitors: New Blood?
No. Arisa Thomas was banished at the Episode 4 Round Table, 13-5-1 (Arisa 13, Victor 5, Michael 1; 19 voters), after other contestants incorrectly connected her interaction with Victor Vollbrechthausen to the season’s Accomplice clue.
Why was Arisa Thomas banished?
Arisa was banished 13-5-1 after contestants developed a theory that her hand-holding interaction with Victor Vollbrechthausen was connected to a Traitor recruitment ritual. The theory was incorrect, and Arisa was actually a Faithful.
What happened to Arisa Thomas on The Traitors?
Arisa Thomas was banished in Episode 4 after the Faithful incorrectly connected her interaction with Victor Vollbrechthausen to a clue about two players competing to become a Traitor in plain sight. She was a Faithful when she was eliminated.
