Santino Rice

Santino Quinto Rice was born and grew up at Fifth Street in St. Charles, Missouri, the city where his ancestors lived in early 1800s. His mother is of African-American and Italian background; his father, of Jewish and Native American background. Rice attended a preschool program at Lindenwood College (now Lindenwood University) and then graduated from the Academy of the Sacred Heart (St. Charles).^[1]

When he attended St. Charles High School (Missouri), he played basketball, worked for a student newspaper, and gained interest in fashion design.^[1] Furthermore, he was the only male in a first-level clothing course and attended second- and third-level courses. As a high school student, he also drove a 1966 Ford Mustang, bought for $1,500 and restored by his father.^[2]

With a scholarship offered to him, Rice concurrently attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM; Los Angeles) in 1990s.^[1][3][a] To further afford tuition for the design school, the restored Mustang was sold for almost tenfold the purchase price later then.^[2] After school, he performed voice-overs, appeared as an extra in certain films, and was an assistant costume designer. Also, after arrival in Los Angeles, he worked for other designers. He left St. Charles in 2002 and had not returned by 2006.^[1]

Rice at age thirty-one first competed in the second season of the American competition reality television series Project Runway.^[1] When the season premiered, he was considered "one of the most talented of the bunch" by Jill Radsken of Boston Herald^[4] and an "early frontrunner [sic]" of the season.^[5]

Before becoming a finalist, Rice had been one of lowest-scored contestants in seven out of eleven total challenges.^[6] In the fourth episode, he was considered for elimination due to his performance in the team lingerie challenge and "his tirade against the judges". A competitor Marla Duran "was disappointed with Rice's catty comments about" Duran's all-female team, which included just Diana Eng and Guadalupe Vidal, for the challenge.^[7] Nonetheless, he won two of the season's overall pre-finale challenges, two of which were of its first five. Besides winning the season's first challenge, he further won the season's fifth challenge: designing a party dress for socialite Nicky Hilton.^[1]

For the Fashion Week finale, after earning a finalist spot, Rice developed his "muted" collection that included an abundance of "rose and lace" and "a brown leather corset with capelike [sic] sleeves." The collection contrasted his prior works critically panned throughout the season as "too loud".^[8] To complete his collection, he was instructed two days before the Fashion Week event to design a thirteenth piece.^[9][b]

On the finale, Rice's lack of "brassiness" in his "sleek" Fashion Week collection, compared to his prior works, was noted.^[10] The judges praised Rice's creativity but found his finale collection "too safe (and ill-fitting)", wrote Boston Herald.^[11] He was eliminated before two other finalists—first runner-up Daniel Vosovic and crowned winner Chloe Dao—making Rice the second runner-up.^[12]

As the season progressed, Rice further earned his "villain" reputation for his onscreen "egomaniacal [sic]" personality.^[5] Katherine Nguyen of The Orange County Register described him as "talented" and "arrogant".^[13] Karla Peterson of The San Diego Union-Tribune noted his "refusal to follow instructions" and imitations of Runway mentor Tim Gunn that had other contestants laughing "until they drool[ed] all over their stretch tweed." Peterson further described Rice as "a towering bundle of ego, skill and hubris".^[14]

Rice himself asserted to O'Fallon Journal that he was "confident" rather than "arrogant". On the contrary, he admitted appearing "overconfident and arrogant" throughout most of the season but further asserted that he was more than what he had seemed onscreen.^[1] Jeff Daniel of St. Louis Post-Dispatch described Rice as "soft-spoken and modest" amid a January 2006 phone interview with him, contrary to Rice's onscreen persona.^[2]

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer noted his "mean-spirited" confessionals, "tantrums" toward the judges, and works "rang[ing] from inspiring to epically disastrous". The publication described him as boldly the series's "first true super-villain", surpassing the preceding season's Wendy Pepper, and as "the funnier contestant" as opposed to "his blander, more talented competition" of the season.^[15] Rice told the publication:

I'm not a villain. I'm not a bad guy. I'm a passionate guy who likes to create beautiful things. And I'm on a mission. It's not bad to be driven.^[15]

Gunn himself said in 2006:

Santino is extraordinarily talented as a designer. He is equally challenging as a person because he is so needy and he needs to fill the room with his voice and his presence and dominate. I was afraid it was going to enable a lot of unnecessary behaviour.^[16]

Clifford Pugh of Toronto Star in October 2006 criticized the series Project Runway for emphasizing more "on brash personalities", like Rice and Wendy Pepper, and less on talent.^[17]

Before Rice became a finalist, the series's very first winner Jay McCarroll found Rice and other three remaining contestants "kind of boring". Nonetheless, McCarroll enjoyed Rice's "arrogant and funny" personality and his somewhat "weird" works as the only works of the season with "a clear point of view."^[18] When Rice became one, Lorilee Craker of The Grand Rapids Press perceived Rice's finalist spot as if the producers intentionally carried Rice into the finale not for "his design ability" but rather "his penchant for drama".^[19] However, Runway mentor Tim Gunn said, "Producers weigh in only when the judges are at a stalemate, when we see two people, both of whom can or should be out and [the judges] can't come to a collaborative decision." Furthermore, as Gunn asserted, Rice had "been listening more" since the "inspiration" challenge in the eighth episode.^[20][c]

In the first part of the finale, the penultimate episode, Rice displayed his "slightly softer side than before" and revealed his time of living with his best friend's family after losing his job.^[21]

Neal Zoren of the Delaware County Daily Times noted Rice's "obvious wit, fashion sense, and creativity" but described his works as "never classic enough".^[22] Boston Globe concurred with the results and deemed Rice's collection not much of a "showstopper", despite "a couple of gorgeous dresses". The publication further described his overall work as "conception over construction" and "made for the mannequin, not the actual woman" but noted his artistry and creativity.^[23]

Before the fourth season premiered in November 2007, host Heidi Klum and mentor Tim Gunn named Rice "their all-time favorite contestant."^[24]

Throughout 2006 after Project Runway, Rice was one of invited guests and presenters of the 17th GLAAD Media Awards besides Project Runway mentor Tim Gunn and contestants of the second season Andrae Gonzalo and Nick Verreos.^[25] He also designed a red carpet dress for SuChin Pak to wear at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards.^[26] He then also was briefly among the judging panel alongside Tim Gunn in Los Angeles on casting auditions for the third season of Project Runway.^[27] He also was one of judges of the Miss Universe 2006 pageant.^[28]

Rice competed in a short-lived 2008 Fox Reality Channel series Gimme My Reality Show!^[29]

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, more than fifteen reported tweets making vaccines akin to injecting disinfectants, i.e. finding no difference between both types, were posted on Rice's official Twitter account. Rice pinned the tweets on hackers since he lost his iPhone. Furthermore, the tweets "were exaggerated versions of his drafts, likely meant to have fun at his expense," reported Mikelle Street of the Out magazine.^[30] Rice further said,

I've tweeted about vaccines and health-related things in the past. [...] The tweets I'm reading that were posted were obviously trying to piss people off. I don't think people should drink bleach or whatever else was insinuated. I understand that it relates to something Trump said but I also see that someone was having fun making people mad today.^[30]

Rice deleted those tweets when he regained his Twitter account by late April 2020.^[30]