’90 Day Fiancé’: Has Nikki Exotika been on TV before?

If you’ve been watching the latest season of 90 Day Fiancé and Nikki Exotika, a New Jersey native dating a man from Moldova, looks familiar to you, you’re not crazy – this is not Nikki’s first TV outing by a long stretch.

Reality TV shows need big, interesting personalities as part of their draw to keep viewers hooked, so it’s common for shows to recycle cast members that have a powerful, unique, or just downright weird on-screen presence – for example, how many reality shows has Trisha Paytas been on? Other 90 Day Fiancé stars, such as Angela Deem, have likely booked their role on the series thanks to previous outings on reality shows.

During her appearance on season ten, Nikki Exotika described herself as an entertainer, having shown a keen interest in music and modeling and showcasing old photos of her performing, with several showbiz-y connections through her friends in makeup and hairstyling. Her lifestyle seems to support that claim too, living in a plush apartment with her pampered kitties.

Here’s an insight into Nikki’s TV career, having begun her reality TV outings decades ago, when she first began a relationship with her partner Justin, who also features on 90 Day Fiancé.

Nikki’s journey on 90 Day Fiancé

Nikki appeared on season ten of the flagship series, alongside her partner, Igor Shutencov, a Moldovan native who is often referred to as Justin Moldova – a name given to him by Nikki because she didn’t like his birth name, and renamed him because she thought he looked like Justin Timberlake (yes, really). The two met in the 2000s after Nikki visited Moldova after being dumped by her cheating Russian ex-boyfriend, getting engaged 15 years before they appeared on the show in 2024.

However, things fell apart when Nikki revealed her secret during a heated argument – that she was a transgender woman, causing Igor to “freak out”, as it’s not accepted in his culture. The two parted ways, but reconnected online after both parties failed to find a lasting relationship in the years since their break-up. Despite all the time that had passed, Justin/Igor still hadn’t fully accepted the fact Nikki was trans, leading to a confession that he had been unfaithful with several women.

This wasn’t the final straw, however, and the two broke up over Nikki’s anxieties that she was being used by Justin financially. The engagement was formalized in a traditional Moldovan ceremony, but this acceptance didn’t help ease Justin’s transphobia, who called Nikki “manly” and saw her as an exception to his heterosexuality. While the two briefly reconciled by the time filming wrapped, they broke up – seemingly for good – by the season 10 tell-all finale, with Nikki scrapping Justin’s K-1 visa application that would have granted him entry into the U.S.

What shows did Nikki Exotika appear on before 90 Day Fiancé?

Nikki has a handful of acting credits to her name, perhaps most impressively, the acclaimed TV shows Orange is The New Black and Pose. In both cases, however, Nikki was uncredited – but was assumingly paid for her roles as a named extra. According to her IMDb, Exotika also appeared on the show Mr. and Mrs. Jackson for one episode, as well as the indie film Vamp Bikers Tres (2016) – for credited roles in these instances.

Nikki is most likely more widely recognized for her appearances on reality shows outside of 90 Day Fiancé. Many of her TV appearances show Exotika discussing her life experience as a transgender woman – especially in the early 2000s, when the topic was much less understood and much more taboo – as well as her extensive plastic surgery to achieve her dream aesthetic. Nikki has admitted to spending more than $1 million to create a hyper-feminine look with unnatural proportions, a deliberate look she chose inspired by Barbie.

Nikki appeared on Trantasia, a documentary about the world’s first transgender beauty pageant, as well as The Tyra Banks Show, and the web series Hooked on the Look. International viewers may recognize her from her interview on the British magazine breakfast show This Morning. Exotika also appeared on the infamous reality talk show Maury, although was called “Meryl” on the show – which may be more of an acting role for her, as the series has faced multiple accusations of showcasing fake or staged storylines.