'Real World' castmate hails from Nokesville

NOKESVILLE — Now’s your chance to find out what happens when people from Nokesville stop being polite and start getting real.

Mike Ross, 23, of Nokesville, is one of the seven strangers picked to live in a casino on this season of The Real World Las Vegas.

On the première episode of the MTV show’s 25th season, which aired March 9, Ross said he was a little overwhelmed walking into the Real World suite at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, for the first time.

“Walking in my heart is pounding. I’m in a state between awe and concern,” Ross said in one of the show’s confessionals. “I have no idea how I’m going to deal with the women in Vegas. I’ll be honest I’m a little scared.”

According to a biography provided by MTV, Mike Ross “is an outspoken is an outspoken Libertarian, world hunger solution advocate, beer pong pro, and all around nice guy from Nokesville, VA.”

The bio goes on to say that while he “may seem like a typical small-town guy,” but “Michael’s background is anything but typical.” The bio says Ross’s parents served jail time when he was a child and he lived with his grandparents and other family members as a child.

“Despite his troubled past, Michael believes that his experiences have made him a stronger person, and that helping others is the key to ‘paying it forward,” the biography states. “Michael hopes to shed off his small-town skin in Vegas and party with his new roommates, although whether or not they will get along is anybody’s guess.”

On his website, realworldmike.com, Ross, who graduated from Brentsville District High School in 2006 and the University of Maryland in 2010, said he lived in Nokesville for just two years, but considers it his home.

“It was those really important two years though, ya know?” he said on his blog. “It’s where I played my first sport, where I drank my first beer, and where I kissed my first girl.”

In his Real World audition tape, also posted on his website, Ross takes viewers on a tour through Nokesville, including a trip over the one-lane bridge on Aden Road.

“Well MTV, welcome to my home,” Ross says in the video, as he drives past the Nokesville sign and a field full of cows.

“We’ve got the hayloft and the barn over in the corner, this is our house, and a full 360 is nothing but trees and grass,” he says, as the camera pans across his family’s Nokesville home.

On his website, Ross said he first applied for the Real World as a joke.

“My roommate (Dave) and I were hanging out one day trying to think of something to do. I recently had broken up with my girlfriend of over two years, so our goal was to get out of College Park, Maryland. Funny enough, Real World was having auditions in Philly the next day…So we went,” he wrote on his website.

Real World Las Vegas airs on MTV on Wednesdays at 10 p.m.

Amanda Stewart is a staff writer with the News & Messenger.