Are y’all watching Off-Campus? The Prime show is based on the popular book series by Elle Kennedy, and the first season is already a major hit for Amazon Prime. The series is the “third most-watched debut series in the history of Amazon Prime Video” and it reached 36 million viewers in its first 12 days of streaming. Someone at Prime has a real eye for developing shows geared towards audiences primarily made up of teenage girls and young women – Off-Campus is going to turn into this year’s The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Well, there’s already a “controversy” about the series. I mean, there are several controversies, but I don’t know if they’re picayune faux-controversies which are, in essence, attempts at a viral marketing campaign. But I’ve seen complaints about the real-life “age-gap” between the two lead actors, Ella Bright and Belmont Cameli. Bright is 19 – perfect to play a college student – while Cameli is 28 (and he’s playing a 19/20 year old). Keep in mind, they’re just love interests on-screen, not in real life! And keep in mind that most 19-year-old guys look like little babies these days, so they likely went older with the guy’s casting because they wanted someone who realistically looked like a hot-jock college hockey player. Well, Ella Bright is defending the age-gap. Which, again, is not about a real relationship.
Ella Bright wants the world to know that she and Belmont Cameli couldn’t be more professional amid concerns about their age gap and intimate scenes. The 19-year-old British-American actress defended her steamy onscreen scenes with her Off Campus costar, who is nearly 10 years her senior, on the Tuesday, May 26 episode of the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast.
While speaking with host Amanda Hirsch, Bright revealed that she was 18 years old when the series was filming, and she’s seen fans express their shock to learn how young she was compared to Cameli, who is 28.
“It’s very funny when they … I came into this job and during the chemistry reads with more than enough information and knowledge and understanding of what this role required and the show,” Bright said. “And I just fell in love with Hannah and these scripts immediately. There was never a question that I wouldn’t want to do this,” she continued.
Off Campus is based on the best-selling books by Elle Kennedy about an elite college ice hockey team at the fictional Briar University as they navigate relationships, friendships, and young adulthood.
Bright plays Hannah, a music student who devises a fake dating scheme with hockey star Garrett (Cameli) to catch the attention of her crush, Justin (Josh Heuston). Things get complicated when Hannah and Garrett develop feelings for one another.
“I get people’s concern, but also not once did I feel, one, left out from being younger than everybody,” Bright said. “We’re all such a family and everyone was just more than perfect, and I couldn’t be more comfortable on this set with these people.”
“So it is funny when they say that I’m like I’m good,” she added.
Hirsch defended the role, saying that Bright was an adult college student, but admitted that the material can be “raunchy” but not “insane.”
I get it, and it’s fine to show concern about whether a 19-year-old actress feels uncomfortable about doing love scenes with a 28-year-old. While she doesn’t say this, there’s an intimacy coordinator on the show, and I would also assume that producers are keeping a watchful eye to ensure that there’s not a hint of exploitation. That being said, she’s a legal adult and she went into the job understanding the material and what it entailed. And to be fair, Belmont Cameli absolutely looks college-aged. Like, that’s how guys looked when I was in college, although I know a lot has changed since then.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid, Getty Images.
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM Ella Bright was spotted arriving at the EE BAFTA and Glamour Rising Star Party held at La Môme in London, showcasing her chic style for the glamorous event. Pictured: Ella Bright BACKGRID USA 11 FEBRUARY 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: JP/RV / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Glamour EE Rising Star party, celebrating the 2026 EE Rising Star nominees ahead of the EE BAFTA Film Awards, at La Mome in The Berkley Hotel Featuring: Ella Bright Where: London, United Kingdom When: 11 Feb 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Agree with you totally, Kaiser.
Absolutely. Also, I looked up Belmont Camelli six years ago (when he was on the Saved by the Bell reboot) and there is no way that version of him could have played this character. He was significantly less physically developed (though still very charismatic).
They all did a great job.
Love this show but I HATE her makeup. She wears a full-face (lip liner, drawn-on brows, all of it) for every scene, even flashbacks to her high school years. It’s distracting and it’s like they are purposefully trying to make her look older.
that’s what teenage girls do though, they’re obsessed with makeup
Sure, but she was the only woman styled that severely in the series. It didn’t fit with the character or the overall vibe. I also have an aversion to kissing scenes with sticky glossy lips, lol.
I take the bus to work everyday and I am usually on it at the same time as the high school kids – the girls are wearing full beats (full makeup). They are even doing their makeup on the bus . One girl was applying a full set of fake lashes. That is an accurate representation of teen girls right now.
Agreed. We are in Canada and my daughter’s tutor who is a senior in high-school has a full face of makeup every time I see her. I’m an old millennial and back in my time only a handful of girls wore mascara, gloss and eye liner for school day.
NGL – the idea of a teenager doing love scenes with a nearly 30 year old man gives me the ick. And yes I know she’s a legal adult but her brain also isn’t fully developed. They could just as easily have found a young-looking actress in her early 20’s.
This “brains not fully formed” bullshit needs to die already. Brains grow and change throughout the human lifespan. If younger brains have more plasticity, that means young people should be having more experiences to take advantage of it, not being coddled and putting off life until they are “old enough to handle it.”
We are going through a crisis of immature young adults not being able to handle college, jobs, life. This idea that their brains will somehow be better off at 25 with never having learned anything or faced discipline is giving us a lost generation.
Good on Ella’s family for raising a child who can handle adult life at 19.
Mixed feelings. The prefrontal cortex is not fully formed and teens make bad decisions. But ITA 100% on let them
make mistakes and learn. We were the latch key generation and had to figure out problems for ourselves constantly and I do feel it was good for us.
I also believe very strongly in things like reproductive health, vocational schools, etc because teens do make mistakes and that shouldn’t define them for life.
The human brain’s prefrontal cortex is not fully formed until 25. It’s literal science
💯!! This is the kind of new-age new-psychology dating nonsense that Oprah would’ve touted ad nauseum. It’s been widely discussed in legal proceedings where minors are charged as adults with varying results, but when it comes to relationship choices it’s just another way to infantilize women.
@Peggy – I can’t speak to new age psycho whatever, but when I earned my graduate degree in education in the 90s from a very reputable school, this was the brain science we studied. It applies to people with Y chromosomes, as well, so I’m not sure why the assumption would be that only women have prefrontal cortexes.
I.agree with you.
That 25 brain thing is a myth and having “teen” in your age literally means nothing. Y’all are so delusional
Age gaps be damned. Give that man my number! (I still look like a college student in that people of all ages go to college. 😉)
I’m not watching it but it looks cute and just right for its audience. The actors all seem sweet and cute. If she says she didn’t have issue, then respect her words.
I think its important to have the conversation but if the production is taking the necessary steps – intimacy coordinator etc – then I think its okay.
i havent read these books because honestly college romances dont appeal to me. i feel like I’m reading about kids and it gives me the ick. But i do like hocky romances in general.
ITA with all of this. I have zero interest in the show although it seems it’s all being handled appropriately. I wouldn’t have made my lusty comment above oof the actor hadn’t been confirmed as a grown adult. Still I know tons of 30 year old men through work and they don’t appeal to me at all.
Love “Never have I ever” and the “To All the boys” franchise but hated “The Summer I turned pretty” so if this is being compared to that no thank you.
I watched it mainly because it was something new I was hearing a lot about. It’s good! And the whole “controversy” is ridiculous because all the other actors (including the other female lead) are mid to late twenties but they all look like they could be in college. Only thing I see is it may become a problem if it goes on as a series for a couple of years and they start looking like young fathers instead. But it’s acting people!
You guys are so delusional with this infantilization of certain adults and this over-adultifying of adults who are not much older lol
Are the love scenes really intense or something? (I haven’t seen the show). For acting and acting alone, I would generally think she’s old enough in this instance since she’s 19 and he’s under 30, assuming they’re not doing anything too weird on screen (who knows, maybe they are).
Knowing very little about the show, this acting pairing doesn’t seem nearly as strange as Timothy Hutton acting out a crush on Natalie Portman in Beautiful Girls. There were no love scenes, but that storyline was definitely strange.
Cameli is playing a college junior who is 22. It was noted in the birthday party episode when they said their ages. So a 28 year old playing a 22 isn’t a terrible stretch as an actor. However; he does seem to stick out like a sore thumb but I chalked it up to him not being as attractive as the female lead.
I viewed a trailer because curiosity got to me, and I kept wondering why the one guy the girl is actually interested in and the hockey player look too much alike.
I have a bit of face blindness for really pretty people and thank goodness they threw in one blond guy because the others all look the same to me. The MMC, his rival, and the other 2 main hockey guys have the same hair and look alike to me. Glad the FMC and her bestie have distinctive haircuts because all the other women look the same to me.
I had the same reaction to the blonde guy haha.
He jumped out at me simply because he looked somewhat distinct by comparison. And then I found myself wondering what romantic entanglement he was involved with.
The mainstream media is covering the age gap discourse… maybe they will also soon cover the online harassment of his IRL girlfriend because some ppl don’t understand reel vs real and also because she is a Black woman.
For so many reasons kids under 18 shouldn’t be in show business (influence of parents, maturity, child labour laws etc) but I can’t believe they couldn’t find a hot guy that wasn’t pushing 30. Even the Heated Rivalry guys were only 25.
The guy who played Paxton on Never Have I Ever is older than the girl who played the main female character, Devi, on the show. There’s clearly an age difference as you can kind of see his eye wrinkles haha.
To some degree, I think most people are kind of used to real-life age gap castings of about 10 years on teen shows which is probably why I’m really not sure how to react to this “controversy.” I actually can’t recall anyone flagging this until now so I’m not sure if maybe it’s Gen Alpha reacting to the age difference (ie possibly hoping the two main characters will get together in real life?).
I think Dawson’s Creek had no real age differences between the actors, but I think that show might have been an anomaly to some extent. I have no idea why everyone thought Andrea Zuckermab could pass for 15 on Beverly Hills 90210.
Oh wait, I just remembered that Pacey dated his teacher on Dawson’s Creek. So not only was there a significant age difference between the actors, there was an example of an age difference between the characters too.
Yea Paxton was like 30 and looked 30.
Hudson had just turned 24 and Connor just 25 when they filmed. And they were meant to be 17? in the first ep and then age up rapidly throughout the season so yeah they really did need youngish actors. Late 20’s would not have worked. I haven’t watched this show so I can’t say how much he stands out.
You guys are so delusional with this whole “pushing 30” thing lol
I mean, what is there to defend? They’re both adults, and there are lots of other adults on set, including an intimacy coordinator, to make sure everything goes smoothly. A lot of this just feels like infantilization of women. Even if it WAS a real relationship with an age gap, and he turned out to be a jerk, she would be fine. She would recover and move on. Women are not “ruined” by bad relationships or mistakes in their youth. Marriage or children with the wrong person can be a real problem because of the legal consequences of divorce and custody, but dating? We learn, we grow, and we move on.
Ewww it’s disturbing how many people still have Amazon.
I enjoyed watching Off-Campus, but I am still so shocked with Belmont looking so much like a young Gavin Rossdale (or even Rossdale mixed with Heath Ledger) did anyone else see that as well?
I’ve seen no fewer than 20 posts about it on instagram, so yes.