If there’s one thing Massachusetts native and “The Circle” season five star Xanthi Perdikomatis will be remembered for after starring in season two of Netflix dating show “Perfect Match,” it will be her obvious dissatisfaction with the potential romantic partners the show’s producers assembled for its female cast members.
Far from feeling increasing pressure to match with someone as the show progressed (as many other cast members did), the 28-year-old’s desire to spark a connection with any of the male cast members seemed to wane dramatically over time.
In an interview with MassLive, Perdikomatis explained how the traditional values instilled in her by her proudly Greek parents guided her journey on “Perfect Match,” from her decision to sit out the show’s infamous “kissing challenge” to her vote for the newly-matched couple that surprised viewers by walking away as the season’s winners.
Perdikomatis’ Massachusetts roots
Perdikomatis grew up in the Worcester area, living in several different communities during her childhood, but ultimately graduated from West Boylston High School in 2014. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in communications with a focus in broadcast journalism from Boston’s Suffolk University.
“TV, for me, was always something I wanted to get into. I knew I was comfortable behind and in front of the camera,” she said.
After college, Perdikomatis decided to spend a year exploring Boston while she figured out what career path she wanted to pursue. Sadly, her gap year was cut short when her father was diagnosed with an advanced form of cancer. For the next two years, she worked as her father’s full-time caregiver.
While stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Perdikomatis fell in love with Netflix’s social media-based competition reality TV show, “The Circle.” After an emotional breakup in 2021, she decided to apply to become a cast member on the show in the hopes of shaking up what had become her status quo.
“I was just kind of like, ‘I need to get out of here and make my own reality,’” she said.
Soon after, producers from “The Circle” contacted Perdikomatis about joining the show’s cast for its fifth season. She was nervous about leaving her father, but he gave her the go-ahead to follow her dreams, she said.
“I was always a dreamer in my life. I always wanted to do things that weren’t considered normal, and my parents were always very supportive,” she said.
Perdikomatis on ‘The Circle’
Just two weeks after sending her application to Netflix, Perdikomatis flew to Manchester, England, to film “The Circle” season five.
“My strategy going into ‘The Circle’ was being myself, but also playing off of people’s different vibes,” she said. “I was just so excited to see the different ways everyone’s minds were working.”
Despite her strategic thinking, Perdikomatis was eliminated from the competition on her first day of filming. But in one of the show’s characteristic surprise twists, Perdikomatis was then offered an opportunity to stay on the show by catfishing under a new identity as part of a two-person team.
Perdikomatis was paired with another cast member who’d recently been eliminated — Las Vegas cybersecurity analyst and self-described “lovable douchebag” Brett Robinson. Together, the two brought a producer-created profile called “Jennifer” to life by giving the purported 51-year-old dog trainer the personality of a sweet but fun auntie.
The pair somehow gained more traction with other players as “Jennifer” and managed to stay in the game all the way up until the end before finishing in fifth place. Though Perdikomatis didn’t win “The Circle,” she said she is grateful for the close friendships she made with other cast members.
“Chaz, Sam, Raven and I have a group chat called ‘The Inner Circle,’ and we are literally the four musketeers,” she said. “Those are my people, not only in the reality TV world but in real life.”
In an unfortunate twist of fate for Perdikomatis, her return home after the show quickly turned into a sad occasion. Just a week after she came back from filming, her father died.
“The family likes to say that he was waiting for me, so that keeps me going,” she said.
Perdikomatis enters the villa on ‘Perfect Match’
In August 2023, Perdikomatis traveled to Tulum, Mexico, to film “Perfect Match” — a Netflix dating show that pulls stars from other Netflix reality TV shows to form its cast. At first, she was hesitant about doing the show, but after some reassurance from producers, she went in with an open mind.
“I grew up with my parents who were together since they were 16, so I grew up with a very traditional mindset when it came to dating,” she said. “But also, I am in my 20s, and I was single ever since my father passed away. So I was like, ‘Why not try something different?’”
Perdikomatis entered the “villa” — the on-screen residence that serves as the show’s main setting — as part of the initial group of five women and five men that begin dating in the luxury home in episode one. During the first mixer, which is when cast members choose who they want to “match” with, she paired up with “Dated and Related” star Kaz Bishop and moved into one of the villa’s private rooms with him.
At the next mixer, Perdikomatis became part of what became known as the “wife swap,” which involved herself and Bishop eagerly switching partners with “Love is Blind” star Micah Lussier and her then-match, “Too Hot to Handle” star Stevan Ditter. But while Lussier and Bishop went on to share a tumultuous romance that persisted through the end of the season, Perdikomatis and Ditter’s connection cooled off quickly.
The kissing challenge
Shortly after pairing with Ditter, Perdikomatis chose not to participate in the show’s infamous “kissing challenge,” which involves every woman and man in the villa kissing each other one by one while blindfolded and wearing noise-canceling headphones to keep them from knowing who they’re kissing. The cast members then rate the quality of each kiss in an attempt to find out who they naturally have the most physical chemistry with (and who the best kissers are).
But, because of Perdikomatis’ ardent belief in “traditional” dating values — which to her means getting to know someone before establishing any kind of physical relationship — she wasn’t keen on the idea of doing something intimate with five different men in such rapid succession. So instead of locking lips, Perdikomatis put her hand over her mouth as the men stepped up to kiss her, eliciting some confused reactions that provided some humor for the audience.
“I would never kiss five people in a month, never mind a day,” she said. “ ... It just wasn’t something that I would do in real life, so I wasn’t going to do it for the camera.”
While most of the men took Perdikomatis’ decision to refrain from the kissing challenge in stride, fans may be surprised to hear that one cast member was offended by it. In a scene that didn’t make the final cut of the show, “Too Hot to Handle” star Harry Jowsey — who has a reputation for promiscuity both in and out of relationships — confronted her after the challenge. According to Perdikomatis, he accused her of “demeaning” the other women on the show by acting like she was “too good” to participate.
“My response was, ‘Harry Jowsey, I know very well you are not the man coming up to me talking about demeaning women,’” she said with an air of irony.
Why Perdikomatis wasn’t interested in the male cast members
But Perdikomatis’ traditional values weren’t the only thing holding her back from connecting with the men of “Perfect Match” season two. She said another reason she was uncomfortable with the thought of kissing them was that she thought their behavior, both on and off camera, was often disrespectful to the female cast members.
“A lot of these men were very vocal about women’s hygiene and what they actually thought about the women. They’d whisper about who they’d want to get to know next or who would potentially come into the house,” she said. “ ... I was very awake during that whole experience. I saw right through the BS.”
Soon after the kissing challenge, Ditter matched with “Dated and Related” star Alara Taneri, leaving Perdikomatis unmatched. Instead of trying to match with someone else, she took the opportunity to leave the villa with her head held high.
“I just wasn’t willing to lower my standards for a kissing challenge or for any of the men in the house,” she said.
The day that solidified her disinterest
Perdikomatis later returned for a dramatic outing during which all the matched men spent the day drinking with all the unmatched women and vice versa. The gathering was meant to be an opportunity for the matched cast members to explore other potential love interests away from the watchful eye of their partners and for the unmatched cast members to shoot their shots, leading to new matches and villa residents.
But while some of the unmatched cast members managed to shake up the pairings in the villa, Perdikomatis was completely uninterested in playing such a game.
“The minute we got there, people were sucking toes, taking body shots. And obviously, that’s not really my thing, so I kind of laid back,” she said.
During the outing, all the men — sans Massachusetts native and “Surviving Paradise” star Justin Assad and “Too Hot to Handle” star Harry Jowsey — told the unmatched women that they had not yet found their perfect match, according to Perdikomatis. Later that day, Jowsey would become the only matched cast member to kiss someone who wasn’t their match during the outing (as far as viewers know).
But it was “Dated and Related” star Chris Hahn who drew Perdikomatis’ ire most keenly by appearing to express interest in leaving “The Trust” star Tolu Ekundare — who Perdikomatis described as her closest friend on the show — for Perdikomatis. Perdikomatis shut down the conversation, and Hahn later denied ever having intentions to leave Ekundare while successfully pleading with her to stay with him.
“It was disgusting behavior, and Chris must be delusional if he thinks we would even talk outside in the real world,” Perdikomatis said.
Why Perkidomatis voted for Christine and Nigel
It was instances like what transpired between herself and Hahn that led Perdikomatis to vote for “Too Hot to Handle” alums Christine Obanor and Nigel Jones to win season two of “Perfect Match” despite the fact that they were the most recent pairing among the couples eligible to win. She felt one or both members of all the other couples weren’t actually serious about their match, she said.
“All I could think was that the only people that at least haven’t shown any type of disrespect on and off camera were Nigel and Christine,” she said.
Given that Obanor and Jones ended up winning “Perfect Match” season two — garnering them an all-expenses-paid luxury vacation — it’s quite possible that other cast members shared Perdikomatis’ sentiment. Additionally, all the couples who ended the show together were broken up by the time the show premiered, lending credence to her belief that their connections were weaker than they appeared.
What’s next for Perdikomatis
Post “Perfect Match,” Perdikomatis is getting in more family time and working toward achieving her life goals. She is still single and is looking for a man who is family-oriented like herself.
“I need someone who’s very confident in themselves because I’m a very confident girl and I need someone who can match my energy,” she said. “And of course, they have to be respectful and loyal. When it comes to a partnership, you really got to think of your core values and what is important to you. The flirting is fun, the physical part is fun, but none of those things last after a certain time.”
Despite being a Massachusetts native, Perdikomatis said she has never dated a real Bay Stater. She’s open to the idea though, and any man who gets the chance should consider planning something simple for their first date, like a coffee date or a walk through a park or on a beach.
“Somewhere where you are just yourself, you don’t need to get all glammed up, you don’t need to try too hard,” she said. “For me, it’s all about really getting to know the person.”
