Tomica Adams is a United Airlines captain and one of 22 civilian contestants on NBC’s The Traitors: New Blood. She has spent nearly three decades in commercial aviation, flying Boeing 737s, 757s, 767s and 777s, and now brings that same career, built on managing people and pressure at the same time, into a very different kind of high-stakes environment.
At 54, Adams is very likely the second-oldest contestant in the published New Blood cast, behind 65-year-old Sherry Kuehl. She’s framed her approach to the game less around detecting lies and more around what her cockpit experience has taught her about managing people, opinions and emotions under pressure, along with a self-described “mama role” she expects to settle into among the group.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Tomica Adams (public/cast name); some professional sources give a fuller name, noted with caution below |
| Age | 54, per official Traitors cast material |
| Hometown | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Current public location | Raleigh, North Carolina |
| Profession | Commercial airline captain, United Airlines |
| Pilot background | Central Washington University Flight Technology program, graduated 1996; flight instructor, demonstration pilot, Continental Airlines, now United Airlines captain |
| Aircraft flown | Boeing 737, 757, 767, 777 |
| Other role | Vice chair, Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals board of directors |
| Traitors status | Traitor (original Traitor, selected in Episode 1). |
| Status | Banished, Episode 8 |
Who Is Tomica Adams?
Adams was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, which she also lists as her hometown for The Traitors: New Blood. According to her Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals biography, she became interested in flying as a child during family trips between Boston and Wilmington, North Carolina, watching pilots find the runway and land smoothly and wondering how they did it.
Her mother later relocated to the Pacific Northwest, and Adams moved there as well. She initially pursued engineering, studying at Purdue University’s School of Engineering, before her growing interest in aviation overtook that path. She went on to graduate from Central Washington University’s Flight Technology program in 1996. Some sources also describe her as a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, though that detail is single-sourced.
Tomica Adams’ Career as a Pilot
After graduating in 1996, Adams spent three years building flight hours as a flight instructor. She then worked as a demonstration pilot for Raytheon Aircraft Company, flying the company’s civilian Beechcraft aircraft. One account adds a subsequent stint with Flight Options, type-rated in the Beechjet 400A, though that detail hasn’t been independently confirmed.
She joined Continental Airlines, reportedly around 2006, and continued with the airline through its merger into United, where she now holds the rank of captain. Over her career she has flown the Boeing 737, 757, 767 and 777. Beyond flying, she works to support pilot recruitment and hiring for United, and serves as vice chair of the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals’ board of directors.
Adams is also publicly known as one of a small number of Black women airline pilots in the United States. A 2022 ABC11 report described her as one of fewer than 150 professional Black female pilots in the country at that time, a figure specific to that report rather than a current count. The same profile described her discussing the reactions she gets from passengers who are surprised to learn she’s the pilot, including assumptions some make about women and Black professionals in aviation.
She posts about her pilot career on Instagram as @ladyofthesky.
What Flying Taught Tomica About Pressure
Adams has described her job in direct terms: “I know how to work with people. My job helps me work better with people and manage people and their opinions, their feelings, everything,” according to Entertainment Weekly’s cast material, as reproduced by Boston-area reporting.
That’s a meaningful claim coming from an airline captain specifically. Commercial pilots are responsible for coordinating a flight crew, managing passenger concerns, communicating clearly under time pressure, and making consequential decisions with incomplete information, all skills that plausibly translate to navigating a group of unfamiliar personalities under stress. Jay Vinnedge, another contestant whose military and medical career involved high-stakes decisions under pressure, offers a similar profession-to-game bridge, though each is drawing on a different kind of professional pressure.
That said, managing a cockpit and crew is not the same skill as detecting deception among strangers playing a social game, and this connection should be read as editorial analysis rather than something Adams has explicitly claimed herself.
Tomica’s “Mama Role” on The Traitors
Adams has described herself as a “September baby” and said she wants control, and expects to settle into something like a “mama role” among the other contestants. The exact original interview establishing that phrasing hasn’t been independently located for this profile, so it’s presented here as her general self-characterization rather than a verified direct quote.
That framing suggests she sees herself as an organizing, stabilizing presence in the house, though whether that becomes a genuine position of trust or simply makes her a more visible presence is something only the episodes themselves can confirm.
Tomica Adams on The Traitors: New Blood
Adams is one of 22 civilian contestants on The Traitors: New Blood, part of a season NBC and Peacock have said drew more than 80,000 applicants overall. Available pre-season material doesn’t detail whether she applied or was recruited, or establish a stated preference for playing as a Faithful or a Traitor.
Her self-declared cast superlative is “Most Likely to Cry When Laughing.” In the September 17 premiere, host Alan Cumming selected her as one of the season’s two original Traitors, alongside funeral director Joe Vanella (Patriot Ledger). For a full breakdown of how the Traitor and Faithful format works, see The Traitors Explained. For the full cast list, see The Traitors: New Blood Cast, and once the season airs, results will be tracked on The Traitors: New Blood Episodes.
Tomica Adams’ Age and Experience
Adams is 54, according to official Traitors cast material. At that age, she is very likely the second-oldest contestant in the published New Blood cast, behind 65-year-old Sherry Kuehl, though that comparison is specific to this season’s published ages, not a claim about the franchise’s full history.
Beyond the number itself, Adams brings nearly three decades of professional experience into a cast of mostly younger contestants, life experience she’s connected to her stated desire for control and her expectation of taking on a caretaking role in the house.
Personal Life
Adams has publicly identified as a mother; a 2022 ABC11 profile described her son, Langston, as 12 years old at the time. Public sources do not confirm her marital status, a partner, or other family details, so none of that is stated here.
Where Tomica Adams Stands Now
Adams built a nearly three-decade aviation career, from flight instructor to demonstration pilot to United Airlines captain, and has used that platform to advocate for greater representation among Black women in commercial flying. The Traitors: New Blood puts the same composure and people-management skills she’s built in the cockpit into an entirely different kind of pressure test. Adams did not stay neutral for long. In episode 3, she and Joe Vanella recruited marketing manager Katie Fites as their third Traitor, murdering Xavier Scruggs after he raised their suspicions by floating Fites’s name (Decider). The trio then murdered Logan Smith in episode 4, with Adams arguing in the turret, ‘I don’t see any negatives to murdering Logan’ (Patriot Ledger). Adams was banished in Episode 8, revealed as a Traitor, the first Traitor banished all season.
At the Episode 6 Round Table, Victor’s FruitGate theory correctly named the cursed apple and implicated Tomica (seen offering apples around the kitchen after the murder attempt), but the room dismissed the theory and banished Michael Foote 8-3-3-1 (Faithful) instead. Tomica received 1 banishment vote at the Episode 6 Round Table (from Victor Vollbrechthausen). She ended the episode wanting Victor removed, and the turret (Joe Vanella, Tomica Adams, Katie Fites) survived another week.
In Episode 7, Tomica, Joe Vanella and Katie Fites shortlisted Mark Zgoda, Wyatt Gillespie and Kriste Lewis in the turret. Tomica backed the choice of Mark. Joe argued that Mark and Kriste would never draw Round Table votes. The Traitors deliberately spared Victor Vollbrechthausen.
At the Round Table, Victor confronted Tomica over a slip. In an earlier conversation with him, she had named Katie Fites as her suspect, but at the table she claimed she had said Kriste Lewis. Victor said: “You said Katie. Why are you lying about that?” Tomica later told viewers she had mistakenly said Katie and meant Kriste, a slip CarterMatt called a pretty big slip-up. Katie voted for Tomica, the first vote one of this season’s Traitors has cast against another, a new risk inside the trio. Tomica was not banished. No one was banished. Victor got the most votes, with 5, and the banishment is pending the Power of the Pardon.
In Episode 8, Shane Beatty used the Power of the Pardon to save Victor Vollbrechthausen, overturning his Episode 7 banishment. At breakfast, Tomica questioned Shane’s decision, and Victor kept pressing his case against her through the day. At the Round Table, Victor asked Joe Vanella to name a suspect other than Victor, and Joe froze, then said: ‘If not you, then it’s Tomica.’ Katie Fites voted for Tomica for the second episode running. Tomica was banished in a 10-2 vote and revealed as a Traitor, the first Traitor banished all season. Her exit line, as quoted by the AV Club, was: ‘I flew my plane a little too close to the sun and I got burnt, because I’m a Traitor.’ Clyde Moser, her closest ally in the castle, was visibly upset at her exit.
After her banishment, Tomica told Entertainment Weekly she was “definitely taken out of this game by a piece of fruit,” though not the right one: Victor thought it was an orange, and she had only asked, “Does anyone want anything out of the refrigerator?” while checking whether there were more apples after Joe ate the bitten one. She said she probably should have killed Victor two episodes earlier, and that Victor following her from room to room was “insane,” made worse because he never did it to Joe. She also said the Katie and Kriste name slip was a 100% honest mix up, and that being a Traitor was more stressful than flying a plane.
Speaking to Parade, Tomica said the Pardon was “100%” the reason she was talking to them at all, and that she should have killed Victor “about three times.” She said Joe “threw me up under the bus” at the round table with his “If it’s not you, it’s Tomica” line, and confirmed the name slip was “an absolute mistake, 100%,” adding that she had been using menopause as a cover for forgetfulness since the start of the game.
| Episode | Event | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| 1, “A New Dawn Is Rising” | Chosen as original Traitor | Selected by Alan Cumming alongside Joe Vanella |
| 2, “I’m a Sweaty Boy” | First murder; first Round Table | Turret murdered Kim Daily; voted to banish Madeline Kostopulos |
| 3, “The Traitors Are Watching” | Third Traitor recruited; accomplice murdered | Chose Katie Fites as third Traitor; murdered Xavier Scruggs |
| 4, “The Death Parade” | Second murder; cliffhanger Round Table | Trio murdered Logan Smith; episode ended with Jay naming Katie at the Round Table |
| 6 | Survived Round Table | Received 1 banishment vote (from Victor Vollbrechthausen); still a concealed Traitor |
| 7 | Slip exposed; survived Round Table | Backed the murder of Mark Zgoda in the turret; her Katie/Kriste slip was exposed by Victor at the Round Table; Katie Fites voted for her; not banished |
| 8, “A Bad Apple Spoils the Whole Bunch” | Banished; revealed as Traitor | Banished 10-2, the first Traitor banished all season |
FAQs
Who is Tomica Adams?
Tomica Adams is a 54-year-old United Airlines captain from Boston, Massachusetts, and a contestant on The Traitors: New Blood.
What does Tomica Adams do for a living?
She works as a commercial airline captain for United Airlines.
Is Tomica Adams a pilot?
Yes. She has flown professionally since the late 1990s and currently holds the rank of captain at United Airlines.
How old is Tomica Adams?
54, per official Traitors cast material.
What kind of aircraft does Tomica Adams fly?
Over her career, she has flown the Boeing 737, 757, 767 and 777.
Is Tomica Adams a Traitor or Faithful?
Traitor. She was one of the two original Traitors selected by Alan Cumming in the Episode 1 premiere. She was banished in Episode 8 in a 10-2 vote and revealed as a Traitor, the first Traitor banished all season.
