Who Is The Bachelor's Emani Curl?

The bummer about the first episode of any reality show is that at least one contestant is sent home before we even have a chance to remember their names, much less root for them to make it to the finale. (Can you recall who got voted out first on any season of Survivor, Big Brother, or American Idol? Neither can we.) In the case of The Bachelor franchise, more than one woman is sent home before the final credits roll. Vulture recently did a numbers crunch and reported that 29 percent of all the 337 women who have come looking for love have been eliminated on the first show. That's a lot of disappointed ladies.

This season, Bachelor star Matt James had his choice of 32 potential fiancées, but rejected eight of them on the first show. Among them, as Page Six confirms: Emani Curl, a 25-year-old realtor from New Mexico. Matt sent her away rose-less, leaving viewers to wonder what might have been. So who is this would-be Mrs. James, and why did she get bumped too soon? Let's find out some more about her, and decide for yourself whether she got a raw deal.

Emani Curl isn't about gimmicks

Part of the fun of the premiere Bachelor episodes is watching what kind of impression the women make as they arrive in front of the mansion — or, as in this case, the posh Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Pennsylvania. With so much competition around them, the contestants often try to stand out from the rest, either by their choice of wardrobe or by their actions. This season was certainly no exception: Katie Thurston showed James the adult toy that, um, kept her company during the COVID lockdown; Victoria Larson dubbed herself "the Queen" and slapped a toy crown on James' head; and Kaili Anderson strutted onto the scene in nothing but her black lacy underwear and robe, asking the Bachelor to choose which gown she should wear.

Emani played it far more low-key. She wore a typical teal evening gown and opted to go without props to meet her potential husband. Unfortunately, she also didn't have a killer opening line or a vulnerable revelation (such as Abigail Heringer's announcement that she is deaf and has a cochlear implant). Her introduction to James was awkwardly brief (at least in the edit shown on the show). As The Ringer sums up, we saw Emani murmuring, "I think this is ... crazy!" Matt then asked her if she ever thought she would be here. She replied, "No," and then the scene cut to the next contestant.  

Still, Emani clearly didn't expect to be eliminated so soon. Her Instagram account shows a clip of her crestfallen expression as she realizes her fate, along with a dictionary definition of the word perplexed: "completely baffled; very puzzled."

Emani Curl is at home in the kitchen

According to her official Bachelor bio on ABC, Emani Curl describes herself as "goofy, selfless, and sensitive" and says she wouldn't change places with anyone for a day, even if she could. She hasn't yet found the man she wants to spend the rest of her life with, but she knows what she wants, and her biggest turnoff is instability "of any kind." Presumably, the man she chooses must also love the ocean. Emani's Instagram feed is filled with shots of herself soaking up rays and posing on the sand. One of her beachy pictures is captioned "In my natural habitat," and in another, she describes herself as "an East Coast girl, with my heart in the West Coast, but I'm from the desert."

We'll never know what kind of a fantasy date James would have taken her on, but in her non-TV world, Emani says she enjoys cooking an "old-fashioned" meal for the guys she cares about. Ideally, that meal is accompanied by a nice bottle of Sonoma County's finest. In one of her posts, she challenged, "If you think you know me, what's my fave red wine?" 

One of her friends immediately responded, "Meiomi," and Emani agreed: "She knows meeeee."

Emani Curl's thoughts run deep

According to her LinkedIn profile, Emani attended the University of New Mexico, graduating in 2016 with a BA in interpersonal communications and marketing. She describes herself in her profile as an "experienced marketing lead with a demonstrated history of working in the computer software industry." Prior to becoming a licensed realtor with Coldwell Banker, Emani was a marketing and customer relations leader with a computer software company in California. 

But James might have been interested to learn that there's a lot more to Emani than beach weekends and Pinot Noir. Another photo on her Insta feed shows a stack of books that she says "have completely shifted my thought process." Among them: The Mastery of Self, The Alchemist, The Untethered Soul, Think Like a Monk, and Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. There's also the bestseller guidebook The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz. Based on ancient Toltec principles, the book explains that following four simple "agreements" with oneself can lead to greater joy and personal freedom: "Be impeccable with your word, don't take anything personally, don't make assumptions, and always do your best."

Emani Curl is deeply concerned about racism in America

It would have been interesting to see what kind of conversations Emani would have had with James, had he opted to keep her on the show and get to know her. As the first Black Bachelor, James admitted to feeling "pressure" about holding that distinction. He told Variety that he often thinks ahead to what his future children will be facing in today's society, and the conversations he will need to have with them about race: "[T]here are things that I've experienced that our kids are going to experience, and you've got to be ready for that. It's just going to be a reality."

It's likely Emani, as a woman of color, has thought about those conversations, too. This past summer, she put up a post strikingly different from her bikini and wine shots. It was a meme of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed in police custody while allegedly resisting arrest. She wrote in her heartfelt caption, "George lost his life because it was already deemed as meaningless the second cops arrived to the scene. We're living in the modern day genocide of African Americans and my heart aches constantly living in fear of those I love." 

Although Emani Curl didn't find the love of her life on The Bachelor, fans hope her future will one day include a partner who can discuss race and philosophy with her over a glass of Meiomi.