Fans first fawned over fictional hockey star Garrett Graham in Elle Kennedy's bestselling romance book, The Deal, in 2015. A decade later, a whole new audience is swooning over Belmont Cameli, who plays the lovable Briar University team captain in Prime Video's new wildly-popular Off Campus TV series adaptation.
The college drama series has skyrocketed to number one around the world since it premiered on 13 May, got the stamp of approval from none other than megastar Jennnifer Lopez herself, and turned the cast into seemingly overnight internet sensations. Belmont, 28, stars as one-half of the first season's leading romance alongside American-British actress Ella Bright, 19, who plays music major Hannah Wells, and who The Crown fans might recognise as a young Kate Middleton on season six of the Emmy-winning show.
"With Belmont specifically, it definitely felt different than others [for me] and it felt really special," Ella told HELLO! exclusively. "You can only hope and pray that the casting directors feel the same way, and luckily for us they did."
Just shy of two weeks since the show launched, 28-year-old heartthrob Belmont has amassed a following of 2.5 million and counting on Instagram alone. As the cast returns to Canada to shoot season two of the smash hit drama, here's all you need to know about the breakout star's life away from the cameras and how he's found love in real life with his TV writer girlfriend.
© Liane Hentscher/PrimeBelmont's relationship status
Belmont has found love in his real life with TV writer Raina Morris. The couple keep a very low profile and appear to have been dating since at least around March 2025, according to their respective social media pages.
Like her partner, Raina is in the entertainment industry and has worked as a writer on Netflix’s smash hit series Emily in Paris, as well as TV shows such as Neon and Apple TV+’s Schmigadoon!. The pair have appeared on each other's Instagram accounts on occasion, including back in March 2025 when Raina supported Belmont at the premiere of his crime drama film, The Alto Knights, which he starred in alongside Hollywood A-lister Robert De Niro.
© Instagram/ @belmontcameliHe almost wasn't an actor
Before Off Campus, Belmont had already delved into the romance genre in Netflix's Along for the Ride. He also starred in the 2025 survival horror film Until Dawn and the 2020 sitcom Saved by the Bell, which was a follow-up to the 1990s series. While he's now booked and busy for a second season of Off Campus, years before his breakout performance, the actor was on a completely different career path.
"I was in college and was studying finance. College was just not a good environment for me, and my father passed right when I got to school," the actor, who was a business major at the University of Illinois, told The Hollywood Reporter. “All of a sudden, life felt really short, and it felt really important that I figured out what I wanted to do."
He continued: "At the time, I was just doing the thing that I was supposed to be doing. You go to a big state school. You get a degree. You go to Chicago. You work in corporate America, the whole nine yards. As soon as I considered what that would look like and that there was a possibility of doing anything else, I got the hell out of there because I knew I was going to be miserable."
The star ended up dropping out of university, moving to Los Angeles and working as a model while pursuing his dream of acting.
He's a big sports fan
© MLB Photos via Getty ImagesWhile he had to learn how to skate with a hockey stick from scratch for Off Campus, Belmont played a mix of football, wrestling and volleyball during his high school years.
He's also made it known he's an avid baseball fan and proudly supports the Chicago White Sox. The actor even threw the first pitch for the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox game earlier this month.
