Abby Lee is a 29-year-old astrophysicist from Saint Paul, Minnesota, now competing on The Traitors: New Blood. Her day job involves studying stars to reconstruct how galaxies evolve and how fast the universe is expanding, work she conducts as a NASA Hubble Fellow and Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley.
That background gives her one of the more distinctive profiles in this season’s cast. Abby has described her science as drawing conclusions from limited evidence, and she’s said she wants to bring that same instinct into a Scottish castle full of hidden Traitors. It’s a compelling comparison, though not one that guarantees results.
Two episodes in, Abby remains in the game as a Faithful. Here’s what’s confirmed about her career, her strategy, and how her season has actually played out so far.
Who Is Abby Lee?
Abby Lee is a 29-year-old astrophysicist and a contestant on NBC’s The Traitors: New Blood. She’s a St. Paul, Minnesota native and a graduate of Central High School, now based at UC Berkeley, where she works as a postdoctoral researcher.
Her scientific name, used in academic and institutional records, is Abigail Lee. On the show and in entertainment coverage, she goes by Abby Lee.
How Old Is Abby Lee?
Abby is 29 years old, confirmed through pre-premiere local reporting and cast coverage. One aggregator listing has incorrectly cited her age as 23; that figure conflicts with more direct sourcing and shouldn’t be repeated. No exact date of birth is publicly documented, so none should be assumed.
What Does Abby Lee Do?
Abby is an astrophysicist, specifically a NASA Hubble Fellow and Miller Fellow conducting postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley’s Department of Astronomy. Her fellowship is funded through NASA’s Hubble Fellowship Program, but she isn’t a NASA civil-service employee. Her host institution is UC Berkeley, which is the most accurate way to describe her current professional home.
Her academic path includes a B.A. in Physics & Astronomy from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in Astronomy & Astrophysics from the University of Chicago. In scholarly contexts, she can accurately be called Dr. Abigail Lee.
Abby Lee’s Astrophysics Career Explained
Abby studies stars to help answer one of astronomy’s biggest open questions: how fast is the universe expanding? Her research focuses on asymptotic giant branch, or AGB, stars, a specific stage in a star’s life that scientists can use as a kind of cosmic ruler.
Using near-infrared data, including observations from the James Webb Space Telescope, Abby studies these stars in other galaxies to help reconstruct galaxy formation and evolution, and to measure distances to nearby galaxies. Those distance measurements feed into calculations of the local rate at which the universe is expanding.
Her doctoral research centered on the JAGB method, a precision technique for measuring that expansion rate using AGB stars as standard candles. In 2025, she received the International Astronomical Union’s Division J Ph.D. Prize for that thesis work.
A simple way to think about it: if galaxy evolution is a long, partially incomplete historical record, Abby’s work uses the observable properties of certain aging stars as evidence, similar to using surviving records to piece together how a city changed over centuries. She’s said she hopes to apply that same habit of drawing careful conclusions from incomplete information to spotting hidden Traitors in the game.
Abby Lee’s Background and Education
Abby’s academic path runs through two major institutions. She earned her undergraduate degree in Physics & Astronomy from the University of Pennsylvania between 2015 and 2019, followed by a Ph.D. in Astronomy & Astrophysics from the University of Chicago from 2019 to 2025.
Her research is documented through UC Berkeley’s Miller Institute and NASA’s Hubble Fellowship listings, both of which identify her ongoing work and at least one published paper on AGB stars and galaxy evolution. That level of institutional corroboration is unusually strong compared to most reality-show cast members.
Why Did Abby Lee Join The Traitors: New Blood?
Abby has said she’s a longtime fan of the show, describing it as a way to unwind from the pressures of academic research. She told her husband for years that she thought she’d be good at the game, but worried her colleagues might judge a reality-TV appearance.
A professor ultimately encouraged her to do something unexpected after a life she described as largely centered on school and science. She’s also said she wanted the exposure to help younger viewers, particularly girls and people of color, see a broader picture of what an astrophysicist can look like.
Abby Lee’s Strategy on The Traitors
Abby entered the game with an unusually specific plan. She said she wanted to use her research and analytical skills to identify Traitors “in a very systematic way,” treating the search for hidden players the way she treats incomplete scientific data.
She said she’d rather be a Faithful than a Traitor. Her early-game priority was building alliances, calling it her “number one goal” for the first three days, with a plan to shift toward more active investigation from day four onward.
For a role model, she pointed to Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones, describing him as influential from behind the scenes rather than the center of attention. That’s the position she said she wanted to occupy: not the most visible player, but someone quietly shaping relationships and gathering information.
She also said she was looking forward to setting traps, though she hasn’t publicly detailed what those traps would involve or who they’d target.
Abby Lee’s Biggest Strengths and Weaknesses in the Game
Abby’s own comments give a specific, sourced picture of what she expected to bring to the game, and where she thought she might struggle.
On the strengths side, she’s pointed to her research training and comfort working with incomplete information as her main assets, tools she believes translate into spotting inconsistencies in people’s stories. She’s also said she’s good at catching people in lies.
On the weaknesses side, she’s said she’s a poor liar herself, a notable admission for a social deduction game where deception often matters as much as detection. That contrast, someone who says she’s skilled at reading others but not at misleading them, is one of the more interesting tensions in her pre-season profile.
Is Abby Lee a Traitor or Faithful?
Abby is a Faithful. She was not selected as one of the season’s original Traitors, a distinction that went to Joe Vanella and Tomica Adams. Her status will be updated if that changes later in the season.
Abby Lee on The Traitors: New Blood
Spoilers through Episode 2 of The Traitors: New Blood follow.
Episode 1
Abby entered the castle with the full 22-person civilian cast and took part in the season’s opening mission, which banked $50,000 for the group. During that mission, she secured one of three available shields, alongside Victor Vollbrechthausen and Madeline Kostopulos. The shields protected the three of them from that night’s murder, though not from banishment at the Roundtable.
Notably, Abby’s approach to getting her shield was quiet rather than aggressive, a contrast to Victor’s more conspicuous pursuit of his.
Episode 2
Abby survived the season’s first murder and first Roundtable. Kim Daily was murdered, and Madeline Kostopulos, a Faithful, was banished. During the Roundtable conversation, lawyer Michael Foote raised the shield-holders’ pursuit of protection as an early talking point, but attention quickly shifted toward Victor’s aggressive shield grab and Kriste Lewis’s allegation about a comment Madeline made regarding Kim.
Abby wasn’t a focal point of that conflict. Her individual vote hasn’t been confirmed in available recaps, and no source documents her as a significant suspect through the first two episodes.
Abby Lee’s Strategy vs. Her Actual Gameplay
Abby’s plan and her actual gameplay show partial overlap so far, though it’s early to call her approach a success.
She said she wanted to build early alliances, but no specific alliance has been publicly confirmed yet. She said she wanted to work behind the scenes, and through two episodes she has avoided becoming a central target, which is at least consistent with that goal. She said she wanted to identify inconsistencies systematically, but no documented instance shows her flagging a specific lie or contradiction. And while she talked about setting traps, none has been reported.
What she has demonstrably done is secure a shield without drawing the kind of attention Victor did, and survive the game’s first vote. Whether her analytical approach translates into a real strategic edge is still an open question after just two episodes.
Abby Lee and the Other Contestants
No specific alliances, close allies, or named suspicions involving Abby have been reliably documented through Episode 2. The season’s early conflict centered on other contestants, including Victor Vollbrechthausen, Madeline Kostopulos, and Kriste Lewis, with lawyer Michael Foote playing a notable role in the Roundtable discussion.
Abby’s relative distance from that conflict is itself a piece of information, consistent with her stated goal of staying out of the spotlight, but it doesn’t yet establish a trust list or a suspect list of her own. This section will be updated as her relationships become clearer.
Abby Lee’s “Most Likely to Read the Castle Library” Personality
Abby’s self-declared cast superlative is “Most Likely to Actually Read One of the Books in the Castle Library.” It’s a lighthearted nod to her academic identity rather than a suggestion that she’s disengaged from the social game.
The label fits neatly with how she’s described herself: someone who processes the world through research and careful analysis, whether she’s studying distant galaxies or trying to read the people around her. It’s less a throwaway detail than a consistent thread in how she frames her own personality, on the show and in her science career alike.
Abby Lee’s Social Media
Abby’s clearest publicly identifiable account is on X, under the handle @abblesauce7. The bio on that account describes her as an astrophysics postdoc affiliated with NASA and has promoted her appearance on The Traitors.
It’s worth noting the nuance here: her fellowship is NASA-funded, but her actual academic appointment is at UC Berkeley. A bio line referencing NASA doesn’t mean she’s a NASA employee. No verified Instagram account has been confirmed for Abby, so none should be assumed based on name similarity alone.
Scientist vs. Social-Deduction Player
Abby’s profile invites an obvious comparison: she’s trained to extract meaning from limited information about the universe, and The Traitors asks her to do something similar with human behavior, treating conversations, votes, and inconsistencies as her data set.
It’s a framing Abby herself has invited, not a claim that astrophysics makes her inherently better at spotting liars. Her admission that she’s easily caught in lies herself, despite being good at catching others, complicates any simple story about scientists having a built-in advantage in social deduction games. So far, her gameplay has been steady rather than flashy, which may or may not be evidence that her approach is working.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Abby Lee? Abby Lee is 29 years old, based on pre-season reporting. Her exact date of birth hasn’t been publicly documented.
Where is Abby Lee from? She’s a native of Saint Paul, Minnesota, and a graduate of Central High School. She’s currently based at UC Berkeley for her research.
What does Abby Lee do for a living? She’s an astrophysicist, working as a NASA Hubble Fellow and Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley, where she studies stars to help measure the universe’s expansion rate.
Is Abby Lee an astrophysicist? Yes. She holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy & Astrophysics from the University of Chicago and conducts postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley.
Does Abby Lee work for NASA? Not directly. Her fellowship is funded through NASA’s Hubble Fellowship Program, but she’s hosted and employed at UC Berkeley, not NASA itself.
Is Abby Lee a Traitor or Faithful? Abby is a Faithful. She wasn’t selected as one of the season’s original Traitors.
Is Abby Lee still on The Traitors? Yes, she remains in the competition through Episode 2, having survived the first murder and Roundtable.
What is Abby Lee’s strategy on The Traitors? She planned to build early alliances, stay out of the spotlight, and use analytical thinking to systematically identify Traitors, an approach modeled loosely on Tyrion Lannister’s behind-the-scenes influence.
