How Bling Empire's Kelly Mi Li And Kevin Kreider Really Became Friends

Netflix's Bling Empire is so flashy and fun you'd think the whole cast had been friends forever. While this is mostly true, some of the most notable friendships actually happened on set.

One of these friendships was between Kane Lim and Anna Shay, which Kane told Tatler about in January 2021. "Yeah, so the only cast member that I wasn't close with was Anna because she was actually friends with [producer] Jeff Jenkins," Kane said. "She usually does investments in films, so a lot of behind-the-scenes work. She was actually surprised that she was even on the show in the end."

However, many of the friendships were from a long time before, as Lim explained: "Kelly [Mi Li] and I have known each other for over eight years, Christine [Chiu] as well. And Cherie [Chan]... it was all super organic, everything came together very well."

One other notable, long-time friendship was between Kelly and Kevin Kreider. These two had a really unique way of meeting before the show started. Here's the story.

Everyone wanted to know how Kevin Kreider got involved with the Bling Empire crowd, and it was actually Kelly Mi Li who introduced him to the crew. 

"Back in Philadelphia I was thinking about moving, to go somewhere else and start my career up again," Kevin told to Entertainment Weekly in January 2021. "I've been doing videos about Asian masculinity and my life as a model, and Kelly actually discovered one of those videos, DMed me, and said, 'Hey, look, if you're ever in L.A., I'd love to meet up sometime.' I was like, 'I'm moving to L.A. actually at the end of the month!' Then, when I moved there, I met her right away."

Kelly turned out to be an excellent person to connect with, as Kevin explained. "She introduced me to Kane [Lim] next, and I looked at Kane's shoes and was like I am not going to get along with this group. They were these ruby red extravagant shoes. And I'm like, is this what I signed up for?" he recalled.

Fans watched as Kevin tried to pursue a romantic relationship with Kelly throughout the season. Unfortunately, Kelly wasn't feeling it. Instead, she's worked things out with boyfriend Andrew Gray. So it looks like Kelly and Kevin are going to stay just friends.